Law Firms

Scotland Yard are now treating the mysterious death of former KGB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, as murder. Two weeks after he succumbed to polonium-210 poisoning, detectives have concluded he was deliberately killed. In a statement last night, the Metropolitan police said the team investigating Mr Litvinenko’s death “have reached the stage where it is felt appropriate […]

Members of big London law firms work hard and play harder. But who is the sober-suited lawyer who enjoys cross-dressing, has a fetish for latex and asks to have Jackanory stories read at bedtime? Who is the lady lawyer who likes listening to Enid Blyton while wearing rubber trousers? Legal Business, the magazine for City

Some firms looked better than others under the microscope. The 172 firms in the survey averaged a rating of 4.502 on a scale of 1 to 5. The highest-scoring firms included many familiar names–ten of the 20 best firms of 2006 scored in the top 20 last year as well, including this year’s winner, Arnall

An Irish-American law firm retained as production counsel for hit movie Borat is expected to defend the film’s makers against a $30 million legal suit filed by two Romanian villagers. They claim they were lured into appearing in the film under false pretences. The Manhattan firm of Smith Dornan Dehn came to prominence when it

Fiji’s army head, who is threatening a coup against the government, says the sooner the military acts the better. In a TV interview, Cmdr Frank Bainimarama said the army would “find ways” to make Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase resign if he refused to do so. He said he planned to appoint an interim civilian administration

The investigation into the poisoning of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former Russian K.G.B. operative, will likely broaden in coming days, Britain’s highest ranking law enforcement officer said today, and news reports said British counterterrorism officers were planning to fly to Moscow to interview witnesses. Mr. Litvinenko died Nov. 23 of radiation poisoning, and a radioactive

It seems a no-brainer that copying a DVD movie and reselling it should be illegal. But how about copying it to your iPod? Or, if you’re a professor, copying snippets of “Citizen Kane” to illustrate a point in your class? Well, the answer is “No, you can’t” on the iPod. But academics can freely capture

The Business of Law, previewed exclusively in this week’s print edition of the NBR, lifts the lid on the secretive world of lawfirm profits,giving an overview of who is doing well and who isn’t, measured against crucial indicators such as the ratio of partners to solicitors. Chapman Tripp tops the league tables of lawfirms by

The accounting firm KPMG asked a federal appeals panel yesterday to rule that a district judge could not compel the firm to pay the legal fees of former executives facing criminal charges in a tax-shelter fraud investigation. Appearing before a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a lawyer