New York

NY Judges Can Moonlight, But Job Must Pass a ‘Conflicts Check’

After 12 years without a pay raise, New York judges are being allowed to moonlight to help make ends meet. Under relaxed rules announced last month by Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman and approved by the state Court of Appeals, jurists still cannot practice law as a sideline but will be…

Oct 15, 2010 10:44 AM CDT

$156K Fee Award in $245M Case ‘On the Stingy Side’ But Upheld By 2nd Circuit

A $245 million federal securities class action settlement never would have been achieved but for its work in bringing the initial federal cases on which it was based, a Pennsylvania law firm contends. Even if that’s true, however, Chimicles & Tikellis is stuck with an attorney’s fee award of just…

Oct 15, 2010 10:00 AM CDT

Woman Acquitted of Murder Based on Domestic Abuse Evidence

Charged with murder for stabbing her husband in the heart with a butter knife she picked up from a bedside table in their home, a New York hospital worker has been acquitted based on evidence of domestic abuse. Donna Cobb, 42, told a Manhattan Supreme Court jury that she didn’t…

Oct 13, 2010 8:24 PM CDT

Dozens Arrested in $100M Medicare Case Bust; Doctor & Patient IDs Allegedly Stolen

Developing: Perhaps 100 people have been arrested in California, Georgia, Ohio, New Mexico and New York, in a record-breaking Medicare fraud case that allegedly involved $100 million in bogus billings and the use of stolen doctor and patient identities. Some 40 individuals were arrested in New York alone and an…

Oct 13, 2010 6:42 PM CDT

Meet Marilyn Church, Courtroom Artist Who Depicted Woody Allen and John Gotti

For over 35 years Marilyn Church has sketched the courtroom personas of celebrities such as Woody Allen and well-known criminal defendants including Dapper Don John J. Gotti. And she still finds the work interesting. “It’s people’s lives on the line,” she tells the New York Times. “The lawyers get intense,…

Oct 12, 2010 10:25 PM CDT

Lawyer Introductions Led to $550K Fine for Manatt Phelps in NY Pension Fund Case

Updated: A California law firm has agreed to pay $550,000 to the state of New York and refrain from appearing before public pension funds there for the next five years, after several unidentified partners introduced, or tried to introduce, financial firms seeking money to several of the institutional investors. Although…

Oct 12, 2010 8:22 PM CDT

Prosecutor Seeks Jail Time for Harvard Law Grad Accused in 9/11 Memorial Fire

A Manhattan prosecutor told a judge on Thursday that the Harvard law grad charged with setting fire to a Sept. 11 memorial chapel should get one to three years in prison if there is any plea deal. Assistant District Attorney Lucy Lang said the defendant, 27-year-old Brian Schroeder, should also…

Oct 8, 2010 11:57 AM CDT

What Merger Talks? Some Partners Got News of Brief Akin Gump-Orrick Courtship Online

As a brief courtship between two major law firms ended this week with news that leaders had decided to call off their very preliminary merger discussions, observers—and even partners at the affected firms—are scratching their heads over what happened. At both Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Orrick Herrington…

Oct 7, 2010 10:00 PM CDT

Painful Rolfing Massages Attract Adherents, Including a Shearman Partner

Rolfing massages are experiencing a resurgence as the younger generation embraces the sometimes painful deep-tissue workout. The massage was popular in the 1970s, when it was spoofed in the Burt Reynolds football movie Semi-Tough. Now young New Yorkers are seeking the treatment, which focuses not just on muscles, but also…

Oct 7, 2010 2:46 PM CDT

Jobless Pace Law Grads Live at Home, Go Back to School, Hang Own Shingle

Kavitha Mukund is a cum laude graduate of Pace University School of Law who speaks three languages. Her classmate, Jennifer Lincoln, was an intern at the Hague’s International Criminal Tribunal. Both 26-year-olds have been unable to find work after graduating. But John McCarron, 35, was luckier—he has been able to…

Oct 6, 2010 10:58 PM CDT

EEOC Sues Port Authority, Alleges Women Lawyers Paid Less, Older Female Attorneys Fired

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a direct action against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, alleging that it pays women lawyers in non-supervisory jobs less than men who do substantially the same work and has fired two women lawyers in their fifties in order to…

Oct 6, 2010 9:26 PM CDT

US Judge Bars Witness Whose Name Was Revealed in CIA Interrogation

A federal judge has delayed a major terrorism trial to give the government time to regroup after barring a major witness from testifying for the prosecution. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan barred the witness in the case against Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is accused of conspiring in embassy bombings that…

Oct 6, 2010 4:37 PM CDT

US Claims Facebook, Twitter Used in Pump-and-Dump Stock Scheme

Prosecutors say they discovered a multimillion dollar “pump and dump” scheme that used social media to tout stocks during an investigation of suspected cocaine trafficking by longshoremen. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office claims the defendant used websites, Facebook and Twitter to spur investors to buy penny stocks, Reuters reports. One…

Oct 6, 2010 11:27 AM CDT

Family Court Fight Expands to Include New Parties: Bedbugs

It was bad enough just dealing with her cousin’s divorce, Brianna Duggan tells the New York Daily News. But then, during a hearing last month in Bronx County Family Court, some new parties hitched a ride into the litigation battle: bedbugs, reports the New York Daily News. In addition to…

Oct 5, 2010 7:02 PM CDT

Jailed Attorney Charged with Assault, Accused of Hogging Copier Before Trial

Things have gone from bad to worse for a New York lawyer scheduled to begin a pro se criminal trial today on charges that he schemed to scam families seeking a baby to adopt. Already jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail in the Nassau County adoption case, Kevin Cohen allegedly…

Oct 4, 2010 8:04 PM CDT