Lists of possible witnesses were read to the pool of potential jurors in the Michael Jackson child molestation case Monday — including basketball star Kobe Bryant, actress Elizabeth Taylor and family members of Jackson’s accuser as potential defense witnesses. Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau read more than 100 names, including “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, singer […]

McDonalds agreed yesterday to pay $8.5 million to settle two lawsuits accusing it of misleading consumers about the levels of trans fat in its food. McDonald’s will pay $7 million to the American Heart Association to finance a campaign educating consumers about trans fats, which are considered major contributors to heart disease. In October 2003,

Lynne Stewart, an outspoken lawyer known for aggressively defending a long list of unpopular clients, has been convicted by a federal jury in Manhattan of aiding Islamic terrorism by smuggling messages out of jail from a terrorist client. . Stewart was convicted Thursday on all five counts of providing material aid to terrorism and of

San Francisco-based Pillsbury Winthrop and Washington, D.C.-based Shaw Pittman announced Wednesday that they intend to merge, creating a 900-lawyer giant with national reach and global ambitions. The two firms signed a letter of intent Monday and said they expect the deal to be ratified by partners in March and finalized by April 4. If that

Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay $375 million to settle charges of late trading and market timing actions in some mutual funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday. The settlement includes $125 million in penalties and $250 million in restitution, which will be distributed to the mutual funds and their shareholders who

The former finance chief of WorldCom Inc. testified on Tuesday that Bernard Ebbers, as CEO, had pressured him every quarter to meet Wall Street earnings estimates, repeatedly telling him “to hit the numbers.” In his second day of testifying as the prosecution’s star witness against Ebbers, Scott Sullivan recounted a series of conversations with his

Silicon Valley and Manhattan law firms descended on Boston in December, throwing money at the hotshot talent fleeing the country’s premier high-technology law firm, Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, as it was unraveling. Goodwin Procter, whose top partners earn over $1 million a year, could offer them money too. But the Boston firm had something more:

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

White House counsel Alberto Gonzales won U.S. Senate confirmation on Thursday as the nation’s next attorney general, but recorded the second highest number of “no” votes for a successful nominee for the post. The Republican-led Senate rejected Democrats’ complaints that he helped craft policies that contributed to the torture of foreign detainees and approved him

Would-be jurors in the Michael Jackson trial were asked in writing if they knew about past or current accusations of child sex abuse against the pop star and for their feelings about people of different races. A copy of the 41-question, seven-page questionnaire that was given to jury candidates earlier this week was made public