AP - The Associated Press, reporters groups and advocates for press freedoms urged the Supreme Court on Friday to reject Bush administration arguments that people held by the military in Iraq have no access to American courts.
A Massachusetts U.S. District Court judge fined Medtronic Sofamor Danek Inc. and related companies $10 million for the behavior of its trial lawyers at Dewey & LeBoeuf while fighting a patent case brought by DePuy Spine Inc. Senior District Judge Edward F. Harrington also ordered Medtronic Sofamor, which makes spinal implant devices, to pay some of the plaintiffs’ attorney fees.
Lawyers in the United States have been captivated in recent months by the images of Pakistani lawyers taking to the streets to protest what they consider a constitutional crisis as President Pervez Musharraf took a series of steps to seize control of the country’s courts. But few American lawyers truly understand the struggle of the Pakistani lawyers, many of whom believe the crisis has been prolonged and exacerbated by a U.S. policy toward Pakistan.
Allen & Overy has confirmed that managing partner David Morley will replace Guy Beringer as senior partner, with Belgian managing partner Wim Dejonghe taking over from Morley as firmwide managing partner. Morley has long been predicted as Beringer’s successor and was up against global head of corporate Richard Cranfield for the post. Dejonghe fought London finance partner and former capital markets head Boyan Wells, who sits on Allen & Overy’s management board, to win the hotly contested position.
Some of the U.K.’s leading law firms are having to push back their long-awaited launches in Abu Dhabi due to delays in receiving their licenses from local authorities. The move comes as a growing number of firms rush to the region amid increasing pressure from local clients, including coveted sovereign wealth funds, to launch offices in Abu Dhabi as well as Dubai.
A federal judge in Los Angeles has refused to grant four out of the five dismissal motions filed by Milberg Weiss in the federal government’s kickback case. Prosecutors allege that Milberg Weiss and seven of its partners, including its founding partner, Melvyn Weiss, generated $250 million in attorney fees by paying illegal kickbacks to name plaintiffs. In January, Milberg Weiss filed motions to dismiss several of those claims.
On March 3, Chicago-based McDermott Will & Emery will open a Houston office staffed by three energy lawyers from Houston firm Bracewell & Giuliani, making it the 15th office for the 1,170-lawyer firm. Washington, D.C., partner Paul Pantano, head of McDermott’s energy practice, says he has had an interest in a Houston office for several years because Houston is the center of the nation’s energy business. In addition, Pantano says McDermott sees an opportunity to build its M&A and IP practices in Houston.
A Philadelphia jury has awarded $12 million to a woman with terminal breast cancer in her suit against two doctors for allegedly failing to diagnose the disease before it had progressed to an incurable stage. The woman’s attorney said one of the doctors had settled before trial, and that the jury concluded that the settling doctor was 35 percent responsible for the failure to diagnose. As a result, the plaintiff stands to recover 65 percent of the verdict, or $7.8 million, from the nonsettling doctor.
A judge has denied an aspiring model’s request to keep her identity hidden in her sexual battery suit against basketball star Jason Kidd. The woman’s desire to avoid “embarrassment” is a “plainly insufficient” ground for invoking New York Civil Rights Law 50-b, the judge held. Using fictitious names “runs afoul” of the public’s right of access to judicial proceedings, and anonymity should be restricted to situations where a plaintiff faces a “risk of retaliatory physical or mental harm,” the judge said.
In a case being watched by advocates for patients with anorexia and bulimia, a federal judge has ruled that class action lawyers can pursue an attempt to compel Aetna to improve benefits for eating disorder victims. The ruling will likely serve as a guide in a similar case against Horizon Blue Cross of New Jersey. The crucial issue in both cases is whether eating disorders are biologically based mental illnesses for which insureds are entitled to a higher level of coverage than for purely mental conditions.