Former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr has filed, on behalf of seven plaintiffs from across the state, a lawsuit challenging state and local incentives given to Dell Inc. to convince the company to invest $100 million in a 1,500-employee computer manufacturing plant in southeast Winston-Salem. Orr, now executive director of the Raleigh-based N.C. Institute […]
Reed Smith is in merger talks with Chicago litigation and IP specialist Wildman Harrold in a deal that would create a 1,200-lawyer firm, Legal Week can reveal, in the latest merger bid to hit the consolidating US legal market. Sources at Reed Smith confirmed the talks, which are at an early stage. A successful tie-up
A federal appeals court said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission must produce a cost-benefit analysis to justify a rule that boards of mutual funds must have an independent chairman and at least 75 percent of directors who are independent. The ruling, by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
A federal judge has declined to dismiss a civil suit brought by a husband and wife who claim that Sidley Austin Brown & Wood and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., offered a tax shelter the firms knew would be challenged by the Internal Revenue Service. Southern District Judge Shira Scheindlin said William and Sharon Seippel’s complaint
The most famous ketchup stain in London has claimed its first victim. Richard Phillips, the City lawyer whose suit was soiled by the misdirected tomato sauce, has resigned from his position, it was announced yesterday. Mr Phillips, 36, had decided to take a “long-planned” study break from work as the spillage continued to exercise the
Last year, Tsan Abrahamson jumped from her post as worldwide IP and licensing counsel at LeapFrog Enterprises Inc. to start her own firm focused on sweepstakes and trademark law. Now she’s getting reinforcements. Katherine Spelman, a partner at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary, joined the firm last week, along with Deborah Davis Han, a former
It may be a specialty niche, but itsn’t specialties the way forward for small law firms? Read More »
It was likely the final chapter in a story that has troubled a generation. On the 41st anniversary of the disappearance of three young, idealistic civil rights workers near here, a jury pronounced Edgar Ray Killen guilty today of three counts of manslaughter in their deaths. Mr. Killen, 80, sat in a wheelchair, the thin
Plans to abolish juries in complex fraud trials do not amount to a general attack on jury trial, the Attorney General insisted today. Lord Goldsmith QC unveiled plans to enact a change in the law which was passed by Parliament more than 18 months ago. It will allow a single judge to sit on complex
John J. Rigas, who built the Adelphia Communications Corporation into the country’s sixth-largest cable company, was sentenced to 15 years of prison today for looting hundreds of millions of dollars from the company’s coffers and concealing its true debt load from investors. John Rigas, the founder of Adelphia Communications, entering court today. “Even to this
A federal judge overseeing the Justice Department’s lengthy civil racketeering trial against major cigarette makers called both sides to a closed-door meeting on Monday. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler did not publicly disclose the reason for the meeting or whether mediation talks would take place. A Justice Department spokesman said he could not comment on
