New York

Ex-partner of Jenkens & Gilchrist gets 8 years in tax shelter case, is ordered to pay $190M

A former partner of the now-defunct Jenkens & Gilchrist law firm was sentenced Friday to eight years in federal prison for her role in what federal prosecutors have billed as the largest criminal tax fraud case ever. Donna Guerin, who pleaded guilty last year after winning a retrial, was also…

Mar 1, 2013 9:55 PM CST

Law firm billing contract lawyers at $1K hourly must reveal what they were paid, federal judge says

Ruling from the bench, a federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday gave a green light to a request for discovery by a class action activist concerning the wages paid by a law firm to the contract attorneys it billed out at $1,000 an hour. Citigroup Inc. agreed last year to…

Mar 1, 2013 7:05 PM CST

Training for drug court professionals goes online

With more than 2,600 drug courts across the country and more on the way, the need to train judges, lawyers and court professionals is greater than ever. It’s also expensive. The New York City-based Center for Court Innovation, with support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has stepped in to…

Mar 1, 2013 10:20 AM CST

New York’s new rule requires bar applicants to perform 50 hours of pro bono

A new rule adopted last year by the New York Court of Appeals that went into effect Jan. 1 will change the equation for almost everyone seeking admission to the state bar and could set a new standard for pro bono requirements that law students must meet. In September, New…

Mar 1, 2013 9:10 AM CST

ABA responds to Superstorm Sandy with a reinforced disaster response plan

After a massive storm slammed into the New York City region on Oct. 29, 2012, the area “was like the Third World,” says Jay H. Bernstein, a partner at Kirsch, Gelband & Stone in Newark, N.J. There was no gasoline at local service stations, cellphones didn’t work, electrical power was…

Mar 1, 2013 7:40 AM CST

Former hostess sues nightclub for hearing loss

A former hostess at the Lavo nightclub in Manhattan claims in a lawsuit that she suffered hearing loss as a result of its loud dance music. Margaret Clemente, who goes by the name Alexis, says she learned of hearing loss in her right ear after the New York Times tested…

Feb 28, 2013 12:46 PM CST

Judge OKs liquidation plan in Dewey & LeBoeuf’s bankruptcy case

In the latest milestone in a massive Chapter 11 bankruptcy case that has proceeded with unusual speed, a federal bankruptcy court judge on Wednesday approved a liquidation plan for Dewey & LeBoeuf, reports the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (sub. req.). “The court is very pleased, I want to congratulate…

Feb 27, 2013 8:58 PM CST

Cahill reports record figures for 2012, including $3.555M profit per partner

Cahill Gordon & Reindel has reported all-time record profits for 2012, including gross revenue of $348.5 million, up 6.9 percent from 2011, and average profit per partner of $3.555 million, up 10.7 percent. “It was a record year, and we were quite pleased,” Jonathan Schaffzin, a member of the 300-attorney…

Feb 27, 2013 7:44 PM CST

Attorney hasn’t been charged, but police search home and law office computers

A well-known personal injury attorney in upstate New York hasn’t been criminally charged. But a local prosecutor says state police working with federal authorities on Tuesday searched the Manlius home and East Syracuse law office of Martin Rothschild, and computer equipment has been seized from both locations, WSYR reports. Onondaga…

Feb 27, 2013 6:21 PM CST

Traffic court judge completes anger management; did it help?

A New York traffic court judge was ordered to take anger management classes two years ago, but he still has a bad attitude, some observers allege. Brian Levine, a traffic court judge in Staten Island for the Department of Motor Vehicles, was ordered to attend a monitored counseling program to…

Feb 25, 2013 1:54 PM CST

Team of 4 Linklaters lawyers joins Pepper Hamilton’s growing white-collar practice group

A former U.S. litigation chief of a major United Kingdom-based law firm is joining Pepper Hamilton, along with three other Linklaters lawyers. The move by Larry Byrne, an ex-federal prosecutor in New York and Washington, D.C. who focuses his practice on white-collar matters, underscores Pepper Hamilton’s growing emphasis on corporate…

Feb 21, 2013 5:02 PM CST

Lawyer loses license for 2 years because his bookkeeper brother stole $4M from firm

A New York matrimonial attorney is apparently going to be forced to take a two-year leave from law practice after the state’s top appellate court declined Tuesday to review an intermediate appeals court’s OK of a two-year law license suspension. Peter Galasso was disciplined for failing to safeguard some $4…

Feb 20, 2013 6:05 PM CST

Did ‘troubled’ appeals court err by nixing suit over New York Law School job stats?

Updated: In what may be a harbinger of a new round of litigation against law schools accused by their own graduates of luring them to enroll with misleading legal job placement information, an appeal to the state’s highest court has been filed by the losing plaintiffs in a suit against…

Feb 20, 2013 5:29 PM CST

Claimed bank loan for $540K Dewey capital payment a ‘fabrication,’ says ex-partner in suit

Sued in the United Kingdom for allegedly defaulting on a Barclays Bank loan to finance his $540,000 capital contribution to Dewey & LeBoeuf, a former partner of the now-bankrupt law firm has fired back by filing a federal lawsuit in New York. In it, Londell McMillan, who was in charge…

Feb 20, 2013 4:57 PM CST

Lawyer accused of inflating work history is convicted of forgery

A lawyer has been convicted of forgery for inflating her work history with faked documents. A Manhattan judge convicted 52-year-old Soma Sengupta on Friday, the New York Times reports. Sengupta’s lies were discovered after a suspicious clerk at a British law firm where Sengupta worked questioned the lawyer’s claim that…

Feb 19, 2013 12:37 PM CST