International

Racketeering case filed by Chevron against lawyer who won $18B enviro award goes to trial

Having won an $18 billion environmental judgment against a deep-pockets corporate defendant after nearly two decades of litigation, attorney Steven Donziger, one might think, would be living high on the hog. Instead, the Harvard Law School graduate is a defendant in a civil racketeering trial brought by Chevron Corp. Trial…

Oct 16, 2013 7:10 PM CDT

Nineteen lawyers leave Morgan Lewis in Paris for another firm

Nine partners and 10 associates at the Paris office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius are leaving to join the French law firm Gide Loyrette Noue. The group includes Morgan Lewis’ Paris managing partner, Anne Tolila, report Legal Week, the Lawyer and the Philadelphia Business Journal. Only three partners will be…

Oct 16, 2013 3:36 PM CDT

UK partners at this BigLaw firm were paid more than their profits, report says

K&L Gates paid its partners in the United Kingdom more money than they earned in profits last year, necessitating a cash infusion from the United States, according to a published report. According to Legal Week, the shortfall was about 1.75 million pounds, which translates to about $2.79 million at today’s…

Oct 11, 2013 2:43 PM CDT

BigLaw lawyer’s ‘jolly impressive’ resume lied about education at Harvard and Oxford

A London lawyer who was a partner and then a special consultant at Paul Hastings has been suspended from practice for three years for inflating his credentials on his resume, websites and professional profiles. D. Thomas O’Riordan—also known as Dennis O’Riordan—had claimed to have degrees from Oxford and Harvard and…

Oct 10, 2013 1:06 PM CDT

Feds arrest 8 more in Silk Road case, say others in claimed $1.2B scheme should be ‘very nervous’

After seizing the Silk Road website allegedly used to arrange some $1.2 billion in illegal drug sales and arresting its alleged operator, the feds have not slowed down. With the help of authorities in the United Kingdom and Sweden, another eight individuals have been arrested and more are expected to…

Oct 8, 2013 8:25 PM CDT

Boies Schiller opens London office, firm’s first outside US

Boies Schiller & Flexner is opening an office in London, its first outside the United States. Partner Natasha Harrison will exit Bingham McCutchen to serve as managing partner of the new office, according to Bloomberg and Legal Week. She focuses her practice on securities and finance litigation, and is expected…

Oct 8, 2013 6:15 PM CDT

Law practice pays ‘too much too quickly to the wrong people doing the wrong thing,’ UK lawyer says

Have attorneys and governments lost sight of why laws exist? Yes, says Stephen Mayson, a United Kingdom lawyer and consultant who also serves as director of the Legal Services Institute. “What we have in the legal practice is a reward system that pays out too much too quickly to the…

Oct 4, 2013 7:45 PM CDT

Chinese courts release microblog reports of trials; are some details missing?

Want to learn about a high-profile trial in China? Though court proceedings are often closed to the public, some courts are now reporting on trials through microblogs. China’s new Supreme Court president, Zhou Qiang, has urged local courts to use social media to release information and respond to questions, according…

Oct 2, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

Littler Mendelson combines with law firms in Colombia and Costa Rica

Littler Mendelson has combined with law firms in Colombia and Costa Rica as part of its push to expand into Latin America. Littler is combining with Colombian law firm Godoy Córdoba Abogados and Costa Rican law firm BDS Asesores under the name Littler Global, according to a press release. The…

Oct 1, 2013 2:20 PM CDT

Morrison & Foerster opens Berlin office; is Hogan Lovells miffed?

Morrison & Foerster is opening an office in Germany through the acquisition of a legal team from Hogan Lovells which includes nine partners. Morrison & Foerster announced the acquisition today in a press release. The partners are currently working with more than 20 associates and counsel, though it’s unknown how…

Sep 24, 2013 2:53 PM CDT

‘Law student’ attacks classmate snacks; email probe and rally for ‘pineapple justice’ result

At a top Canadian law school, an anonymous email attack on students’ in-class snacks on Wednesday has created an uproar. By lunchtime Thursday, a “Pineapple Appreciation Day” event was apparently underway, the National Post reported. Organizers say on their Facebook page that the eat-in at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law…

Sep 19, 2013 7:30 PM CDT

Romanian lawyer fined for wearing jeans, sneakers to trial

A Romanian criminal defense lawyer was fined 5,000 lei ($1,148) Tuesday for flouting court decorum and arriving late for the trial of five Romanians charged in an art theft, the Associated Press reports. Catalin Dancu of Bucharest showed up for trial wearing a black robe over his jeans and sneakers,…

Sep 10, 2013 5:48 PM CDT

Lawyer who abandoned $200,000 Ferrari to get to court on time gets new Ferrari

A Toronto lawyer who famously abandoned his $200,000 Ferrari in rising flood waters to get to a court hearing on time has been richly rewarded for his efforts. Employment lawyer Howard Levitt has gotten a “very generous” deal on a new Ferrari, courtesy of the Italian sports car company, the…

Sep 10, 2013 4:39 PM CDT

Does NSA hold info on mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjold? Commission asks UN to reopen probe

Lending some credence to conspiracy theories that have swirled for years concerning the 1961 death of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold in a Zambia plane crash, a commission of international jurists recommended on Monday that the U.N. reopen its investigation. The Hammarskjold Commission also said the National Security Agency,…

Sep 9, 2013 1:00 PM CDT

Skyscraper developers assume liability for Jaguar melted by reflected sunlight

There was good news and bad news for a British businessman last week. The bad news, as Martin Lindsay discovered when he returned to his Jaguar, legally parked on a London street: It had melted, apparently because of sunlight reflected and focused by a curved skyscraper under construction, the BBC…

Sep 3, 2013 7:15 PM CDT