Monday, February 26, 2001
Mediating out of a jam -- If you're stuck between a court and a hard place, seek third-party mediation
Steven C. Bahls & Jane Easter Bahls -- CNNfn -- 2/22/01
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is growing nationwide, providing individuals and businesses with cheaper, faster ways to resolve disputes. The number of ADR cases submitted to the American Arbitration Association grew from 95,143 in 1998 to 140,188 in 1999. Compare those figures to roughly 45,000 cases per year in the mid-1980s. The association's case load for mediation grew 17.5 percent from 1998 to 1999, reflecting the rate of growth in recent years.
Genetronics Biomedical Ltd. Names William Dix as General Counsel
Stockhouse -- 2/6/01
Genetronics Biomedical Limited, San Diego, announced that William (Ken) Dix has been named General Counsel. He will be responsible for the overall management of legal activities for the Company, including supervision of all outside counsel. He will also serve as secretary to the Board of Directors.
E-Mail Evidence: Damaging Bits
Tamara Loomis - New York Law Journal - February 26, 2001
E-mail is playing an expanding role in litigation, not just because it has become the default mode of workplace communication, but also because it has distinct qualities. It is almost impossible to destroy. "You can't ever be sure that anything is truly deleted from your computer," said Kris Haworth, a Deloitte & Touche forensic investigator. Also useful for litigators: e-mail's speed and informality.
Read more...
Saturday, February 24, 2001
Tom Baker Becomes Of Counsel to Baker Sterchi Cowden & Rice (Kansas City)
Thomas O. Baker, a founding member of the firm, has elected to become of counsel to the firm he founded nearly 20 years ago. Mr. Baker will continue practicing full time as a mediator, arbitrator and special master.
Friday, February 23, 2001
TIGR Appoints Michael Brown as IP Counsel and Tech Transfer Manager
The Institute for Genomic Research named Michael Brown to the newly created position of intellectual property counsel and technology transfer manager.
TIGR established the office of technology transfer in 1998 to enable research resources and genomic data to be transformed to international, non-profit, and government labs, as well as other commercial licensees.
Currently, the institute has over 1,000 public sector licenses and 25 commercial licensees to its gene indices and software and 650 licensees, including 30 commercial ones, to its nonfinished genomic data.
Thursday, February 22, 2001
Sidley & Austin plans to merge with Brown and Wood
Robert Manor -- Chicago Tribune -- February 22, 2001
Sidley & Austin, one of Chicago's best-known law firms, plans to merge with Brown and Wood, a Wall Street firm that advises major financial institutions, creating what would be the third-largest law firm in the country.
The Chicago Tribune reports "The merger is the latest in a series of consolidations in the legal world—similar in principle to consolidations in telecommunications, the auto industry and other industries—with the goals of economy of scale while offering more services and products.
"Like British Petroleum's acquisition of Amoco, or SBC's purchase of Ameritech, law firms are coalescing into ever larger organizations. In theory, at least, greater size means enhanced ability to compete.
"Sidley & Austin's agreement with Brown & Wood is the second big merger involving a Chicago law firm in recent months. Hopkins & Sutter announced in December it would merge with Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner. And in late 1999, Chicago-based Rudnick & Wolfe merged with Piper & Marbury, of Baltimore.
"Together the firm will have 1,325 lawyers worldwide, making it, in number of attorneys, the third largest in the country. Approximately 400 lawyers would work each in New York and Chicago, with the remainder in Europe, Asia and other locations.
"Last year the two firms had total revenues of more than $650 million and they forecast revenues of more than $750 million this year. Together they would boast of more than 80 clients generating more than $1 million in fees.
Tuesday, February 20, 2001
How One Lawyer Makes Use of Radio Time
Sam Adler - Marketing for Lawyers - February 20, 2001
Rene Larson, a Thunder Bay, Ontario, lawyer, has been advertising on the radio for more than two years. His format: ask an interesting question, break for a 30-second ad from his firm on different topics unrelated to the question, and return with a one-minute answer. The ad runs every morning at 8:20 a.m. (drive time, wake-up time, lots of adult listners). Important aspects are consistency, high-quality content, radio format (readily absorbed by listeners). He uses plain english and avoids legalese. No slogan or verbal hook, but a consitent musical intro and outro.
Read more...
Cybersquatter Litigation Boom
Statute prompts 700 federal suits over Web domain names
Darryl Van Duch - The National Law Journal - February 20, 2001
The anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, effective in 1999, has spawned a litigation explosion. More than 700 lawsuits seeking injunctions or damages against suspected cybersquatters were filed in federal courts across the country in just the last six months. Appellate decisions interpreting the new act have also begun to mount.
Read more...
Monday, February 19, 2001
Ruden McClosky (Florida) Counseling Hospital Client:
From Ruden McClosky
The Ruden McClosky firm has been appointed General Counsel to Mount Sinai Medical Center of South Florida, Inc. Peter Wechsler will be overseeing all medical malpractice claims and suits, and will be supervising all outside defense counsel. Peter has also been appointed to the hospital's Ethics Committee and Risk Management Committee.
Ruden McClosky (Florida) Defending Bank in Money Laundering Case:
From Ruden McClosky
Peter Wechsler is defending a Venezuelan bank in civil forfeiture case in Federal Court in California involving the U.S. Government seizing over $4 Million in a drug money laundering case. He has already succeeded in having the money returned and is now defending the civil forfeiture aspect, which is going to trial in May 2001.
Ruden McClosky (Florida) Settles Serious Personal Injury Case:
From Ruden McClosky
Peter Wechsler recently favorably settled a serious personal injury case where plaintiff alleged aggravation of diabetic neuropathy in car accident resulting in a below-knee amputation.
Ruden McClosky's (Florida) Peter Wechsler Joins ITMA:
From Ruden McClosky
Peter Wechsler is the first attorney to be accepted for membership in the International Association for Traffic Medicine (ITMA), an
international association of 75 members dedicated to reducing deaths and injuries from road accidents. Most members are doctors, engineers, researchers, biomechanical engineers, automotove engineers.
Steve Kravit and Joe Goode win the appeal of a shareholder oppression suit.
Stephen E. Kravit - Kravit Gass Hovel & Leitner, s.c.
Steve Kravit and Joe Goode of the Kravit, Gass, Hovel & Leitner firm in Milwaukee won the appeal of a shareholder oppression suit, defending defense contractor Astronautics Corp. and its officers and directors (one of whom was James A. Lovell, Apollo 13 astronaut) from claims by a 1% shareholder that he was entitled to cash out his stock at "fair value" because Astronautics failed to pay a dividend for 35 years despite having cash to do so; failed to make a market for his stock; and overcompensated its officers. Reget v. Paige, et.al., No. 99-0838 (Wis. Ct. App. February 8, 2001).
For the first time in a reported case, the business judgment rule was found to bar an oppression claim, when directors exercise compensation decisions in good faith as they did here. The Kravit firm won the case on summary judgment in the trial court.
Bert Spence Appointed to Rules Committee
From Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, LLP
On Nov. 23, 2000, E. Berton Spence, Partner at Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville LLP, as appointed to the Supreme Court of Alabama's Standing Committee on the Rules of appellate Procedure. He will serve for a three-year term.
Lange Simpson To Move Headquarters
From Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, LLP
Construction is underway for the Concord Center---the first multi-tenant office development in downtown Birmingham since 1989. Upon its scheduled completion in early 2002, Lange Simpson will occupy up to three floors of the Concord Center. Click here to see architect's renderings of the completed building.
Lange, Simpson Elects State's First Female Chairman
From Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, LLP
The law firm of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville has named Ann Huckstep to lead the firm as chair of its ruling committee -- a first-ever among Top 10 law firms in Alabama, possibly the Southeast. Huckstep's "first" status is far from her first: A native of Birmingham, Huckstep -- at age 17 -- moved with her family to Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she became the first young woman at her high school voted "Most Likely To Succeed". Her award was overturned by the school's administration, recalls Huckstep, "because they said it was supposed to go to a boy. At that time, girls were supposed to receive the 'Most Intelligent' award."
Forging A Career Niche
While Huckstep has always focused her law practice on corporate law, she's also been something of a leader in the area of healthcare law -- developing a subspecialty for herself in that area in the early 1980's. In 1993, she coauthored a book on corporate law for healthcare providers, which was published by the American Health Lawyers Association. In addition to her handling of complex corporate transactions and healthcare matters, she has experience in litigation, principally Certificate of Need proceedings -- some of which have gone all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court.
Lowenstein Sandler Receives Award For Pro Bono Work
From the Lowenstein & Sandler Website
Roseland, NJ, June 19, 2000 - Lowenstein Sandler PC is pleased to announce that it has received the Kindred Spirit Award from Our Children's Foundation Of New Jersey, Inc. The award comes principally from the pro bono work that attorneys Alan Wovsaniker, Nicholas San Filippo IV, Diane J. Stoeberl, Noel M. Spear and Eric D. Weinstock have done for OCF-NJ.
Read more...
Lowenstein Sandler and Issues Management Announce Affiliation:
From the Lowenstein & Sandler Website
Issues Management is among the top five lobbying firms in New Jersey, according to New Jersey's Election Law Enforcement Commission revenue reports, and first among "lawyer-lobbyist" firms. Lowenstein Sandler PC is New Jersey's second largest law firm and among the largest 250 law firms in the nation.
Read more...
Sunday, February 18, 2001
"Securities Class Action Litigation Exploding" Says Milberg Weiss Senior Partner
Excerpt from NYTimes, Business, 2/16/01
Melvyn I. Weiss, senior partner of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, the nation's most prominent law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class-action cases, said "the number of cases out there, the size of the cases is just exploding, and that means you need more and more lawyers to handle the cases." Mr. Weiss said that the firm had hired 25 new lawyers in the last 18 months and made 17 new partners in the last two years. With a total of 170 lawyers, other firms' lawyers said, Milberg Weiss is almost certainly the biggest plaintiff firm in the securities class-action arena.
Friday, February 16, 2001
Florida's 1999 Tort Reform Law Unconstitutional
Naples Daily News
2/12/01
Jury Awards Rise in 2000
The National Law Journal
February 15, 2001
Each year, there are record jury verdicts handed out somewhere. But 2000 saw the largest verdict ever awarded -- $145 billion in a products liability class action. Indeed, massive awards in nearly every category jumped significantly last year. The National Law Journal takes its annual look at trends in jury verdicts, including notable cases, reductions, reversals and settlements.
While the U.S. economy stalled in the year 2000, the number of large jury verdicts continued to rise. Last year saw the largest verdict ever awarded -- $145 billion in a products liability class action. Each year, there are record awards handed out somewhere. But in 2000, the number of massive awards in nearly every category, particularly in intellectual property, jumped significantly.
In late 2000, Johnson & Johnson/Cordis won two of the largest-ever patent infringement jury awards -- $324.4 million against Boston Scientific Corp., and $271.1 million against Medtronic AVE Inc. -- both over rights to a medical device for heart disease patients. The verdicts illustrate the clearest trends in jury verdicts in 2000: Awards overall were up substantially, and the most significant rise involved IP cases.
Dewey Lays Off Associates Because Fewer Than Expected Left the Firm
New York Law Journal
Dewey Ballantine is laying off 10 to 15 associates in its Manhattan office, raising the question of whether New York firms are preparing for a downturn in the economy. A Dewey spokeswoman denied the economy was a factor. Instead, she cited the firm's associate attrition rate, which has slowed more than expected recently, leaving the firm with more bodies than it allowed for in its budget.
Message Board's Talk of Layoffs at Firms Might be Misinformed
Vault.com
Three top law firms in New York say the impending recession hasn't affected their recruiting and staffing plans, despite several reports to the contrary on Vault.com's message boards. "I heard that about 20 junior attorneys at Weil got laid off lately due to insufficient work at the firm," one message poster asked last week. "Is this true?"
SF's Biggest Firms Halt Staffing Build-up
The Recorder
Corporate associates can forget about looking for greener pastures. With a drop in public offerings and venture capital funding, and a decline in associate attrition, San Francisco's biggest firms are no longer looking to build their ranks. For the most part, firms have halted associate hiring in corporate departments. This stands in stark contrast to a year ago when firms couldn't hire enough attorneys.
Thursday, February 15, 2001
Employer Picks Supervisor Unwisely, And It Costs
n a case styled Deters v. Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc., a jury awarded, and the Tenth Circuit affirmed, compensatory damages of $5,000 and punitive damages of $295,000 against an employer whose supervisor failed to take corrective action to end ongoing sexual harassment of a female employee by male co-workers.
High-Tech Lawyers Busy Even in the Doldrums
Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Goodell DeVries Makes 6 Partners and Welcomes 10 Associates. Wow!
Goodell, DeVries, Leech & Gray is pleased to announce that Ian Gallacher, Kelly Hughes Iverson, Bethany Jackson, Michael B. MacWilliams, Mairi Pat Maguire and Thomas J. S. Waxter, III have become partners in the firm.
The firm would also like to announce that Mont Brownlee, III, Mary T. Fischer, Kamil Ismail, Michele R. Kendus, Ericka L. Kleiman, Timothy J. Koeppl, Lauren H. C. Lacey, Matthew T. Murnane, K. Nichole Nesbitt and Michael A. Pichini have become associated with the firm.
The Next Pay Revolution
Nathan Koppel - The American Lawyer - February 13, 2001
From hiring real marketing directors to instituting casual dress codes, legal America is looking more and more like corporate America. Now, a handful of major firms are doing away with one of the most distinctive industry traditions -- lockstep associate pay. Fading are the days of equal base salary as firms capitulate to a reality they've long known: Not all associates are built alike.
Read more...
U.S. Supreme Court Looks at Punitives Review
Marcia Coyle - The National Law Journal - February 13, 2001
Punitive damages -- the bane of business, the whip of the injured -- are at the heart of a key U.S. Supreme Court challenge asking just how rigorous federal appellate courts must be when reviewing allegedly excessive jury awards. Which direction the high court takes -- de novo review, abuse-of-discretion review or something else -- may provide needed clarity to appellate courts now split on the issue.
Read more...
Monday, February 12, 2001
Building a Database on Clients
John S. Lipsey - New York Law Journal - February 12, 2001
Most law firms dedicate the vast majority of their client development resources to increasing the pipeline of new clients, with relatively few resources committed to analyzing and improving existing client relationships to make them more profitable. Customer relationship management software can provide firms with technology to help forge and maintain long-lasting bonds and cross-sell services.
Read more...
Sunday, February 11, 2001
What Makes GCs Mad: Unresponsiveness
Jen Nielsen - The Legal Intelligencer - February 12, 2001
Roughly 63 percent of chief legal officers who attended the American Corporate Counsel Association's annual meeting responded that they had severed relations or were planning to sever relations with at least one of their law firms in 2000.
Read more...
Patent Victories Reflect 2000 Trend
Margaret Cronin Fisk - The National Law Journal - February 12, 2001
Two awards totaling $595M show juries are giving till it hurts.
Read more...
Best of LegalTech
Barry D. Bayer - Law Technology News - February 12, 2001
There are many law technology exhibitions every year, but my two favorites are the New York LegalTech held at the end of January, and the American Bar Association's TechShow held in March in Chicago. (This year's TechShow will be on March 15 - 17; if you haven't already made plans, point your browser to www.techshow.com for further information.)
Read more...
Tech and the Law Go Hand-in-Hand
Eric J. Sinrod
UpsideToday
2/2/01
The Jurisline Litigation: Implications for Alternative Online Sources of Primary Legal Authority
By T.R. Halvorson
2/1/01
Winning Principles Help Executives Survive Litigation
Dan Hedges
Houston Business Journal
2/2/01
Alliance of American Insurers: Patient Protection Act Will Create More Litigation
The Recording Industry Assn. of America Names Matthew Oppenheim as Head of Litigation
Prior to joining the RIAA, Oppenheim worked as a litigator at New York corporate law firm Proskauer Rose, where he specialized in technology and First Amendment issues. Oppenheim replaces interim litigation chief George Borkowski, a partner at Mitchell Silberberg and Knupp who has been on loan to the RIAA since the departure of his predecessor, Steven Fabrizio.
See also http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/161740.html
Garmin International Inc. (Olathe, Kan.) Appoints Devon A. Rolf Assistant General Counsel of Intellectual Property
Wichita Business Journal, 2/5/01
Prideco Selects its General Counsel, former Fulbright Partner Curtis Huff, as President and CEO
Gentronics Biomedical Ltd. (GEB-TADQ) Picks William Dix as General Counsel
Stockhouse Canada, 2/6/01
Vanguard Airlines Hires Bob Rowen as General Counsel
Law Firms Face Changing Economic Times and Should Adjust Accordingly
Tuesday, February 06, 2001
Don't Go! We Can Change
Joan Williams and Cynthia Thomas Calvert - Legal Times - February 6, 2001
Unlike most businesses, law firms traditionally have focused on revenue generation rather than the bottom line. But now that it costs a firm $200,000 to replace a second-year associate, how to "keep the keepers" has become a crucial question. Raising salaries -- and hours - just doesn't work anymore. In fact, that approach actually decreases retention.
Read more...
The Day the Jurors Took Over
Henry Gottlieb - New Jersey Law Journal - February 6, 2001
A pilot program that allows juries to ask questions of witnesses provides a lawyer with unique insights into the minds of the jurors, and helps a lawyer test whether her case was passing muster even before the verdict came in.
Read more...
Monday, February 05, 2001
Court Forms on the Web
Barry D Bayer - Law Office Technology Review - February 5, 2001
Legal forms used to be retyped from books of forms, purchased from stationery stores, or given away or sold by the court or other government agency that promulgated the form and insisted on its use by those doing business with it.
Read More...
Saturday, February 03, 2001
Nexant Names Michael Alvarez as General Counsel
Starwood Names Kenneth S. Siegel Executive Vice President, General Counsel
Siegel joins Starwood from the Cognizant/IMS Health/The Gartner Group, and will report directly to Barry S. Sternlicht, Chairman and CEO. He will be responsible for worldwide legal and government relations for Starwood, including counseling on all corporate matters at both the senior management and Board level.
Read more...
Hilton Names Madeleine Kleiner as General Counsel
Dynegy Promotes David Roth to Assistant General Counsel
Everest Broadband Names Christopher Dalrymple General Counsel
Maytag Names Roger K. Scholten General Counsel
RewardsPlus Appoints James A. Gast, Esq. as General Counsel
Texaco Appoints Michael G. McQueeney Acting General Counsel
Business Wire -- 1/31/01
Michael G. McQueeney has been appointed Acting General Counsel of Texaco, effective March 9, it was announced today by Texaco Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Peter I. Bijur. McQueeney will assume his new assignment following the departure of Deval L. Patrick, currently Texaco Inc. Vice President and General Counsel, who has accepted the position of Executive Vice President and General Counsel of The Coca-Cola Company, based in Atlanta, effective April 18.
DataVoN Names Michael G. Donohoe General Counsel
The Internet Roundtable #17 - A Continuing Discussion of Law Firm Marketing On the Internet
Federal Circuit Reinstates $20M Punitive Damages Claim in BioMet Patent Case
Jonathan Ringel
American Lawyer Media
February 5, 2001
One court watcher calls it "every lawyer's worst nightmare."
On Jan. 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reinstated $20 million in punitive damages against Biomet Inc., a Warsaw, Ind.-based company that makes orthopedic products.
Biomet's undoing: The company had waived its right to challenge the punitive damages because it failed to attack them in an earlier phase of the case, according to a unanimous three-judge panel.
Read more . . .
Thursday, February 01, 2001
Say It Ain't So, Joe
Is America's Litigation Craze Fizzling? Can It be that Demand for Lawyers is Dropping as the Price of Lawyers Increases?, Does the Legal Market Bow to a Higher Law -- the Economic "Law" of Supply and Demand? Nah!
By Ted Rohrlich, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
LATimes.com, Feb. 1, 2001
"America's litigation explosion has fizzled. Americans are no longer suing each other as much. Californians are suing each other much less. After years of steady decline, the number of big-money personalinjury lawsuits in California is roughly half of what it was a decade ago. Small claims have fallen to levels unseen in 30 years. 'California may be a bit more precipitous,' said University of Wisconsin law professor Marc Galanter, an expert on lawsuit patterns, 'but this is the general picture in the United States.' Scholars, attorneys, judges and consumer and corporate advocates offer a variety of possible explanations, including:
* The success of business and insurance company-advocated 'tort reforms' in the form of legislation and judicial rulings that have made it less lucrative for plaintiffs' lawyers to take some claims to court.
* The spread of private judging, involving mediation and arbitration, which has resulted in settlement of more disputes in forums other than public courts.
* Improvements in product safety that have resulted in fewer injuries, on which some lawsuits are based
* A cultural change in which some people may have become more inclined to give up than fight.
No systematic research has been done on the causes, said BrianOstrom, director of court statistics for the National Center for State Courts. But a review of statistics kept by the center and by California's Judicial Council makes it clear that nationally, over the last decade, the rate of tort lawsuits has slightly declined while, in California and some other states, the rate has plunged."
Discovery the E-way
Review electronic discovery in its native format -- electronically
Virginia Llewellyn - Texas Lawyer - February 1, 2001
Ever since the U.S. government discovered Bill Gates' 1997 e-mail revealing Microsoft's plan to pit rivals Apple Computer Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. against one another, lawyers have become acutely aware of the importance of e-mail in the discovery process. Even the most technology savvy executive can become careless with this quick, seemingly confidential form of communication. These days, the mythical smoking gun is more likely to be found in an in box than a desk drawer.
Read more...
