Law.com's weekly US Briefing brings you the pick of this week’s news, analysis and comment from the States
The American Lawyer
Not since 2002 has the business environment been so grim. And as hard as it is to close a headline-grabbing deal while the economy is flush, the challenge is even greater in tough times. Rescuing deals in distress takes creative solutions. The American Lawyer's annual Dealmakers of the Year report shines a spotlight on lawyers who played pivotal roles in some of 2007's biggest, most creative and most noteworthy transactions. Read on for more about the deals that put them at the top of the list.
Chevron slow to announce hire of controversial Pentagon GC...
Corporate Counsel
When a company recruits a prominent government official, it's usually eager to put the word out. But Chevron took more than a month to publicly confirm that it had hired William "Jim" Haynes II, the controversial former GC of the Pentagon. Chevron officials say that they didn't make a big deal of Haynes' hiring because they didn't think it was newsworthy. Haynes, however, is very much a man in the news, drawing fire for his role in developing the Bush administration's detainee interrogation policies.
...as Bush lawyers seek the next soft landing
Legal Times
A cavalcade of stars has exited the Bush administration in recent months, such as the Justice Department's Rachel Brand, who jumped to Wilmer, and Peter Keisler, who went to Sidley. Firms around town are also preparing to open their wallets to get remaining lawyers like Solicitor General Paul Clement, who previously headed King & Spalding's appellate practice. Legal recruiters estimate that top picks like Clement could fetch as much as $2m or even $3m.
$412m in attorney fees awarded to plaintiffs lawyers in Fen-Phen litigation
The Legal Intelligencer
Attorney fees of more than $412m were awarded on Monday (7 April) to plaintiffs lawyers from more than 70 firms for their work on the massive fen-phen diet-drug litigation, marking the beginning of the end of the "super-mega-fund" class action. Chief US District Judge Harvey Bartle said the case was "nothing short of a herculean effort", noting that plaintiffs lawyers had logged more than 578,000 hours - or the equivalent of almost 66 years of "around-the-clock work on this litigation".
As deals plummet, law firms focus on new opportunities
New York Law Journal
As credit woes choke off leveraged deals, New York attorneys say their firms increasingly are focused on other opportunities -- transactions involving foreign investors, sovereign wealth funds and corporations making strategic acquisitions with stock and/or cash. Thomson Financial reported last week that the value of worldwide announced acquisitions had declined 24 percent in the first three months of the year, compared to the same period in 2007. The sudden nose-dive followed a record-setting year.
NY State chief judge sues state to secure judicial pay hike
New York Law Journal
Stymied for a fourth straight fiscal year in securing a pay raise for New York state court judges, Chief Judge Judith Kaye sued the Legislature and Governor David Paterson on Thursday (10 April) to force the first judicial salary increase in New York since 1999. In a message to 1,300 judges, Kaye and Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau said the exclusion of a pay raise in the budget adopted on Wednesday left them "with no choice but to take legal action to address this intolerable situation".
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