Law.com's weekly US Briefing brings you the pick of this week’s news, analysis and comment from the States
O'Melveny's $12m cash cow: New Century sub-prime lending case
The Recorder
At O'Melveny & Myers, the white-collar lawyers representing bankrupt sub-prime lender New Century Financial Corporation had a busy - and lucrative - September. Faced with subpoenas from both the Justice Department and the SEC, the firm's government investigations team billed more than 4,000 hours that month. With the sub-prime detonation still mushrooming over the country and white-collar practitioners expecting more government investigations, these kinds of fees could be rolling into many firms soon.
Cadwalader laying off 35 in wake of slumping markets
The New York Law Journal
Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft announced Thursday it was laying off 35 lawyers in the face of slumping credit markets. It's not the first law firm to announce cutbacks in the face of the slowdown but it's arguably the most prominent. The firm's practice advising on the issuance of mortgage-backed securities helped catapult it to the top of the profession's profitability charts in recent years. Litigation department head Gregory Markel said Cadwalader was confident there would be no more layoffs.
Tort reform group blasts PI lawyers' online 'trolling' for clients
Legal Times
In its latest critique of personal injury attorneys, the American Tort Reform Association is calling a study by the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest "evidence that the personal injury bar's brazen trolling for clients" on the internet is taking an "increasingly negative toll on society". The study found that people seeking medical advice often receive unreliable information from online sources, including litigation sites. The American Association for Justice calls the study "laughable at best".
Legal profession Is top contributor of campaign 'bundlers'
The National Law Journal
Lawyers and law firms contributed the most 'bundlers' of any industry in the 2008 election for most of the presidential campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington DC organisation that tracks federal elections. Bundlers are fundraisers who bring in a specific amount of money for a particular candidate. They have been particularly important during the 2008 presidential election, which has attracted significant sums of money despite limits on campaign contributions.
Attorneys expect fewer deals as markets face uncertainty
The New York Law Journal
After a record year for M&A, activity will dip this year due to a decline in transactions, corporate attorneys predict. "It is hard to be an optimist," Sullivan & Cromwell chairman Rodgin Cohen said. "The markets hate uncertainty and we are in an uncertain time." Attorneys hope that an increase in transactions by foreign companies and funds will continue. But they admit that these types of deals will not be enough to compensate for growing economic problems.
San Francisco Bay Area law firms float on turbulent waters
The Recorder
A rough economy in late 2007 killed a lot of the M&A and corporate work that had powered 2006, but leading San Francisco Bay Area firms say global presence and a balance of practices helped insulate them from the downturn. Despite the sub-prime mortgage crisis and resulting credit crunch, most of the Bay Area law firms that have released financial data so far showed solid increases in revenue and profitability in 2007, according to The Recorder's annual survey of California firm finances.
Sullivan & Cromwell countersued by e-discovery vendor
The New York Law Journal
Sullivan & Cromwell has taken its battle with Electronic Evidence Discovery to state Supreme Court in Manhattan while the Kirkland, Wa.-based e-discovery vendor has filed its own suit in state court in Seattle, claiming the New York law firm owes it almost $720,000 for services rendered plus interest. Sullivan & Cromwell first sued EED last month in the Southern District of New York, alleging the company had consistently missed deadlines and prepared the wrong documents for production to opposing counsel.
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