Business software maker Oracle accused rival SAP on Monday of knowingly buying and then embracing an illegal operation set up to steal Oracle’s products and customers. The allegations emerged in new documents filed in a federal fraud case that Oracle brought against SAP last year in San Francisco. Oracle claims that SAP executives were aware of and even contemplated covering up alleged illegal activities by TomorrowNow, a SAP subsidiary. The Justice Department has also been investigating Oracle’s claims.
Last week the 4th Circuit ruled that the city of Fredericksburg, Va., acted properly in banning a member of its city council from invoking the name of Jesus Christ in prayers at the start of meetings. Two Hunton & Williams litigators, Robert Rolfe and Terence Rasmussen, talked to the Am Law Daily about the experience of arguing the case on behalf of People for the American Way — in front of a three-judge panel that included retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O′Connor.
Big Atlanta law firms are seeing a decidedly peachy future in Silicon Valley. Just six months after King & Spalding opened its doors in the tech capital, another Atlanta-based firm, Alston & Bird, is set to do the same. A group of Silicon Valley IP lawyers leaving Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is planning to join Alston & Bird pending a partnership vote, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The ex-Sullivan & Cromwell associate who brought a highly publicized sexual orientation discrimination suit against his former firm has been hired by Clifford Chance. Aaron B. Charney will join the British law firm′s New York office as a fifth-year mergers and acquisitions associate. Charney’s ability to land another law firm position after being involved in such a high-profile suit against his former firm suggests such litigation may no longer be career suicide, provided the lawyer has desirable skills.
First, the D.C. Circuit said sleep qualified as a “major life activity.” Now sex is on the list. That is, disabilities that promote sleeplessness or the inability to have sex are covered by the Rehabilitation Act, the anti-discrimination law for federal employees, the court ruled. Lawyers say the rulings open the door for a host of new discrimination
claims and will add ballast to cases that hinge on plaintiffs′ ability to prove that their disabilities substantially interfere with their everyday lives.
Business software maker Oracle accused rival SAP on Monday of knowingly buying and then embracing an illegal operation set up to steal Oracle’s products and customers. The allegations emerged in new documents filed in a federal fraud case that Oracle brought against SAP last year in San Francisco. Oracle claims that SAP executives were aware of and even contemplated covering up alleged illegal activities by TomorrowNow, a SAP subsidiary. The Justice Department has also been investigating Oracle’s claims.
It is a cliche to say that in-house lawyers and their private practice counterparts see things differently, but anyone who believes that the modern profession is overcoming the client/adviser divide should simply discuss conflicts. A reminder of how great the gap is on this sensitive matter comes from a recent decision by JPMorgan to stop using Linklaters, one of its key firms, over a piece of litigation.
Kilpatrick Stockton’s IT team takes a multipronged approach to a greener law firm, with Web and videoconferencing to reduce travel; a software-based cost recovery system; systems to manage copiers, printers and scanners and other hardware; server virtualization; and e-billing.
Many law school deans are upset about the recent announcement by that it is seriously considering revising its law school rankings methodology to treat part-time students′ entering credentials (LSAT score and undergraduate grade-point average) no differently from full-time students. Case Western Reserve University School of Law Dean Gary Simson proposes law schools say “enough″ to the magazine because of its “shortcomings in its methodology” among other things.
Professional coach/psychotherapist James Dolan sees it quite often: lawyers who say they′re going to do what they want with their life when they retire. Dolan calls it Preparing to Live Syndrome, and it causes suffering, depression, anxiety and may require medication. The sufferer sees life as an endless chain of meaningless experiences that lack passion but that he must tolerate, because those experiences lead to some future point when all will come together. Dolan explains what actions lawyers can take.