International

Hunger Striker Settles UK Libel Suit Over False Burger Report

A hunger striker outside Britain’s parliament has settled a libel suit against two newspapers that claimed he had secretly eaten McDonald’s hamburgers. Parameswaran Subramanyam was trying to call attention to Tamils in Sri Lanka’s civil war, and had to be hospitalized after his 23-day protest, Reuters reports. He will receive…

Jul 30, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Woman Charged with Smothering 8 of Her Own Babies

A heavyset nursing assistant in her 40s has been indicted in France for allegedly smothering eight of her own children as babies between 1989 and 2007 and hiding their bodies in a garden and the garage. Dominique Cottrez, who is married and the mother of two grown daughters, apparently never…

Jul 29, 2010 11:10 PM CDT

Male? Female? Neither? No Problem: Some Law Schools Offer ‘Others’ Option for Applicants

Traditionally, applicants were often asked to check a box stating whether they are male or female. But as recognition grows that the answer to this question isn’t always clear, some law schools are changing their approach to provide greater recognition to the rights of the transgendered. Among these institutions are…

Jul 22, 2010 11:53 PM CDT

Franchising Law Firm Applies the Concept to Itself

A law firm in Melbourne, Australia, that focuses on franchise law has decided to practice what it preaches. The firm, Franchise Legal, is franchising its name to a Sydney law firm, ALB Legal News reports. Franchise Legal founder Ilya Furman told ALB that after the Sydney operation is well-established he…

Jul 22, 2010 4:05 PM CDT

Lawyer Wears a Wire in Bid to Stop Elephant Poaching

A Connecticut lawyer posed as an American tourist interested in buying ivory last February as part of an effort to help the Kenyan government crack down on poachers. G. Kenneth Bernhard of Cohen and Wolf in Westport wore a hidden microphone when he purchased ivory from a roadside gift shop…

Jul 21, 2010 2:55 PM CDT

UK Lawyer Debuts New ‘Annuity-Based’ Law Firm Whose Clients are Also Law Firm Investors

Forget cash flow. Equity is where it’s at, as far as the law firm of the future is concerned, predicts a well-known lawyer who is now venturing out to stake his claim to this brave new world. Only three years ago, Matthew Hudson was about to take the helm of…

Jul 19, 2010 10:43 PM CDT

‘Goldfinger’ Raid Conducted on Law Firm in Possible Tax Case Against James Bond Star Sean Connery

Authorities have conducted a raid, under the code name Goldfinger, on a Spanish law firm as part of an ongoing tax probe of Sean Connery and his wife. The famous James Bond star is being investigated in two apparently unrelated real estate matters, reports Agence France-Presse. The Goldfinger raid addresses…

Jul 15, 2010 8:14 PM CDT

Accused of Partying Too Hearty at Law Firm Event, Partner Sues 2 Associates Who Complained for $2.3M

Accused of inappropriate conduct at an alcohol-fueled law firm event at a Toronto nightclub, a partner at a well-known labor and employment boutique has sued the two associates who complained internally at Mathews Dinsdale & Clarke but not the Canadian law firm itself. By filing suit for defamation and intentional…

Jul 15, 2010 5:07 PM CDT

Clifford Chance Edges Out Linklaters as UK’s Top-Paid Firm, Earning $1.8B in FY 2009

Megafirm Clifford Chance edged out Linklaters as the United Kingdom’s top-grossing law firm in 2009, reporting about $1.8 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended April 30, 2010. That represented a 5 percent decline from the previous year. Linklaters, which was No. 1 the prior year, racked up…

Jul 8, 2010 6:26 PM CDT

Facebook Faces Litigation from Canada, Germany Over Privacy Issues

Remember those photos you posted on Facebook years ago? They may have been private then, but they could be public now, according to a pending lawsuit against the super-popular social networking site. In the wake of worldwide concern over Google’s admitted interception of personal data from unsecured Wi-Fi portals in…

Jul 8, 2010 5:57 PM CDT

Hong Kong Is Law Firm Battleground, Davis Polk Partner Says

Seventeen lawyers from Davis Polk & Wardwell were among the record 224 lawyers who took the Hong Kong bar exam last year. Davis Polk partner William Barron was one of them, Bloomberg reports. “Hong Kong has become the battleground for the world’s law firms,” Barron told the wire service. “This…

Jul 8, 2010 2:38 PM CDT

Australian Band Ordered to Pay 5% of Royalties for Copying ‘Kookaburra’ in 1980s Hit

An Australian judge has ordered the band Men at Work to pay royalties to a music publisher for copying ”Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree” in a hit song from the 1980s. Larrikin Music had sought 60 percent of the royalties from the song “Down Under,” but was awarded…

Jul 6, 2010 11:38 AM CDT

Are iPads Better than BlackBerrys? UK Law Firm Plans to Find Out

U.K. law firm Eversheds is testing iPads for its lawyers in a two-month pilot program. The law firm currently equips its lawyers with BlackBerrys but there’s “a lot you can’t do on Blackberry that you can do on an iPad,” a spokesperson told The Lawyer. About 50 people at the…

Jul 2, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

War of Tradition

Internet project to reinforce efforts to reduce oppression of women around the world

Jul 1, 2010 6:20 AM CDT

Teens Make Off with Elephant Cash After Holding Up Recently Imprisoned Law Prof

The bad luck continued for William Mitchell College of Law professor Peter Erlinder when he returned to Minnesota after spending three weeks in a Rwandan jail. Erlinder was mugged at gunpoint outside his home in St. Paul, Minn., last Thursday evening, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the…

Jun 29, 2010 11:32 AM CDT