Monday, June 30, 2003
Chicago's Altheimer & Gray Preparing to Dissolve
News Emphasizes Importance of a Strong Litigation Practice
New York Lawyer -- June 30, 2003
The 99-year-old 301-lawyer firm with 2001 PPP of $580K announced Friday its executive committee had recommended dissolution because of a downturn in corporate transactions (3/4 of firm's revenue).
In unrelated news, earlier this year, Boston-based Testa Hurwitz announced that it was laying off 34 associates due to the slowdown in corporate work.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
Lessons Learned from the Fall of Brobeck
Peter D. Zeughauser -- The American Lawyer -- 05-01-2003
Zeughauser opines:
-- Brobeck increased its head count at a rate that until then was unthinkable.
-- Within the firm, there appears to have been a serious failure to communicate.
-- A firm with a history of strong leaders suddenly found itself without one.
-- Brobeck acted much too slowly to cut overhead after the dot bomb.
-- Oversized debt, real estate, and staffing obligations.
-- Firm leaders allowed the financial crisis to drive a deep, vicious wedge into the partnership, forcing partners to take sides.
-- At a time when the firm would have benefited from the deliberative efforts of a massive group of talented lawyers, a smaller group took matters into its own hands.
-- Law firms shouldn't carry big debts in an era of unprecedented cherry-picking.
-- Brobeck was killed by the same thing that had killed firms before it: books of business walking out the door. Powerful partners with big books of business found greener pastures elsewhere, taking their clients with them.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Hood Law Firm Expands Admiralty Practice
James Bernard Hood ("Jamie") has joined the Hood Law Firm in its Admiralty practice group. Jamie graduated from the University of the South and the University of South Carolina Law School (S.C. Env. L.J.).
Jamie graduated 1st in his class at Tulane University Law School where he received his LLM in Admiralty Law. Also, he was honored with the Edward A. Dodd, Jr. Award as the outstanding candidate for the LLM in Admiralty.
Jamie's practice areas include admiralty, negligence, personal injury, products liability, construction litigation, medical malpractice, insurance coverage cases, D & O cases, and general civil and commercial litigation.
Asbestos -- Is This the Beginning of the End?
Bloomberg.com -- 6/26/03
A U.S. Senate committee agreed to add as much as $45 billion to a compensation fund for asbestos- exposure victims. The proposed legislation is designed to stem lawsuits that have bankrupted more than 60 companies since 1982.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to boost the fund to as much as $153 billion in contributions by asbestos manufacturers and insurers and establish a mechanism to extend the fund's life if it runs out of cash. The panel has yet to agree on how much the fund would pay individual workers who suffer from asbestos-related diseases such as cancer.
* * *
The panel moved a step closer to compromise today when it approved the amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, by a voice vote that boosted funding to the trust and created a mechanism to extend the fund's life if it runs out of cash after 27 years.
The trust would be financed by manufacturers such as USG Corp. and Owens Illinois Inc., which made products that used asbestos, and insurers including Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Ace Ltd. and Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., which have reserved billions of dollars to pay asbestos claims. The compromise leaves the amounts of compensation to individual investors as the biggest remaining stumbling block.
`Can It Happen?'
``I think it will happen,'' Nick Redfield, who helps manage about $150 million at Bank One Investment Advisors, said of the asbestos legislation. ``The big question is: Can they make it happen this year? Companies that stand to gain most are the ones just entering or teetering on bankruptcy that would start building reserves for settlements.''
Redfield said companies that would be helped by the legislation include Owens Illinois, Georgia-Pacific Corp. and W.R. Grace & Co.
The legislation would end the flood of lawsuits against companies that used asbestos in their products and cap the costs of settling claims. (emphasis supplied)
* * *
Julie Rochman, a spokeswoman for the American Insurance Association, said the Feinstein amendment raises hopes for a compromise that can pass the full Senate.
``Two days ago we saw bipartisan agreement on medical criteria,'' Rochman said. ``Today we're seeing bipartisan agreement on short-term and long-term funding shortages. The one big piece that is outstanding is the amount of money that sick people who present themselves to the trust fund will receive. Those things move in tandem.
``If we can resolve that third piece to everybody's satisfaction, this bill will move forward.''
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Network Firm Morgenstein & Jubelirer Featured in SF Recorder Article
Litigation boutique Morgenstein Jubelirer is known for its ability to jump into litigation at the last minute
Brenda Sandburg -- The Recorder -- 06-26-2003
image: Christine Jegan/The Recorder
Eliot Jubelirer seemed worried.
The veteran lawyer's arms were folded across his chest, his head tipped forward and brow creased as he answered questions about the trial embroiling his client, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison.
It was an April morning and he was standing outside a Malibu courtroom during a break in testimony. He emphasized how difficult it was for his team to prepare for each day's lineup of witnesses.
"We have dozens of boxes of depositions and hundreds of exhibits to go through," Jubelirer said. "We have to divide the work up. It's like a battlefield triage."
Jubelirer's anxiety was understandable. After all, he had agreed to jump in and defend Brobeck in a multimillion-dollar suit just three weeks before trial. But colleagues and clients say such fretting over a case is typical for Jubelirer.
"Eliot always thinks that the worst is just about to happen, which means his clients don't have to worry," said former Brobeck partner Stephen Snyder.
In Brobeck's case, Jubelirer needn't have worried. Despite the time handicap, he and his team pulled Brobeck out of a possible financial quagmire. While a jury found that partner Debra Pole's defection to Brobeck a decade ago involved some misconduct by both Pole and Brobeck, it awarded the partners at Pole's former firm only $153,000 in damages, a fraction of the $30 million they requested.
The adroit save is typical of Jubelirer's 30-lawyer litigation boutique, Morgenstein & Jubelirer, colleagues and clients say. While the firm doesn't have the marquee name of larger litigation firms, it has earned a reputation for having top-notch trial lawyers who deliver good results. The firm also stands out for its lean staffing and competitive billing rates.
"We work with a lot of different law firms around the country," said Raymond Smerge, chief legal officer of Centex Corp., a home-building and mortgage-banking company based in Dallas. "When we are confronted with a particularly challenging or difficult litigation, when the stakes are high, the name that goes to the top of the list is Morgenstein & Jubelirer."
DEFENDING BROBECK
While Morgenstein & Jubelirer is used to fast-paced litigation, the Brobeck case stands out in the firm's scrapbook of trials. Jubelirer and his co-counsel in the case, partners Jean Bertrand and Wendi Berkowitz, spoke about the trial last week from their offices at Spear Street Tower, just one floor below Brobeck's old space.
Jubelirer and partner Marvin Morgenstein founded the firm in 1982 when they split from what was then Steinhart Morgenstein & Falconer with another partner and five associates. Morgenstein, who retired 10 years ago and now lives in Bozeman, Mont., was a well-known antitrust lawyer.
Although the firm is perhaps best known for asbestos litigation -- 40 percent of its business is products liability defense -- Morgenstein & Jubelirer handles everything from employment and labor law to construction, real estate and insurance coverage. Its roster of clients includes glass container manufacturer Owens-Illinois Inc., as well as Emerson Electric Co., Newell Rubbermaid Inc., PG&E Corp. and Home Depot Inc.
Among its most notable cases, the firm successfully represented FedEx Corp. in its suit against the Public Utilities Commission over the PUC's attempt to regulate FedEx's intrastate trucking. Jubelirer said the 1992 ruling helped spur Congress to deregulate all intrastate trucking, since FedEx otherwise would have had a competitive advantage.
Morgenstein & Jubelirer also got a favorable settlement for Eastman Kodak Co. in a breach of contract and patent-licensing suit against Lockheed Martin Corp. two years ago. And currently, the firm has two employment cases -- for the University of California and L'Oreal SA -- pending before the California Supreme Court.
"Eliot has a remarkable ability to do lots of different cases and jump in at the last minute," said former partner James McGinnis who left the firm last year to join Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. "All of his partners are very talented."
"They're brilliant litigators and cut right to the heart of something," said Anne Bingaman, who was head of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division during the Clinton administration. She hired Morgenstein & Jubelirer partner Rocky Unruh to work as a staff attorney at the agency and subsequently hired Unruh and Jubelirer when she worked first at long distance company LCI and then at Valor Telecommunications. She said the two helped come up with a strategy to get the Bell companies to comply with the Telecommunications Act.
While Jubelirer said his firm could go head-to-head with any other firm out there, he acknowledged that its smaller size puts it at a disadvantage in getting big cases. General counsel at major corporations tend to gravitate to firms with known names, he said. As a result, Morganstein & Jubelirer would consider a merger if the right suitor came along.
"It would be great if the firm were bigger," he said. "We have a pretty good cast of brand-name companies that use us, and we'd like to expand that."
But Morgenstein & Jubelirer doesn't want to give up its collegial culture -- which former partners and clients say is a major attribute of the firm.
"They are good lawyers, honorable, very talented, who do a good job for their clients, and they're nice," said Steven Kazan, of Oakland's Kazan, McClain, Edises, Abrams, Fernandez, Lyons & Farrise, who has squared off against Morgenstein & Jubelirer in hundreds of asbestos cases.
"The firm has a reputation as being really nice people," said former partner Larry Lowe, who is in-house counsel at Apple Computer Inc. "Eliot has sort of a philosophical and stylistic influence over the firm, being very gentlemanly, very well prepared and professional."
The firm operates by consensus. Bertrand, who was co-counsel on the Brobeck trial, said she could only remember one partnership vote in 20 years, which was over a piece of art Jubelirer wanted. "It was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen," she jokingly recalled.
BARGAIN BILLING
The firm is also known for its bare-bones litigation. Partners staff cases with a minimum of attorneys and their billing rates, which range from $170 to $365 per hour, are about half of what top litigators at Bay Area firms charge. Keker & Van Nest partner Robert Van Nest, for example, bills as much as $650 per hour, according to documents the firm filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California.
Partners haven't always agreed on the economical billing rates, however.
"We would have constant fights" over the issue, said Lowe, who left the firm in 1995. "There were those of us who wanted to raise the rates and others who wanted to keep them mid-level. I felt we were a real bargain. That's a reason why I had no hesitation in hiring them" to do work for Apple.
Jubelirer acknowledged that there has been tension over the issue but said he believed that it was true at other firms as well.
"We try to keep our rates below the so-called national law firms," he said. "We think we can do it in part because, being smaller, we have lower overhead and we think it's fair for our clients. And sometimes we get clients because of it."
Morgenstein & Jubelirer is also flexible in its billing structure, offering modified contingency fees and flat fees in some cases. In one matter, the firm worked out a reverse contingency fee, agreeing to take one-third of what the client would save if it won its appeal to the California Supreme Court. The firm got the court to take up the case and rule on behalf of its client.
Brobeck also benefited from the firm's pliant billing system. When Morgenstein & Jubelirer agreed to take up Brobeck's defense in the partner defection dispute, Snyder said the firm had no assurance that it would ever be paid. The defunct Brobeck owed its previous counsel Keker & Van Nest $300,000, and all its incoming revenue was going to pay off its bank debt. Snyder said Brobeck did end up paying Morgenstein & Jubelirer for its services but declined to reveal the source of the funding.
"We felt like they were our friends and they needed us," Jubelirer said. "We couldn't say no to them."
Brobeck partners had worked closely with Morgenstein & Jubelierer for many years and referred the litigation shop a lot of business. In the 1990s both firms represented a group of asbestos manufacturers, trying about 20 cases to verdict over a three-year period. And when Unruh took a leave of absence to join the Justice Department, he recruited former Brobeck partner James Miller to work with him. The two worked on the antitrust investigation of Microsoft Corp. and a price-fixing complaint against two-dozen market-makers that resulted in a consent decree. Brobeck partner George Cummings also later joined the team.
Snyder, a former Brobeck chairman and now head of the firm's liquidation committee, has been a longtime fan of Morgenstein & Jubelirer.
"Each of them is a really good trial lawyer and pretty fearless," Snyder said. "Their standards are high and rates modest, which has made them competitive in all but the biggest cases" where they don't have the resources of larger firms.
Snyder said he also appreciates Jubelirer's articulate, thoughtful courtroom style.
"Unlike so many courtroom lawyers whose desire is to impress people," Snyder said, Jubelirer doesn't do anything he hasn't thought through, and in court, "he will turn his head to the side and with a twinkle in his eye and a smile reveal a sense of humor and razor-sharp mind."
Jubelirer and his team spent six weeks hunkered down at the Malibu Beach Inn, where all the rooms face the ocean. Poring over documents late into the night, they listened to the constant crashing of waves against the shore. Their souvenir photos of the trip -- taken with a disposable camera -- show the stacks of documents they had driven down from San Francisco.
"Nobody on our side knew the entire record of the case, so you didn't know if you were about to step on some land mine," Jubelirer said. "We didn't have a chance to become familiar with the documents or the personalities of the key witnesses."
While they didn't have time to enjoy the beach or even the hot tub on their balcony, they did get a glimpse of Hollywood stars John Cusack, Mel Gibson and Pamela Anderson.
The team is back to working in less glamorous venues. In the past two weeks, Jubelirer has been in Dallas, Chicago and Toledo, Ohio, working on construction defect and asbestos cases.
"I'm doing what I've always done," Jublirer said.
Network Lawyers Write About Extranet Best Practices
A national litigation team learned how to make its extranet live up to its full potential
W. Scott O'Connell and Leslie Arrington (Nixon Peabody)
Legal Times -- 06-19-2003
Defending multijurisdiction litigation presents unique, difficult and costly challenges for any legal team. Developing and implementing a coordinated strategy in multiple forums against multiple adversaries requires the litigation team to keep the constantly growing mass of information organized and accessible. Being well-organized is essential for a widespread team to efficiently conduct discovery productions, coordinate fact gathering and analysis, and identify and prepare experts and other witnesses, among other things.
The costs to clients in these types of cases can be considerable. Conventional wisdom says that maximizing coordination, efficiency and speed, on the one hand, and minimizing litigation costs, on the other, were mutually exclusive propositions. Sacrifices were considered inevitable if cost containment was a high priority. Fortunately, that's no longer the case, due to the changes the Internet has brought to storing, retrieving, and delivering information.
Several years ago, as national coordinating counsel for many types of companies (financial institutions, product manufacturers, service providers) became enmeshed in state and federal class actions around the country, we turned to the Internet for management solutions. The rapid growth of our firm, now with 14 U.S. offices, required that we devise better means and methods for our own attorneys to collaborate.
Later, we took the "best practices" developed from our intranet experience and transferred them to an extranet platform accessible to clients; regional and local counsel; and in certain circumstances, experts and adversaries.
Our experience in developing extranets to manage litigation -- from simple online docket postings to comprehensive document repositories, technical and scientific libraries, expert databases, and electronic production sets -- offers some useful examples of best practices and guiding principles.
THE EXTRANET BASICS
An extranet -- a private intranet site with access limited to permitted users -- can work like a "virtual office" accessible through the Internet from anywhere. A useful litigation support extranet has the following essential functions:
- An online workplace for the client and counsel to collaborate on all materials involved in the case.
- A repository for all pleadings, correspondence and work product.
- A central calendar and docket.
- A library of relevant documents.
- A database of relevant facts searchable by date, issue, or person.
- Information about opposing parties, counsel, and court.
- Internet research tools.
- Private area for client and counsel.
- Limited and controlled access to co-parties.
- Limited and controlled access to experts.
- Limited and controlled access to opposing parties and counsel.
In addition, the extranet can contain management tools accessible only to the client:
- Time and billing records for all timekeepers.
- Client reports on case activity.
- Risk analysis updated on a set schedule.
- Budgets.
- Strategy.
By centralizing the information management function, coordination between counsel in different locations is greatly simplified. Collaboration is direct and immediate because the entire legal team has ready access to a comprehensive collection of materials. The administrative burden of maintaining multiple sets of documents, pleadings, and correspondence disappears. All efforts are directed to building a single knowledge bank at the extranet site, rather than in separate and disparate silos. And quick retrieval further reduces administrative time and enhances productivity.
BEST PRACTICES: THE LESSONS LEARNED
A good start to the extranet is critical. For many clients and counsel, the migration from a paper to a digital medium is not easy. Confidence in the stability and functionality of the extranet is critical for a successful transition. Accordingly, take the time to fully debug your system before it is rolled out for use. Team members who lack confidence in the technology will revert to paper, thereby defeating the economies and efficiencies the extranet offers.
K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid). Smart, well-intentioned computer jocks (either attorneys or support personnel) sometimes get lost in the capabilities of the technology. The resulting extranet sometimes becomes a technological marvel that will never get used by anyone on the litigation team. When in doubt, simple is usually better than more complex.
Design a familiar interface. To ease the transition from paper, it helps if the extranet has a user interface that mirrors other, familiar programs. Because most of the business world has become increasingly reliant on e-mail, designing the extranet interface to look and feel like an e-mail software interface is a winning strategy.
Keep the extranet nimble and easy to navigate. Make sure your extranet is as easy to navigate as your favorite Web site. Functions on the site should be intuitive. Security protocols should not interfere with navigation once on the site. Also, it is important to make updating as easy as possible.
Provide appropriate levels of security. The power of what you can provide via an extranet is commensurate with the level of security you decide to provide. Public materials such as an electronic docket of pleadings require virtually no security. Work product, risk analysis and strategy materials, however, require the best security reasonably available. This is not an area in which to cut corners. Providing secure identification, intrusion protection, virus monitoring and related services is very important.
Develop a plan for keeping the extranet current. At the very outset, determine how, when, and who will update information. If team members retrieve inaccurate or unreliable information, they won't use the extranet.
Invest in appropriate training. Even though these tips will help make the interface easy to use, don't assume that team members will know how to use it. Taking the time to train people to correctly operate the site helps get members invested in the content and the knowledge management goals. Get participants invested immediately by having them put information into the site. Try to minimize efforts to work around the technology.
Have a backup plan to fix problems. This is not an excuse for the technically challenged to rely on a shadow paper file; it is a reminder to make sure that the extranet is regularly backed up. Because extranets often sit on isolated servers outside the firm's "fire wall," some have no backup protocol. Make sure your site is backed up at least once daily.
Don't ignore the cultural issues. Often, the benefits offered by a well-designed and well-maintained extranet site are diluted or destroyed because some team members have enormous difficulty working on any medium but paper. Changing habits can be hard -- and sometimes impossible. Confronting these cultural obstacles is necessary to minimize their effect on the overall project. Devise strategies for getting the "paper people" to contribute to the site. (There was a time, not so long ago, when many predicted that voice mail would never catch on with clients.)
Get attorneys involved in the design and population of the site. Because the benefits of the extranet depend on how much use it gets, involve attorneys in the design of the site. Making sure that the site contains useful information is one good way to increase traffic and investment.
Many clients require their law firms to have the technological capabilities to handle complex national matters. Creating extranets to help manage the litigation process enables firms to provide their clients with more affordable and effective service.
-----
W. Scott O'Connell is the leader of Nixon Peabody's (www.nixonpeabody.com) financial services and securities litigation team, and also chairs the firm's litigation knowledge management and technology committee. He is a partner in the Manchester, N.H., office. Leslie Arrington is a partner in the D.C. office and a member of the business litigation group.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Arbitrators Can Grant Class Action Status If Not Precluded by Terms of Arbitration Agreement
Susan Artinian of Dykema Gosset (Detroit) notes that the Supreme Court issued an important decision on Monday in Green Tree Financial v. Bazzle: The Court held that arbitrators (but not courts) have the right to decide whether to give class action treatment to arbitrations. Thus, arbitrators could grant class action status to arbitrations if the arbitration clauses are silent or ambiguous as to class treatment. In that arbitration decisions are rarely appealable, attorneys drafting arbitration clauses involving multiple parties should include language providing that arbitration may only proceed on an individual basis, and cannot be consolidated with other arbitrations or accorded class-action status.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Historians as Testifying Witnesses
Patricia Cohen -- The New York Times -- June 14, 2003
Late Edition - Final , Section B , Page 7 , Column 5
A scientist financed by, say, the tobacco industry, is expected to declare whose wallet is behind his research. But what about a historian? . . . [M]edical historians are becoming witnesses in some of the country's most important -- and expensive -- lawsuits.
ABSTRACT - Article on debate among historians over ethics of testifying for industries accused of endangering public health; some historians say consulting is private matter while others insist they should not represent 'bad guys,' like tobacco, paint industry or toxic polluters; A scientist financed by, say, the tobacco industry, is expected to declare whose wallet is behind his research. But what about a historian?
It's a formality: Lawyers starting to dress up again
Mary Flood -- Houston Chronicle -- 6/23/03
Bar Votes to Ease Rules Limiting Out-of-State Lawyers
New York Lawyer -- June 24, 2003
By John Caher -- New York Law Journal
Reacting to a modern trend toward cross-border lawyering, the New York State Bar Association on Saturday endorsed a proposal to update the rules on who is allowed to practice law in this state and under what conditions.
The State Bar's policymaking body voted to support so-called "multi-jurisdictional practice" — whereby lawyers admitted in other states but not New York are permitted to practice here. However, the support was conditioned on subjecting the out-of-jurisdiction attorneys to New York's disciplinary rules and authorities.
Homeland security as a practice
At the Bar/by Maggie Mulvihill
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Like it or not, homeland security is big business in the post 9/11 world - a fact not lost on attorneys across the world.
* * *
Millions of dollars in federal research money is becoming available to businesses or researchers developing products or services to help protect the nation against terrorist threats and attacks.
Whether designing detectors for chemical and biological attacks, defense vaccines and treatment programs or computer networks to track foreigners operating clandestine operations within our borders, the U.S. and state governments are looking for American companies and educational institutions to come up with ways to help safeguard the country.
Lawyers will have to advise clients on myriad complex legal problems from navigating complicated government contracts to protecting the clients' work through intellectual property laws . . .. There are also [product/third-party] liability . . . issues . . ..
[Only a few] firms nationwide . . . are aggressively developing practice groups in the legal arena of homeland security.
Monday, June 16, 2003
ERISA Litigation Growing
Stung by corporate collapses, workers look to ERISA for relief
Jason Hoppin -- The Recorder -- 06-16-2003
Huge recoveries are the norm in the burgeoning arena of ERISA -- cases filed by employees who lose retirement savings in corporate scandals. Essentially securities fraud cases minus the constraints of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Waksal's Prison Lack HBO, Lawyers Complain ;-)
Country Club Prison Called ‘Unspeakable Hellhole’
Borowitz Report -- 6/12/03
Friday, June 13, 2003
Firms See a Rich Future in Trusts & Estates
Anthony Lin -- New York Law Journal -- 06-11-2003
A handful of major law firms are launching or expanding trusts and estates practices, bucking a trend toward curtailing the practice due to measly profits and the prospect of further estate tax relaxation. Guiding these efforts is a belief that a revamped trusts and estates -- or "wealth management" -- practice can not only be highly profitable on its own but can also generate business across the firm and beyond.
House Passes Bill Curbing Class Action Suits
Reuters -- Susan Cornwell -- 6/12/03 04:20 PM ET
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed legislation that sponsors said would curb abuse of class-action lawsuits by moving most of them from state to federal courts, where judges may be less sympathetic.
According to Law.com, "[t]he bill would shift class actions from state to federal court if fewer than one-third of the plaintiffs in a case are from the same state as the defendant, and the claims total $5 million or more. The measure is retroactive to existing cases where a class has not yet been certified and allows appeals of class certification rulings. In the Senate, which presents a tougher battle for tort reformers, the bill does not include the appeals or retroactivity provisions."
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Greedy Associates Defectors Spawn Law Talkers
Friday, June 06, 2003
SDNY's Decision re Discovery of Electronic Documents Determines Who Pays the Costs
Jason Krause -- ABA Journal eReport -- 6/6/03
[Litigators say Judge Shira Scheindlin's 40-page ruling in Zubulake v. UBS Warburg, 02 Civ. 1243 (SAS) on discovery of electronic documents will change the way such documents will be handled in court.]
Scheindlin lists seven factors to test in order to determine which side of a case should pay for electronic discovery, and she notes that, contrary to previous procedures, not all the factors carry equal weight.
"As large companies increasingly move to entirely paper-free environments," Scheindlin writes in the ruling, "the frequent use of cost-shifting will have the effect of crippling discovery in discrimination and retaliation cases. This will both undermine the ‘strong public policy favor[ing] resolving disputes on their merits,’ and may ultimately deter the filing of potentially meritorious claims." Scheindlin’s seven factors include:
1. How specific the discovery request is.
2. The availability of the information from other sources.
3. The total cost of producing the requested documents compared to the amount in controversy.
4. The total cost compared to the resources each party has.
5. The relative ability of each party to control costs.
6. The importance of the issues at stake in the litigation.
7. The relative benefits to the parties of getting the information
The factors are listed in order of importance, Scheindlin writes.
In a First for Feds, General Counsel Is Indicted for Fraud
Jason Hoppin -- The Recorder -- 06-06-2003
In what the Department of Justice calls its first-ever securities fraud indictment of a corporate GC, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco added former HBO & Co. top lawyer Jay Lapine to a growing list of criminal defendants in the McKesson Corp. fraud case. Wednesday's indictment highlights prosecutors' growing interest in legal and accounting professionals who help corrupt executives engage in securities fraud.
Thursday, June 05, 2003
Trial Lawyers Say Insurers Get 'Deal of Century' With Hatch Asbestos Bill
Hoovers Onlin -- June 4, 2003 4:36pm
WASHINGTON (BestWire) - Asbestos defendants and their insurers "will laugh all the way to the bank" under an asbestos-litigation reform bill that's been introduced in the U.S. Senate, said the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Hatch Pushing for 'Asbestos Court'
Christopher Smith -- The Salt Lake Tribune -- 6/5/02
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Orrin Hatch made a bid for compromise Wednesday to push forward a proposal to set up an "asbestos court" to compensate thousands of people who have health problems related to the insulating and fireproofing material.
* * *
As drafted, Hatch's "Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act" (FAIR) would supercede existing state and federal asbestos claims laws and result in the dismissal of all pending asbestos lawsuits. Those cases -- 60,000 to 90,000 people file or join asbestos lawsuits annually -- would be refiled with a new "asbestos court" that would dole out compensation checks to people who prove they were exposed to asbestos in a work environment and that they have an asbestos-related disease. The plan would be financed by a $108 billion pool contributed by companies with asbestos liabilities and insurers.
Wednesday, June 04, 2003
[OPINION] The Next Way for Law Firms to Spend Money -- Secure Instant Messaging
As if your law firm didn't have enough ways to spend money, here comes another one -- "secure" IM. Gotta have it? I [Ellis Mirsky] think not. Just one man's opinion. The marketplace will decide, as it has with other better ideas, like PC-based video conferencing -- a better idea that never reached its potential. Just because something is possible doesn't mean that it's necessary or even desirable. My guess is that law firms will not spend money on this, clients won't demand it, and law firms will be reluctant to be the first on their block to have it. Attorneys' lives are already too pressured. Do lawyers really need to have their clients busting in on them through their PCs demanding attention instanter? Email provides for sufficiently rapid responses. Lawyers have to draw the line somewhere on accessibility or productivity goes down the drain. I think Secure IM is over the line. I'd put this idea in the Computer Toilet category.
Monday, June 02, 2003
[NETWORK FAMILY] Ensign Michael Fitzpatrick Graduates from U.S. Navy OCS
LeClair Ryan senior trial lawyer John Fitzpatrick reports that his son who "didn't want to be like dad" graduated from Navy OCS last month. Michael Fitzpatrick, a 2000 honors graduate of the College of William & Mary, decided after the 9/11 tragedy that he wanted to "serve his country like his old man." Michael registered for Navy OCS and then qualified for flight school (which begins later this month). His hope is to fly F-18s - Hornets. Ensign Michael Fitzpatrick, age 24, hopes soon to become a United States Navy fighter pilot. So much for "not being like dad" (USMA, 1974; U.S. Army, 1974 - 1988, Major; Airborne Ranger, Prosecutor: 8th U.S. Army (Korea); Senior Trial Attorney, Pentagon). The old man is very proud.
Lawyers' Joblessness On Rise
Hoovers -- May 31, 2003
Labor Department data show that white-collar unemployment has reached historic levels, 9 percent, an article in The National Law Journal says. The legal profession finds itself with a 1.2 percent unemployment rate, which is the highest since 1997.
That rate may seem low compared with the figures for other professions and industries, but it's a figure that has doubled in the past couple of years and the actual rate is higher than the official one, though it is impossible to say be how much, the article says. * * * And things seem to be getting worse. * * * [L]aw firms across the country have been laying off attorneys, though fields like bankruptcy and litigation have continued to flourish.
* * *
Sunday, June 01, 2003
If In-house Counsel Were To Ask, "What's in YOUR Wallet?"
Here's What They'd Find -- Some Big Firm Litigation Partners Try Cases to Verdict Only Once in 8 Years, On Average
Litigation Department of the Year -- The American Lawyer -- 01-02-2002
Do the math. Here's what you'll find: many big name law firms rarely take cases to verdict. Typical is firm "X" with 28 litigation partners reporting 7 cases to verdict in a two year period. That's 1 verdict per litigation partner every 8 years. Or firm "Y" with 96 litigation partners reporting 24 cases to verdict in two years -- also 1 verdict per litigation partner every 8 years. Some big name firms are slightly more active, many much less so.
TAG collapse hits 700 panel firms
UK's Legal Week reports: Claims handlers The Accident Group (TAG) [a UK TPA] has gone into administration [bankruptcy] in a development likely to affect around 700 panel law firms dealing with claimant insurance work. Jeff Zindani of Birmingham-based claimant firm Forum Law. "Now a lot of clients have been left in limbo and many of the 700 panel firms will have no other source of work."
