International

Lawyer for David Hicks Says Habeas Ruling Could Help His Client

The lawyer for a former Australian detainee at Guantanamo says yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling finding a right to habeas corpus could help his client. David Hicks is no longer in jail, but a reversal of his conviction would allow him to sell his story for a profit, his lawyer David…

Jun 13, 2008 11:50 AM CDT

Annual Revenue Grows 13 Percent for Top UK Law Firms

The top 100 law firms in the United Kingdom saw average revenue growth of 12 percent in the fourth quarter, producing an average hike of 13.2 percent for the year, according to research by Deloitte. The gains were even more impressive for the top 10 British firms, Legal Week reports.…

Jun 13, 2008 11:25 AM CDT

Major UK Law Firms Plan to Help Partners Launch Post-Retirement Careers

At least two major London-based law firms are pursuing programs to help partners launch new careers after they retire from legal practice. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has already started a pilot program, in which partners nearing retirement sit down with consultants to discuss ” their strengths and possible career paths,” reports…

Jun 12, 2008 5:30 PM CDT

Non-Attorney Ownership Will Mean More Competition for UK Law Firms

Within the next four years or so, the United Kingdom market for legal services will become one of the most lightly regulated in the world. And, as literally hundreds of well-funded businesses line up to invest in law firms there by 2012, when the Legal Services Act will allow non-attorneys…

Jun 12, 2008 5:11 PM CDT

Child Bride in Yemen, 10, Gets Divorce On Her Own

A 10-year-old Yemeni girl who went to court on her own in April to seek a divorce after being married as a child bride, has gotten her wish. Nujood Ali, whose identity has been widely reported, has gotten her divorce—and sparked a debate about the plight of other girls in…

Jun 12, 2008 3:38 PM CDT

Claimed China Hack Attack Targets: US Gov’t, Business and Utilities

After news that China may have secretly copied information in the U.S. commerce secretary’s laptop last year, a Congressman says that’s far from the only intrusion for which computer hackers there may be responsible. China also seems to have been hacking into computers in Congressional offices, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.)…

Jun 11, 2008 7:19 PM CDT

Akin Gump Will Close at Least One Office Due to Loss of IP Rainmaker

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has closed its Taiwan office and is re-evaluating its Silicon Valley office after the loss of rainmaker Yitai Hu. Akin Gump chairman R. Bruce McLean told the Recorder that Hu kept both offices busy with patent work since he opened them in 2005. Among…

Jun 11, 2008 2:51 PM CDT

Pakistan Lawyers’ ‘Long March’ Seeks Return of Appellate Judges to Bench

For a while, it looked like a coalition of newly elected leaders of Pakistan’s parliament would restore to office this spring dozens of appellate judges removed from the bench late last year after the country’s president, Pervez Musharraf, imposed emergency rule Nov. 3. But disagreement among political factions has led…

Jun 10, 2008 6:41 PM CDT

Latin Launch for DLA Piper? Firm Mulls Possible Brazil, Miami Offices

Although it already has an active Latin American practice, DLA Piper doesn’t have any offices in South America. That may soon change, predicts the Lawyer, now that the firm has added former McDermott Will & Emery tax partner Stuart Berkson to its attorney roster. With 28 years of experience in…

Jun 10, 2008 5:21 PM CDT

French Judge Participating in U.S. Homicide Investigation

Stymied by the puzzling stabbing death of a 36-year-old French citizen, those in charge of the San Francisco investigation have turned for help to French authorities. A French investigator has been helping for several months, and a French judge will soon hear evidence from witnesses in federal court, reports the…

Jun 10, 2008 4:24 PM CDT

Sudoku-Playing Jurors Scuttle Australian Drug Trial in 66th Day

An Australian judge was notified about a curious habit of some jurors hearing a drug conspiracy trial. They were thought to be taking notes, but for some reason they were writing vertically rather than horizontally. The jurors, it turned out, were playing Sudoku, the Associated Press reports. The jury foreman…

Jun 10, 2008 3:02 PM CDT

Special Prosecutor Named in Case Stemming from Improperly Named Defendants

A special prosecutor has been appointed to pursue a sanctions case against two plaintiffs lawyers in connection with misstatements made in a toxic-tort case. A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals appointed the prosecutor to pursue the case against Thomas Girardi and Walter Lack, the…

Jun 10, 2008 2:44 PM CDT

Major Firms Opening in Brazil, ‘the New Middle East’

Two New York-based international law firms are the latest to announce that they are opening offices in Brazil, billed as “the new Middle East” by a legal publication. A boom in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets and infrastructure projects is driving the deluge of new law office openings, most recently…

Jun 9, 2008 7:45 PM CDT

British Firms Banding Together at MyLawyer.com

It isn’t just the biggest and best-known law partnerships that could potentially benefit from a new U.K. statute allowing alternative business structures and non-attorney ownership by 2011. If the operator of a new British website is correct, relatively small law firms in the United Kingdom, too, will be able to…

Jun 9, 2008 6:52 PM CDT

‘Convergence’ Can Benefit Law Firms as Well as Corporate Clients

After the apparent success of Tyco International’s grand experiment in legal cost-cutting in Europe, which is now in its second year, further innovation is expected both from Tyco and other major corporations. The “convergence” model applied by Tyco, which DuPont is credited with initially adopting more than a decade ago,…

Jun 6, 2008 10:36 PM CDT