Law Firms

With its massive structured finance practice, layoffs at Cadwalader were not a matter of if, but when. The hard-nosed firm is reaping the credit crunch whirlwind. The only truly surprising aspect of the redundancies announced this month by Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft was that it took so long. The market had been waiting for weeks. […]

Jose Padilla, a Brooklyn-born convert to Islam who became one of the first Americans designated “an enemy combatant,” was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison by a federal judge in Miami on Tuesday for his conviction on charges that he conspired to help Islamic terrorists around the world. The judge also sentenced

Hundreds of barristers are boycotting new legal aid contracts which must be signed by today, in a move which could leave defendants charged with the most serious crimes, including complex fraud, terrorism and murder, without proper representation. Barristers say most of the 2,300 chosen for panels to represent defendants in very high cost cases (VHCC)

Lawyers have long believed that the rule of law is society’s anchor to stability in a troubled and chaotic world. It is a truism, moreover–especially in this digital age of globalization–that when the rule of law is undermined anywhere in the world, it is imperiled everywhere in the world. The year just past, 2007, was

Pakistani security agents have arrested a youth who said he had been trained as a suicide bomber to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto had other militants failed to kill her, in the first arrests in the case, a security official said. The 15-year-old and his militant “handler” were arrested in the northwestern town of Dera

Police investigators searched the car and cell phones of two men who survived the San Francisco Zoo tiger attack but won’t say if any evidence was found. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens confirmed that investigators were still reviewing the cell phone images taken by Paul and Kulbir Dhaliwal at

The companies who produce the popular word game Scrabble are trying to close down an online version called Scrabulous. The online version is one of the most used applications on Facebook, a social-networking website. The Los Angeles Times reports that Hasbro Inc., which owns the rights to the crossword game in the U.S. and Canada,

Diana, Princess of Wales, and the Fayed family must have appeared to the British Establishment to be an alliance made in Hell, it was suggested at her inquest yesterday. Not only was the mother of a future king conducting a high-profile campaign against the manufacture and use of landmines – many supplied by the British

An angry judge doubled O.J. Simpson’s bail to $250,000 on Wednesday for violating terms of his original bail by attempting to contact a co-defendant in his armed robbery case. Simpson, clad in jail attire, grimaced as the amount was announced and meekly acknowledged that he understood. “I don’t know Mr. Simpson what the heck you

The U.S. Supreme Court put new limits on shareholder suits against a company’s banks and business partners in a ruling that may thwart efforts to recoup billions of dollars lost in frauds at Enron Corp. and HealthSouth Corp. The justices, voting 5-3, threw out a lawsuit by Charter Communications Inc. investors against two of its