New York

Skadden Exec to Step Down; 1st Top Management Change Since 1994

Updated: After nearly 15 years at the helm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Robert Sheehan has announced that he plans to step down as executive partner of the merger and acquisitions goliath when he completes his term in April 2009. He will be replaced by Eric Friedman, 43,…

May 16, 2008 4:51 PM CDT

Jane Doe Gets to Keep Pseudonym in Suit Over Online Ad

A part-time actress and elementary school teacher will get to remain anonymous for now as she seeks a $5 million claim against a jewelry company she claims violated her rights when it used her image for an Internet commercial that depicts her having a fake orgasm when she receives a…

May 16, 2008 12:06 PM CDT

Lawyers Answer N.Y. Pension Probe With Class Action

As promised, a veteran municipal lawyer has filed suit in New York seeking to derail investigations into lawyers who receive sate pension benefits as a result of their work for schools and other government entities. Albany lawyer James Roemer, who filed the suit as a class action, lists a host…

May 16, 2008 11:39 AM CDT

Major Canadian Law Firm Grows in NYC

As other Canadian law firms grow—or even shrink—their international offices by merging, one “stealth mode” competitor has established a full-fledged New York City office entirely through individual lateral hiring. Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt’s office there has grown from a few Canadian lawyers handling Canadian legal matters to some 30 lawyers,…

May 15, 2008 4:19 PM CDT

Targeted in N.Y. Public Benefits Probe, Private Lawyers Plan Class Action

Updated: It almost had to happen. Targeted in an ongoing investigated by the New York attorney general’s office as well as other state and federal agencies over possible public benefits and tax fraud, at least some of the “hundreds and hundreds” of lawyers who reportedly are the focus of the…

May 14, 2008 6:34 PM CDT

Hallway Altercation Follows Hip Hop Artist’s Sentencing

The fiance of hip hop artist Remy Ma erupted in anger after her sentencing yesterday to eight years in prison. Shamele Mackie, the rapper known as Papoose, cursed and lunged at court officers and overturned a garbage can, the New York Times reports. “Mackie shouted at the guards, ‘Go ahead,…

May 14, 2008 2:54 PM CDT

Jury Rules Against Inmate Who Claimed Secondhand Smoke Caused His Cancer

A former inmate at Rikers Island, represented by his son at trial, has lost his lawsuit claiming secondhand smoke at the prison caused his bladder cancer. Raymond Marquez claimed that a Department of Corrections policy allowing smoking in prison resulted in his cancer, the New York Times reports. A New…

May 14, 2008 2:20 PM CDT

Woman Chased from NYC Ladies’ Room Gets $35K Settlement

A lesbian woman who was allegedly bounced from the women’s restroom of a a New York City restaurant because she didn’t look female enough has reportedly settled her discrimination case for $35,000. The eatery, Caliente Cab Company, will also revise its workplace policies to say that discrimination based on gender…

May 13, 2008 7:06 PM CDT

N.Y. Judges to Lawmakers: No Pay Raises for Us, No Hearings for You

Updated: Perhaps it’s just an over-scrupulous sense of ethics on the part of New York’s judges. But ever since the chief judge sued the state legislature for a pay raise, a number of the state’s jurists have been recusing themselves from hearing cases involving state lawmakers and the law firms…

May 13, 2008 4:29 PM CDT

Shearman Left Out of ‘Sweet Sixteen’

Sixteen law firms are part of an elite international group that has been highly successful both in New York and in London. But not among the “Sweet Sixteen” honored by the Lawyer is Shearman & Sterling, because of a series of missteps that have canceled out the benefit of the…

May 13, 2008 3:35 PM CDT

N.Y. Lawyer Gets 25 Years to Life in Murder of Client’s Husband

A New York lawyer was sentenced today to 25 years to life for arranging for a client’s husband to be murdered 18 years ago during a bitter divorce trial. Manuel Martinez, 57, was convicted last month of arranging to have George Kogan, a wealthy real estate investor and antiques dealer,…

May 9, 2008 7:33 PM CDT

‘100s and 100s’ of N.Y. Lawyers Involved in Pension Scheme, AG Says

Updated: “Hundreds and hundreds” of New York lawyers will be implicated in a statewide scheme in which non-employees have improperly been enrolled in the public pension system, the state attorney general says. The situation was initially reported by Newsday as involving several lawyers in private practice representing Long Island school…

May 9, 2008 3:26 PM CDT

Group Presses Gay-Marriage Challenges

A legal advocacy group is pressing three New York lawsuits that seek to bar recognition of gay marriages performed elsewhere. The Alliance Defense Fund represents New Yorkers in the cases who object to their government paying benefits to the same-sex spouses of public employees, the New York Sun reports. The…

May 9, 2008 12:25 PM CDT

‘Perk of Partnership’ at N.Y. Law Firm: Public Pension for No-Show Job

For some lawyers at one Albany, N.Y., area law firm, getting a public pension for a no-show school district job was a standard “perk of partnership,” a state prosecutor said at a news conference today. “Ellen Biben, special deputy attorney general for public integrity, said a number of lawyers of…

May 8, 2008 11:43 PM CDT

Suit Claims N.Y. Police Bias in Stop-and-Frisk Policy

The New York Police Department is accused of racial bias in a lawsuit challenging its stop-and-frisk policy. The suit by the New York Civil Liberties Union claims that blacks were targeted in more than half of the stops, even though blacks make up only about a quarter of the population…

May 8, 2008 5:09 PM CDT