President Bush nominated Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, to the Supreme Court today, four days after his previous choice withdrew her nomination. The nomination is likely to please Mr. Bush’s conservative allies, whose sharp attacks on Harriet E. Miers were instrumental in prompting her […]

A Texas court agreed today that a Democratic judge should be removed from Representative Tom Delay’s criminal trial because of the judge’s contributions to Democratic candidates and causes. The decision came this afternoon after several hours of testimony in which Mr. Delay’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said that the contributions by the judge in the case,

Thirteen years have passed since the liquidators of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International began their suit against the Bank of England. The case finally came to court in January 2004. And now it has collapsed, after the two sides racked up legal bills of more than £100 million. It might not have lasted

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

When Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. accepted his nomination to the Supreme Court with President Bush standing over his shoulder like a proud father, Alito dropped an unsubtle hint that he will be tough to mess with. “I argued my first case before the Supreme Court in 1982, and I still vividly recall that day,”

After a lull in growth at the 250 largest law firms in the U.S., the pace is picking up. The annual survey by The National Law Journal shows the overall number of attorneys increased by 4.4 percent this year, compared to a paltry 1.5 percent and 1.6 percent the two prior years. And although familiar

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