Nortel Networks Corp. said on Wednesday it has agreed in principle to pay $2.47 billion to settle two class-action lawsuits stemming from an accounting scandal that has rocked the telecommunications equipment supplier. Nortel said it wanted a settlement so that it could focus on rebuilding its business. It was hit with the lawsuits from shareholders […]

American International Group Inc., the world’s largest insurer, probably will announce a $1.6 billion settlement of U.S. state and federal regulatory investigations later today, people familiar with the matter said. The agreement would resolve New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s allegations that AIG used sham reinsurance contracts to hide losses and understate liabilities, two people

Lawyers for a death row inmate, including former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr, sent fake letters from jurors asking California’s governor to spare the man’s life, prosecutors said Friday. The jurors denied they thought Michael Morales deserved clemency because some of the testimony at his trial may have been fabricated, said Nathan Barankin, spokesman for

Lost in the hum of daily routine deep in the Eighth Avenue beehive of white-shoe law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore Feb. 13 was the insertion of pale-blue interoffice envelopes into the mailboxes of the firm’s 350-odd associates. The spare memorandum inside contained news that might have set your average drone abuzz: They were getting

Alex Kozinski, a federal appeals court judge in California, was a little miffed last year when a blog called Underneath Their Robes, a dishy hybrid of People magazine and The Harvard Law Review, failed to list him as a candidate for “male superhottie of the federal judiciary.” So he nominated himself (“discerning females and gay

Sullivan & Cromwell has kicked off the year-end bonus season by informing associates they will receive additional compensation starting at $30,000 for first-years and ranging up to $50,000 for senior associates. The bonus, which pushes total first-year compensation to $155,000, is unchanged from last year, a fact likely to disappoint many associates, especially since bonuses

Holland & Knight, which has long been Florida’s largest law firm and the nation’s eighth biggest, will exit four markets next year, consolidating offices in three metro areas and reducing its work force by about 50 lawyers and 70 support staff members. Among the markets targeted for consolidation is the Tampa Bay area, where Holland’s

Linklaters, SJ Berwin, Macfarlanes and Diageo’s legal team were among the big winners at the 2005 Legal Week Awards. Linklaters was named International Firm of the Year with Legal Week’s editorial team citing a year of international expansion, impressive financial performance and slick management. SJ Berwin narrowly beat the highly-rated Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) to