San Francisco-based Pillsbury Winthrop and Washington DC’s Shaw Pittman have entered merger discussions, which – if successful – would gatecrash the top 20 US firms. Shaw Pittman has been hit by a number of partner departures in the US and in London and is specifically looking to increase its size in New York. The Big […]
Duane Morris has agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to settle a legal malpractice suit brought by a former corporate executive who claimed the firm hid a serious conflict of interest from him and that he was forced into bankruptcy, where he had to sell his home and his stock interests in the company that
A former executive at Boeing, Michael M. Sears, once in line to become chief executive, was sentenced on Friday to four months in prison for his role in illegally recruiting a former top Air Force official to work for the company. Mr. Sears, 57, stood before the court and said he was ashamed of his
Delivering a magisterial closing argument, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Johnson tied the various strands of the case against Bernard J. Ebbers tightly enough to likely secure a conviction, and offered a roadmap for making cases against CEOs in other instances, as well. Thursday, it will be up to the defense to argue that the road
Britain was expected to release eight terror suspects, regarded by the government as among the most dangerous in the country, as politicians continued to squabble on Friday over new terror legislation. A judge released one suspect, a 37-year-old Algerian referred to only as “A,” on bail late on Thursday and said he intended to free
Closing a difficult chapter, Time Warner Inc. said Monday it would pay $300 million and restate three years of financial results to settle civil fraud charges stemming from its accounting of online advertising revenues and subscriber counts at its AOL unit. The settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission also calls for the world’s largest
Your phone rings. It’s Special Agent Bert Ranta. The FBI is investigating a crime ring involved in widespread identity theft. It has led to millions of dollars of credit card and loan losses for lenders, and havoc in the lives of the 10,000 victims. By identifying links between the victims, the FBI has discovered where
Italy’s top three firms last year retained their positions as the Continent’s most profitable of the 100 largest firms, with top partners at Bonelli Erede Papalardo earning a staggering £5m. Despite a slow year and a scarcity of big-ticket M&A, Bonelli secured the top spot in the profit table, with average profit per equity partner
A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to reconsider a ruling barring the government from seeking $280 billion in past profits from cigarette makers as part of its civil racketeering case against the industry. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dealt another setback to the government’s case by rejecting a request that
The potential postponement this week of the first trial against Merck over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx could be unfavourable for the US drugmaker, as plaintiffs’ attorneys push a stronger case. An Alabama state judge is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday on whether to postpone the trial originally scheduled for May 23. Both Merck
