Microsoft yesterday agreed to pay $775m to settle a long-running dispute with IBM which had accused it of predatory business practices. The settlement is part of Microsoft’s continuing efforts to clear away the litigation that has dogged it for much of the past 10 years. In the past couple of years the company has paid […]

Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s departure from the high court heats up the judicial nominations battle, while also creating a political bind — and an opportunity — for President Bush and a focal point for interest groups. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor hated being called the Court’s swing vote. And she never thought

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

To gain perspective, we ran VPL numbers for the last six years and found that each of the top 15 firms this year have been in the top quintile in every year since 2000. The top isn’t the only place where firms stay in place. We found that over the six years most firms tended

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

Lovells has unveiled radical plans to help boost profitability after profit per equity partner (PEP) plunged 21 per cent at the City firm in the past financial year. The initiative, launched by Lovells managing partner David Harris, includes the introduction of a new financial system to measure the profitability of matters and clients or client

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

Many executives dream of dominating their industries the way BAR/BRI does the business of helping law school graduates prepare for bar examinations. Every law student knows BAR/BRI. Hundreds of thousands of them have taken its courses to pass the bar, an essential step in most states before a law school graduate can practice law. Some