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Trials
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August 06, 2024
Girardi Used Client Funds As 'Personal Piggy Bank,' Jury Told
The prosecution and defense painted starkly different portraits of Tom Girardi during opening statements Tuesday in the disbarred attorney's criminal fraud trial, with a California federal prosecutor saying Girardi stole millions from vulnerable clients while his lawyer described him as an "old man" losing his memory and exploited by an underling.
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August 06, 2024
7th Circ. Rejects Lion Air Families' Bid For Boeing Jury Trial
The Seventh Circuit ruled Tuesday that a more-than-century-old law governing fatal accidents on the high seas does not allow two remaining victims' estates suing Boeing over 2018's Lion Air crash to demand a jury trial.
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August 06, 2024
4 Takeaways From Landmark Google Search Ruling
A landmark ruling in D.C. federal court Monday found that Google illegally maintains its search engine monopoly, and experts say the case could have broad implications for the company as well as the wider internet and shows how existing antitrust laws can apply to modern technology.
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August 06, 2024
AstraZeneca Can't Duck $107.5M Patent Loss To Pfizer Unit
An Illinois federal judge on Tuesday refused to upend a jury's determination that AstraZeneca owes $107.5 million in royalty damages for infringing Pfizer-brand cancer treatment patents, rejecting AstraZeneca's arguments that the patents are unenforceable and the asserted claims are invalid.
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August 06, 2024
Ill. Jury Hits Cop With $22.5M Wrongful Conviction Verdict
An Illinois federal jury awarded $22.5 million on Monday to the estate of a man who served 22 years in prison for a 1995 arson-murder he was later acquitted of committing.
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August 06, 2024
Feds Say Bid-Rigging Bros. Aren't Owed New Trial
Federal prosecutors moved Monday to block two brothers' bids for a new trial after they were convicted last month of involvement in a coastal Georgia concrete bid-rigging and price-fixing scheme, telling a judge a few offhand remarks from witnesses can't topple the mountain of evidence behind the guilty verdict.
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August 06, 2024
Possible Juror Naps Don't Tank Conviction, Conn. Justices Rule
A man's murder conviction and 65-year prison sentence will stand despite his protests that the trial judge should have intervened more strongly when a juror seemed to fall asleep several times on the first day of testimony, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
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August 06, 2024
NYC Prof Found Guilty Of Acting As A Secret Chinese Spy
A Brooklyn federal jury on Tuesday unanimously convicted an academic and author of secretly acting as an agent of the Chinese government by feeding information about Chinese dissidents and pro-democracy activists to China's intel service, following a weeklong jury trial, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
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August 06, 2024
Ex-Pfizer Worker Who Traded On Paxlovid Secrets Gets 9 Mos.
A Manhattan federal judge sentenced a former Pfizer Inc. statistician from New Jersey to nine months in prison Tuesday after a jury convicted him of insider trading on secrets about his former company's COVID-19 therapy trials for an illegal $272,000 profit.
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August 06, 2024
'Rust' Prosecutor Says Confused Judge Tossed Baldwin Case
A New Mexico prosecutor has denied hiding exculpatory evidence or lying under oath during Alec Baldwin's botched trial in the "Rust" shooting, contending in a court filing that a confused judge wrongly threw out involuntary manslaughter charges against the actor.
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August 06, 2024
Exxon Assistant GC Jumps To Duane Morris As Trial Partner
A longtime attorney at Exxon Mobil Corp. has made the move from in-house to private practice at Duane Morris LLP to begin the next chapter of his career.
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August 06, 2024
Feds Say Marathon Bomber Can't Oust Judge Amid Retrial Bid
Federal prosecutors said lawyers for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev misconstrued a local rule in seeking a different judge to consider his bid for a new sentencing trial.
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August 06, 2024
NC Software Execs Can't Unravel Payroll Tax Fraud Conviction
Two former software executives found guilty of failing to pay over $600,000 in employment taxes failed to clear a steep hurdle in trying to reverse their convictions, a North Carolina federal judge said in rejecting their bid for acquittal or a new trial.
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August 05, 2024
DOJ Wants Google Held Accountable For Deleted Chats
The U.S. Department of Justice has told the Virginia federal court overseeing the government's case accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology the company needs to be held accountable for implementing policies that destroyed evidence.
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August 05, 2024
$96M Award Cut To $34M After Justices' Lanham Act Ruling
An Oklahoma federal judge on Monday reduced a $96 million trademark infringement award that went to the U.S. Supreme Court to about $34.4 million after justices concluded last year the Lanham Act applies only to domestic conduct in commerce.
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August 05, 2024
Justices Reject Missouri's Bid To Block Trump's NY Gag Order
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an effort by Missouri's Republican attorney general to lift convicted former President Donald Trump's gag order on First Amendment grounds and delay sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case until after the general election.
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August 05, 2024
Ex-Virgin Islands Premier Gets 11 Years For Drug Conspiracy
A Florida federal judge on Monday sentenced the former premier of the British Virgin Islands to more than 11 years in prison after a jury convicted him of charges related to a conspiracy to smuggle cocaine from South America to the U.S. following a trial earlier this year.
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August 05, 2024
Pegasystems Slams Appian's 'Animus' After $2B Verdict Axed
Business software maker Pegasystems says rival Appian's "animus" is behind a series of what it says are irrelevant, premature and burdensome discovery requests, after a Virginia appeals court vacated a $2 billion trade secrets judgment against Pegasystems.
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August 05, 2024
GSK Wins Second Ill. Trial On Zantac Cancer Claims
A Chicago jury held Monday that GlaxoSmithKline is not liable for a woman's colorectal cancer, handing the drugmaker a second straight trial victory in hundreds of Illinois suits targeting Zantac heartburn medication and its generic counterparts.
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August 05, 2024
Mattel Beats $46M Contract Suit Over Reality Show Idea
A California jury has entered a verdict for Mattel Inc. in a $46 million contract suit brought against it by the company of "Lone Survivor" producer Norton Herrick alleging that the toy-maker stole its idea for a reality show in which inventors pitch toys to child judges, concluding there was no contract breach.
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August 05, 2024
Deficient Defense Warrants New Trial, Mich. Panel Says
A split Michigan appellate panel has given a second chance at trial to a man accused of evading and resisting arrest, with judges finding his defense counsel was deficient in his first trial — failing to object to prosecutors' presentation of an unredacted warrant and assertion he is "a criminal."
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August 05, 2024
Girardi's Defense May Stand On His Deteriorating Mind
Although a federal judge ruled disbarred lawyer Tom Girardi mentally competent to stand trial this month for wire fraud, the 85-year-old's defense team may use his dementia diagnosis to attack prosecutors' allegations he knowingly and intentionally stole millions of dollars from his clients, experts said.
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August 05, 2024
Google Abused Monopoly Over Search Market, Court Finds
A D.C. federal judge ruled on Monday that Google is a monopolist in the general search market and has violated antitrust law by paying billions of dollars to make its search engine the default on devices made by Apple, Samsung and others.
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August 05, 2024
Meet The Attorneys In Tom Girardi's Criminal Fraud Trial
When Tom Girardi's criminal fraud trial gets underway this week, the notorious disbarred attorney will be facing a team of seasoned federal prosecutors who've convicted several former Los Angeles City Council members, a sitting U.S. congressman, insider traders, Ponzi schemers and con artists who bilked millions from their victims.
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August 05, 2024
Yes Pain, Yes Gain, Fla. Court Rules In Hot Tub Burn Suit
A Florida appeals court said a trial judge should have overruled a jury's decision to award zero damages for a man's pain and suffering in a suit over a hotel's scalding hot tub water that gave him second-degree burns, saying there was undisputed evidence he experienced pain.
Expert Analysis
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Lower Courts May Finally Be Getting The Memo After Ciminelli
A year after the U.S. Supreme Court again limited prosecutors' overbroad theories of fraud in Ciminelli v. U.S., early returns suggest that the message has at least partially landed with the lower courts, spotlighting lessons for defense counsel moving forward, says Kenneth Notter at MoloLamken.
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After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1
The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.
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Recruitment Trends In Emerging Law Firm Frontiers
BigLaw firms are facing local recruitment challenges as they increasingly establish offices in cities outside of the major legal hubs, requiring them to weigh various strategies for attracting talent that present different risks and benefits, says Tom Hanlon at Buchanan Law.
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Series
Glassblowing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
I never expected that glassblowing would strongly influence my work as an attorney, but it has taught me the importance of building a solid foundation for your work, learning from others and committing to a lifetime of practice, says Margaret House at Kalijarvi Chuzi.
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3 Surprising Deposition Dangers Attorneys Must Heed
Attorneys often do not think of discovery as a particularly risky phase of litigation, but counsel must closely heed some surprisingly strict and frequently overlooked requirements before, during and after depositions that can lead to draconian consequences, says Nate Sabri at Perkins Coie.
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Money, Money, Money: Limiting White Collar Wealth Evidence
As courts increasingly recognize that allowing unfettered evidence of wealth could prejudice a jury against a defendant, white collar defense counsel should consider several avenues for excluding visual evidence of a lavish lifestyle at trial, says Jonathan Porter at Husch Blackwell.
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How Associates Can Build A Professional Image
As hybrid work arrangements become the norm in the legal industry, early-career attorneys must be proactive in building and maintaining a professional presence in both physical and digital settings, ensuring that their image aligns with their long-term career goals, say Lana Manganiello at Equinox Strategy Partners and Estelle Winsett at Estelle Winsett Professional Image Consulting.
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Firms Must Rethink How They Train New Lawyers In AI Age
As law firms begin to use generative artificial intelligence to complete lower-level legal tasks, they’ll need to consider new ways to train summer associates and early-career attorneys, keeping in mind the five stages of skill acquisition, says Liisa Thomas at Sheppard Mullin.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing
When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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Series
Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer
There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.
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Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians
Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.
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Updated Federal Rules Can Improve Product Liability MDLs
The recent amendment of a federal evidence rule regarding expert testimony and the proposal of a civil rule on managing early discovery in multidistrict legislation hold great promise for promoting the uniform and efficient processes that high-stakes product liability cases particularly need, say Alan Klein and William Heaston at Duane Morris.
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Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent
As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.
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9th Circ. Ruling Shows Lies Must Go To Nature Of Bargain
The Ninth Circuit’s recent U.S. v. Milheiser decision, vacating six mail fraud convictions, clarifies that the key question in federal fraud cases is not whether lies were told, but what they were told about — thus requiring defense counsel to rethink their strategies, say Charles Kreindler and Krista Landis at Sheppard Mullin.
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Opinion
New Guidance On Guilty Plea Withdrawals Is Long Past Due
In light of the Sentencing Reform Act's 40th anniversary, adding a new section to the accompanying guidelines on the withdrawal of guilty pleas could remedy the lack of direction in this area and improve the regulation's effectiveness in promoting sentencing uniformity, say Mark H. Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Alan Ellis at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.