Eliot Spitzer, New York’s attorney-general and a possible candidate for governor of New York state in 2006, has done his reputation no harm by humbling yet another financial giant. On Monday January 31st, he announced that Marsh & McLennan, the world’s biggest insurance broker, which he has hounded since the middle of 2004, is to […]

The judge in the Michael Jackson child molestation case said Tuesday he was ready to proceed to the next step in the jury selection process, saying enough potential jurors have been selected. The announcement by Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville came after a group of 250 potential jurors have been picked from about 450 people

Marsh & McLennan, America’s largest insurance brokerage company, agreed today to pay $850 million to settle charges by the New York State attorney general that it took payoffs from insurance companies to send them clients. Under the agreement, Marsh & McLennan will set up an $850 million fund to provide restitution to nationwide policyholders over

Almost half of the top 25 law firms axed dozens of their own partners in last-resort moves to cut costs and shore up profits last year. A snapshot of the UK’s corporate law industry will reveal today that the biggest firms are still struggling to raise revenues in the wake of the slowdown in corporate

With the opening of his long-awaited trial just a day away, Michael Jackson yesterday released a video statement rebutting the child molestation charges against him and condemning court transcript leaks outlining the prosecution case. “In the last few weeks, a large amount of ugly, malicious information has been released into the media about me,” the

Both are former federal prosecutors, formidable in their courtrooms. They are also fast friends, contemporaries who rose through the legal ranks in New York City during the gritty 1970’s and the more prosperous 1980’s. And, for the next few months, Denise L. Cote, 58, and Barbara S. Jones, 57, United States District Court judges in

Keker & Van Nest, a 49-lawyer firm based in San Francisco, won The American Lawyer’s first Litigation Boutique of the Year contest. Keker & Van Nest was cited for a series of litigation successes, including major cases in intellectual property, legal malpractice, and white-collar defense. In his report on the firm, senior reporter Paul Braverman

Riggs Bank pleaded guilty to a criminal violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, a U.S. anti-money laundering law, and agreed to pay $16 million for failing to report suspicious activity in accounts held by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Equatorial Guinea officials. In federal court on Thursday, Riggs also agreed to a five-year probation

With jury selection set to begin Monday, the judge in Michael Jackson’s child-molestation case is still considering whether the entertainer’s accuser should testify in public and whether jurors should see a British documentary about the pop star. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville scheduled a pretrial hearing for Friday to address those and other questions related

Bernard Ebbers, the former chief executive of WorldCom, was yesterday accused of telling “lie after lie after lie” about the telecommunication firm’s fragile finances to shore up its share price and protect his personal fortune, US federal prosecutors said yesterday. The remarks were part of opening statements in Mr Ebbers’ trial in New York. He