Law Firms

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The potential postponement this week of the first trial against Merck over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx could be unfavourable for the US drugmaker, as plaintiffs’ attorneys push a stronger case.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

A top fund-raiser for failed Republican gubernatorial nominee Jim Ryan who later was reappointed to key state posts by Gov. Blagojevich, was rousted out of bed early Monday by FBI agents and hauled into court on fraud charges alleging kickbacks, influence-peddling and insider dealing. All told, Stuart P. Levine, 59, abused his positions on the

Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, must make it easier for developers of free programs to work with Windows by June 1 or face new European antitrust charges, people familiar with the matter said. The European Commission is threatening Microsoft with fines because the company’s response to a March 2004 order doesn’t go far

The reading of the verdict in the fraud and tax evasion trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky was still continuing on May 26, and is expected to last into next week as Judge Irina Kolesnikova reads through the 1,000-page document. But no one is paying much attention to her words anymore: They repeat the prosecution’s

Hundreds of criminals accused of money laundering or handling stolen goods could be freed from prison after judges upheld the appeals of four men accused of a £171m drugs conspiracy. The ruling yesterday is expected to have wider implications for similar conspiracy cases in which the Crown has failed to show that the defendant knew

A jury convicted L. Dennis Kozlowski today of 22 of 23 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, grand larceny and falsifying records, and acquitted him on one charge. Kozlowski, former chief executive officer of Tyco, was found guilty in state Supreme Court. He was acquitted on a single count of falsifying records. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled

An Italian judge has formally charged the founder of dairy giant Parmalat and 15 other executives over their role in the financial scandal that resulted in the company’s insolvency. Three financial institutions are also facing charges in the trial, which opens Sept. 28 in Milan. CEO and founder Calisto Tanzi has been ordered to stand

Membership in a megafirm isn’t the only ticket to living high on the hog. The partners in The Am Law 200’s Second Hundred — firms number 101 to 200 on the American Lawyer’s list of the nation’s highest-grossing firms — are doing just fine, despite the fact that their average size is just 260 lawyers.