Friday, May 30, 2003
Asbestos bill may spur new M&A activity
Arindam Nag -- Thu May 29, 2003 02:22 PM ET -- Reuters
A bill now before U.S. Congress could open the door to a string of new deals among companies once under a cloud of asbestos litigation uncertainty, reports Reuters. The bill, introduced last week by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, aims to set up a $108 billion fund to compensate victims of exposure asbestos. If approved, the bill would help identify with a greater degree of accuracy the extent of liabilities they face from claimants. It would also arm them with enough guidance to craft a mutually acceptable payment pattern.
Thursday, May 29, 2003
Law Firm IT Departments Squeezed Under Profit Pressure
Saturday, May 24, 2003
Directory of Minorty In-House Counsel 2002 is On-Line
Thursday, May 22, 2003
Who's the Boss?
Tamara Loomis -- New York Lawyer -- NYLJ -- 5/22/03
For New York employers, the minefields of employment discrimination just got a bit more treacherous. The Second Circuit has rejected a bright-line test defining "supervisors" in hostile work environment claims.
Firms Take Hard Line On Law Directories
Some Large Firms Are Dumping Martindale Listing
Anthony Lin -- NYLJ -- May 22, 2003
What is the single biggest marketing expense at many large law firms? Not hip, computer-animated television commercials. Not bold, full-page ads in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. Certainly not pens and tote bags handed out to clients and law students.
Surprisingly, the largest single item on many firms' marketing budget is their entry in the venerable Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. A large firm that merely lists its lawyers' names and educational credentials can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on its Martindale-Hubbell profile. And, of course, some partners insist on going a lot further, listing everything from decades-old law review articles to memberships in Mensa, the "genius" society.
New Standards Proposed for Cost Shifting in E-Discovery
Mark Hamblett -- New York Law Journal -- 05-15-2003
USDJ Shira Scheindlin (SDNY) has proposed a new standard for evaluating whether the cost of electronic discovery requests should be shifted to the plaintiff. Judge Scheindlin proposed a seven-part test, which combines some of the factors outlined in Rowe Entertainment Inc. v. William Morris Agency, Inc. -- which Judge Scheindlin called the "gold standard" for resolving e-discovery disputes -- and eliminates others.
Mississippi Paper Reports Plaintiff Attorney Paid Off Judge's 2000 Campaign Debt
Lawyer has cases pending before state's high court
The Sun Herald -- Tome Wilemon, Beth Musgrove and Margaret Baker -- 5/21/03
High-profile tobacco foe Richard Scruggs, a plaintiffs' bar leader in the $368 billion tobacco settlement a few years ago, paid $80,000 to retire the loans of Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. and has been testifying before a federal grand jury in a judicial corruption probe, according to the Sun-Herald in Biloxi, Miss.
Hatching Asbestos Legislation
Today Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is expected to unveil a measure to end the ceaseless parade of asbestos cases, despite friction between key players. The proposed $108 billion fund would protect insurers and businesses from future suits. Labor groups and plaintiffs' attorneys with ongoing litigation are battling the measure.
Asbestos fund bill may boost insurance stocks
Reuters -- Philip Klein -- New York, 5/21/03
Insurance stocks, which have suffered from a flurry of asbestos-related lawsuits, could get a boost from the introduction on Thursday of a bill in the U.S. Senate that would establish a $108 billion fund to curb litigation and cap liability.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, plans to introduce the bill, under which insurers would pay a combined $45 billion into the fund. The bill could remove uncertainty that insurers have faced over asbestos, as they have paid out billions of dollars in claims to businesses that have been the subject of mounting lawsuits.
A Giant Win for Tobacco Industry
$145 billion verdict dumped in Miami class action
Matthew Haggman and Laurie Cunningham -- Miami Daily Business Review -- 05-22-2003
In a sweeping victory for cigarette makers and blow to a class of thousands of Florida smokers, a state appellate panel on Wednesday unanimously overturned a $145 billion verdict against the tobacco industry and decertified the class. The court said that each smoker's claim was too unique to be tried in a class and that the verdict -- the largest punitive award in U.S. history -- would bankrupt the tobacco companies.
Working With SARS
Employment lawyers busy helping clients avoid missteps related to the disease
Alexei Oreskovic -- The Recorder -- 5-22-2003
In the few months since SARS began to spread across the globe, businesses have scrambled to shield their workers from the virus. But fighting SARS in the workplace raises a number of thorny legal issues, from disability discrimination to medical privacy rights. For employment lawyers, this has meant balancing sometimes divergent legal and public safety priorities in the face of a disease that's still a mystery.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
Trial Lawyers Now Take Aim at Drug Makers
Alex Berenson -- NY Times -- 5-18-03
Enriched and emboldened after successful fights against asbestos and tobacco companies, some of the nation's top plaintiffs' lawyers have trained their sights on drug makers, claiming that many giant pharmaceutical companies have hidden the dangers of medicines the lawyers say have harmed thousands of people.
Diet Drug Litigation Leads to Fat Fees
Judge awards $150 million in interim pay to firms
Shannon P. Duffy -- The Legal Intelligencer -- 05-21-2003
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Morgenstein & Jubelirer, Defending Former Brobeck Partners, Caps Liability at Mere $153,000 in Face of $33 Million Demand
Brenda Sandburg -- The Recorder -- 05-20-2003
A jury found Monday that Debra Pole's defection to Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison a decade ago involved some misconduct by Pole and Brobeck, but awarded her former partners [at Dickson, Carlson & Campillo] a mere $153,688 in damages. [Brobeck's trial counsel, Eliot Jubelirer, Jean Bertrand and Wendi Berkowitz, had the case for only weeks in advance of trial. They were called in at the last minute after Brobeck's long-standing trial counsel withdrew from the case. Earlier the court denied Eliot Jubelirer's request to delay the trial in order to afford the Morgenstein & Jubelirer attorneys additional time to prepare for trial.]
After deliberating in Los Angeles County Superior Court's Malibu courthouse less than two days, . . . the jury found there was no malice, oppression or fraud committed by the defendants, and thus no punitive damages were awarded.
* * *
The Dickson, Carlson partners claimed that Pole shared proprietary information with Brobeck that enabled the firm to snare its top client, Baxter Healthcare Corp. The jury voted 9-to-3 that Pole breached her fiduciary duty to her former partners, but concluded that she did not breach either the partnership agreement or the applied covenant of good faith.
David Schrader, a Los Angeles solo practitioner and former Brobeck partner, said jury instructions on breach of fiduciary duty "set such a high standard that many partners may be breaching their fiduciary duty when they interview with other firms." He said the instructions specified that a lawyer could not share any information in an interview that his or her firm thinks may be confidential.
Monday, May 19, 2003
Congress Takes Aim at Class Action Legal Fees
Tobacco Money Sparked Action; "Early Offer" Settlement Fees a Focus; Idea from Conservative Think Tank
Marcia Coyle -- The National Law Journal -- 05-19-2003
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America called the proposal "outrageous, unprecedented and unconstitutional." The pro-business Washington Legal Foundation called it "logical and necessary."
Friday, May 16, 2003
Bankruptcy Filings Continue to Increase
Records Broken for Total Filings and Non-Business Filings
Administrative Office of the United States Courts -- 5/15/03
The number of bankruptcy petitions filed in federal courts rose 7.1 percent in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2003, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Bankruptcy filings rose from 1,504,806 in the 12-month period ending March 2002 to 1,611,268 in the same 12-month time period in 2003. The number of filings continues to break records. The previous highest total of filings for any 12-month period was in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2002, with a total of 1,577,651. Total bankruptcy filings first broke the 1.5 million mark in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2002.
Business filings in March 2003 totaled 37,548, down 5.8 percent from the 39,845 business filings in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2002. Non-business filings totaled 1,573,720, up 7.4 percent from the total non-business filings of 1,464,961 in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2002. This also is a record number of non-business filings for any 12-month period.
Firm IT Departments Important in Merger Transitions
Legal Week -- Kieran Flatt -- 5/19/03
U.S. Law Firms' 2002 Revenues
(Source: UK's Legal Week)
Commenting on the 2002 results of a survey it conducted, UK's Legal Week says, "The table itself confirms the strength and depth of the US domestic market. The majority of the top firms have shrugged off the slump in transactional work by tapping into the seemingly endless supply of litigation and insolvency work the country generates. US firms’ litigation departments are genuinely counter-cyclical operations easily outshining their UK counterparts. More fundamentally, lawyers across the pond are closer to the centre of power — a status that flows from the authority the constitution grants to the judiciary."
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
9th Circuit Ruling Takes Another Swipe at Arbitration
Alexei Oreskovic -- The Recorder -- 05-14-2003
Workers' advocates rejoiced Tuesday when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals once again showed its distaste for one-sided mandatory pre-dispute arbitration contracts and gave employers who use such contracts the burden of proving their fairness. In a unanimous opinion, the 9th Circuit struck down the arbitration contract proffered by Circuit City Stores, calling it "oppressive." The opinion is good news for lawyers who represent workers.
Tuesday, May 13, 2003
Lack of Responsiveness Dangerous to Law Firm Client Base
Marci Krufka -- Consultant, Altman Weil -- 5/13/03
"Law firms need to focus on clients’ needs for responsiveness. [In recent surveys of CLOs o]nce again, chief legal officers cited 'lack of responsiveness' as the number one reason for firing a law firm. This is consistent with what we hear repeatedly from law firm clients."
-- Other service-related factors considered important by CLOs are quality of work product, turnaround time, meeting deadlines, staffing of matters, and achieving successful results.
-- Clients expect a response to a phone call or email within 1 hour, but most law firms believe that 24 hour response time is sufficient.
-- Meet with your clients and ask them about their legal needs during the next 12 months.
How Clients Choose
Charles Maddock, Principal, Altman Weil -- 5/13/03
Article summarizing findings of two recent legal market surveys reports: "While Chief Legal Officers reported selection criteria run along traditional lines (expertise, quality and reputation), beyond that, baseline law frms need to find ways to differentiate themselves from competitor firms. Those firms that can offer better client service, technology interfaces, cost efficiencies, and effective marketing programs may have an edge. In addition, law firms that are members of associations . . . are perceived to have a competitive advantage over their unaffiliated brethren.
Most Significant Findings:
-- Consolidation continuing
-- Most inhouse law departments will maintain or decrease size
-- 92% of CLOs select or direct selection of outside counsel
-- Expertise in a specific area, perception of high-quality work, reputation of an attorney in the firm, fee structure, local market knowledge and, for international matters, languages spoken.
-- 1/3 of respondents maintain lists of approved outside counsel, but 41% do not.
-- Referrals, beauty contests, articles written by lawyers scored highest of 17 choices for how law departments choose law firms.
-- Lack of responsiveness cited as most prevelant reason for dissatisfaction with outside counsel.
Monday, May 12, 2003
Brit Lawyers Wigging Out?
New York Lawyer -- May 12, 2003
Reuters reports that England may change the dress code for attorneys in court, doing away with wigs and robes. The wigs are old-fashioned and itchy but some still want them.
Litigator Turned Psychologist Advocates Helping Adversaries Feel Good About Themselves
New York Lawyer -- May 12, 2003
Alexei Oreskovic -- The Recorder
"When lawyers help their opponents feel good about themselves," says the good doctor, "it is actually easier and a lot less expensive to achieve a favorable result for the client."
Firms Holding the Line on Associate Pay
New York Lawyer -- May 12, 2003
Carlos Harrison -- Miami Daily Business Review
Largest Firms Saw Profits Rise 8 Percent
New York Lawyer -- 5/12/03
Profits at the largest 50 law firms in the U.S. rose 8 percent and seven of the largest 10 US law firms saw revenue jump by more than 10 percent in 2002, according to a survey conducted by Legal Week, Financial Times reports. One firm led the field with revenues of $1.3 billion, up 10 percent, and profits per partner of $1.7 million, up 8 percent. Several firms posted revenue increases in the 16-18 percent range.
Thursday, May 08, 2003
Insurance Premiums Going Up? This Could Add Fuel to the Fire: Insurers Ordered to Pay Future Asbestos Claims Now
$125B Asbestos Price Tag Projected
Joseph B. Treaster -- New York Times -- 5/8/03
The NY Times reported today that a jury verdict in California this week may lead to a wave of new asbestos litigation that would greatly increase costs for insurance companies. On Monday, a Los Angeles jury held that insurers must immediately pay nearly $200 million for claims already filed against bankrupt Fuller-Austin Insulation Company, as well as those expected to be filed against a trust created by the company.
When Fuller-Austin filed for bankruptcy protection in September 1998, it was the first company to use a new provision in the federal bankruptcy code designed by Congress in 1994 to help industrial companies cope with large asbestos claims without being driven out of business by creating a trust for future claimants. Companies that agreed to place a substantial amount of their assets in a trust to pay asbestos claims could be free of further asbestos liability.
In directing the insurers to pay future claims now, the California jury accepted the insured's damage claim using insurance industry methods for calculating future claims costs to determine that the insured faced a total of more than $966 million in claims..
Lawyers who specialize in suing insurance companies plan to use the case in other states.
Huge amounts of money are at issue, the Times reports. "The Rand Institute for Civil Justice, a California research organization, estimates that total claims for asbestos damages could rise to as much as $250 billion. And Matthew Carletti, an analyst at Fox-Pitt, Kelton, a brokerage firm and investment bank in Hartford, estimates that about half of those claims would be covered by insurance. Several large insurers have sharply increased their reserves to pay claims over the last year or so, creating a direct charge against earnings."
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Moves to Limit Attorneys' Contingency Fees Initiated in 12 States
Daniel Wise -- New York Lawyer -- May 7, 2003
New York was one of 12 states where petitions were filed yesterday with lawyer discipline authorities to limit attorneys' contingency fees in personal injury cases that reach quick settlements.
The proposal would limit attorney's fees to their hourly rates in fast-settled tort cases, with a maximum cap of 10 percent of the recovery. A contingency fee of one-third of the recovery is routinely charged in personal injury suits.
The nationwide effort is spearheaded by a Washington, D.C., based non-profit group, Common Good, which is headed by Philip K. Howard, a vice-chairman of Covington & Burling and the author of several books criticizing the American legal system. Michael J. Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, who was general counsel to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in the first Reagan Administration, also played a key role in the effort. The author of the brief filed in New York is Harold Reynolds, a former clerk of the Appellate Division, First Department, who took on the assignment pro bono, as did counsel in the other 11 states where petitions were filed.
Monday, May 05, 2003
New Laws Create New Legal Practice Areas
San Francisco Business Times -- Eric Young -- 5/2/03
As corporations wrestle with the questions surrounding the U.S. Patriot Act and Homeland Security Act, law firms are forming practice groups focusing on the sweeping federal laws.
The two acts, coming in response to the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001, have so many provisions that their impact reaches across dozens of industries and are expected to help shape the way companies conduct business with the federal government.
Firms leverage paralegal skills to improve business efficiency
Memphis Business Journal -- Leigh Ann Roman -- 5/2/03
Pam Cobb, a paralegal in a Memphis law firm, can do many of the same jobs performed by young associates: legal research and drafting pleadings and memoranda.
The difference is that her coworkers have graduated from law school and can appear in court. But Cobb and other paralegals -- or legal assistants -- are playing a growing role in the legal industry thanks to technology and demands for increased efficiency at firms.
"I think probably Memphis or maybe Tennessee in general is a little behind the curve as far as paralegal utilization," says Cobb, president of the Greater Memphis Paralegal Alliance, Inc. "I think attorneys here are just beginning to realize the extensiveness of paralegal training."
The ratio of attorneys to paralegals has declined nationally over the past five years at small to mid-sized law firms, indicating greater use of paralegals, according to a survey by the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA) in 2002.
Mediators take the clog out of courts
Memphis Business Journal -- Paul Ivice -- 5/2/03
Courts would be severely backlogged without mediation resolving more than 80% of civil lawsuits.
Mediation is on the rise in civil litigation, says Chief Judge Donald R. Moran Jr. of Florida's 4th Judicial Circuit. "We continue to see a refining of mediation to where it's even more effective than it's been in the past."
Mattox Hair, a former Florida legislator and circuit judge who started mediating in 1993 and quickly decided to make it his fulltime work, says most cases settle in mediation for three reasons:
-- The parties make the decision, holding their fate in their own hands, rather than leaving it to the unpredictability of a judge and a jury.
-- They avoid the costs of going to trial.
-- They have the finality of knowing there will be no appeal.
Mediator Tom Tygart adds two more:
-- Both sides get a partial victory at least, avoiding the all-or-nothing approach of a trial.
-- The mediation process and its outcome are confidential.
Costs of Compliance Soar After Sarbanes-Oxley
Tamara Loomis -- New York Law Journal -- 05-05-2003
A new study reveals that companies are paying a high price to stay public in the wake of a sweeping set of changes to federal securities law. The survey, the first to try to capture the cost of compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, looked at mostly mid-cap companies and found that since the law's passage last summer, the average price of being public has close to doubled.
Thursday, May 01, 2003
Survey of Law Firm Hourly Rates
New client research reveals hourly rates that corporate clients pay their law firms. What Clients Pay Law Firms: BTI's Billing Rate Reference for the Legal Services Industry 2003 is based on more than 2,600 individual data points obtained directly from interviews with Fortune 1000 corporate counsel.
Hourly Rates are examined by:
15 Key States
13 Major Industries
8 Primary Practice Areas
Practice Area Industries:
Antitrust
Chemical
Civil Litigation
Consumer Goods
Corporate
Employment
Energy
Environmental
Financial Services
Industrial Manufacturing
Intellectual Property
IP Litigation
Manufacturing
Pharmaceutical
Privacy
Professional Services
Retail Trade
Telecommunications
Transportation
Utilities
Wholesale Trade
Practice groups include:
Antitrust
Employment
Environmental
Civil Litigation
Corporate
Intellectual Property
IP Litigation
Privacy
For the Executive Summary.
To purchase from The BTI Consulting Group, Inc.
Health is law’s hot new field
Managed care and complex new laws are fertile grounds for lawyers
Marjolijn Bijlefeld and Robert Burke -- Virginia Business -- April 2003
LeClair Ryan’s Rodney Adams, who has worked in the field for nearly 20 years, says health care is the nation’s second most-regulated industry, behind nuclear power. “Every time there’s an issue, legislators think there’s another regulation that will take care of it,” he says.
The latest regulatory wrinkle is the HIPAA privacy rules, which take effect April 14 and restrict access to patients’ personal health information. That’s not exactly a radical concept, but the law is causing havoc in medical offices as doctors and staff take steps to make sure patient records are kept out of sight, appointment books are closed, computer access is limited and that conversations with patients can’t be overheard.
Network Attorney Rod Adams' (LeClair Ryan) New Textbook on Clinical Trials and Human Research
Clinical Trials and Human Research: A Practical Guide to Regulatory Compliance
Fay A. Rozovsky, Rodney K. Adams
ISBN: 0-7879-6570-7
Hardcover, 656 pages
May 23, 2003, Jossey-Bass, US $130.00
Fay A. Rozovsky, J.D., M.P.H. is an affiliate associate professor in the Department of Legal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine. Ms. Rozovsky has served as the administrator of an Institutional Review Board and is a member of human research committees in the United States and Canada.
Rodney K. Adams, J.D., L.L.M., is an attorney with LeClair Ryan in Richmond, Virginia, where he specializes in defending healthcare providers and patient care issues. Mr. Adams is also co-chair of the American Bar Association subcommittee on medical ethics, and an adjunct assistant professor at University of Richmond, T. C. Williams College of Law, Richmond, Virginia. Reach Rod at RAdams@LeClairRyan.com.
Rod's easy-to-read reference book provides a practical approach for dealing with the legal and regulatory compliance issues involved in human research. The textbook covers a broad range of topics, including consent, confidentiality, subject recruitment and selection, the role of the investigator and Institutional Review Board, and offers strategies for achieving regulatory compliance while reducing liability. Insurance, quality management, accreditation, and risk management are examined in the book. Clinical Trials and Human Research is a practical tool to help anyone involved in clinical research.
This is Rod's second book in the healthcare area. His first was Virginia Medical Law (CML Press, 2000), a comprehensive guide to Virginia health care law covering access to care, patient consent, reproductive and end-of-life issues, facility security, management of medical information, reporting requirements, HIV issues, employment law in a medical context, licensure and staff privileges, compliance problems and much more. Rod's book is described as "simply a must for anyone who may be called on to advise a health care client" by Lawyers Weekly.
