A gay senior associate in the Los Angeles office of New York’s White & Case has sued the firm for sexual harassment and sex discrimination, claiming two male partners created a “intimidating, hostile and offensive work environment” through inappropriate comments and behavior. In a suit filed June 2 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Christopher […]
Bernard J. Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, pleaded for leniency yesterday from the judge who will sentence him for his conviction on charges of orchestrating the largest securities fraud in the nation’s history. Lawyers for Mr. Ebbers, who will be sentenced on July 13, asked the court to depart from federal guidelines when
Citigroup Inc. said on Friday it will pay $2 billion to Enron Corp. investors who accused it of helping the energy trader in a massive accounting fraud, a move that cleans up one of the bank’s top legal problems and could pressure others to settle the case. The class-action settlement with stock and bond holders
The UK magic circle had a truly ropey year in 2004. Indeed, anyone espousing the cause of the European independent firmmight have felt vindicated. Average profits at the UK/European big four slipped across the board. Clifford Chance’s average profit per equity partner (PEP) dropped from €913,000 (£644,000) to £562,000; Linklaters’ from €1m (£734,000) to £674,000;
In a defeat for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, former Bank of America Corp broker Theodore Sihpol on Thursday was acquitted by a Manhattan jury of 29 counts of helping a hedge fund trade mutual funds illegally. New York Supreme Court Justice James Yates declared a mistrial on four other counts on which the
A Justice Department decision to seek $10 billion for a stop-smoking program in its suit against the country’s leading tobacco companies, instead of the $130 billion suggested by one of its expert witnesses, set off a firestorm on Wednesday. Several Democratic lawmakers with a longtime interest in smoking and health issues attacked the department for
HealthSouth, the scandal-plagued healthcare services group, said on Wednesday it agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC sued HealthSouth in March 2003, accusing the firm of overstating profits. The settlement pact resolves that litigation only, said HealthSouth, which is involved in several other
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
The prospect of winning massive, multimillion dollar verdicts has turned the original mass tort–asbestos litigation–into the ultimate mass farce. There are now about 49,000 asbestos plaintiffs awaiting trial in Lexington, Fayette, Port Gibson, Pascagoula, and other propitious plaintiffs’ venues in Mississippi, and at least 200,000 more cases nationwide–mainly concentrated in other favorable plaintiffs’ locales sprinkled
A former Merrill Lynch lawyer who last July settled a sex discrimination case with the U.S. bank, said on Tuesday a reference it gave her was the “death knell” for her chances of getting into a prestigious U.S. business school. Elizabeth Weston, who left Merrill in March 2004, alleges she was victimised in a reference
