Law Firms

The planned merger between Dewey Ballantine and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been abandoned amid wrangling over management control, ending one of the most anticipated combinations of the year. The firms’ London offices were putting on brave faces in the wake of the decision. Orrick London managing partner Martin Bartlam told The Lawyer: “We’ve always […]

State Farm, the largest U.S. home insurer, said it is close to settling hundreds of lawsuits over its payments for homes wrecked by Hurricane Katrina along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but the state said no agreement had been reached. A State Farm spokesman confirmed a report in Tuesday’s New York Times which cited lawyers briefed

Few people would regard judges as high-priests of hi-tech but they do seem to have recognised something that Daniela Cicarelli and Brazilian banker Renato Malzoni have yet to appreciate. And that is the near impossibility of trying to stop illicitly taken photos or video circulating online. As Ms Cicarelli and Mr Malzoni have learnt to

Iraq’s massive oil reserves may be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies – which could end up grabbing up to 75% of the beleagured nation’s oil profits – under a law seen coming before the Iraqi parliament within days, the Independent reported on its Web site Monday. A draft of this controversial

Prince William and Prince Harry called yesterday for the inquest into the death of their mother to be not only fair and open but swift. The princes’ call, backed by the sisters and brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, was revealed by Baroness Butler-Sloss as she began preliminary legal hearings into the content

Law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is again at the center of a massive and controversial CEO payout, representing the board of Home Depot Inc.that gave its departing boss a $210 million goodbye. Wachtell’s work for Home Depot marks the third time in recent years that it gave advice to boards during other large

Apple’s 10-K annual report — delayed to include the results of an investigation of its past stock option grant practices — last week delivered some good news for investors and fans of the company: It appears that Steve Jobs will keep his job. “The biggest question on investors’ minds was whether Jobs would lose his

US Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. devoted his annual year-end report on the state of the nation’s courts to just one issue, albeit one he said has “now reached the level of a constitutional crisis and threatens to undermine the strength and independence of the federal judiciary.” He continued: “I am talking

The “American Lawyer” list of rising litigators in the US contains a concentration of appellate, intellectual property, public interest, and products liability lawyers. Others have made a mark as criminal defenders or labor lawyers or securities specialists. All of them have worked relentlessly to get where they are. The list carries the biographies of 50