The Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement chief assured a congressional panel Friday that his agency has widened its investigation into Bank of America and is examining “all aspects” of its controversial January merger with Merrill Lynch & Co., including Merrill’s spiraling fourth-quarter losses last year. “This is a test case, with industrywide implications, where what [...]

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Rumors that many Wolf Block attorneys may have carved out a deal to join Cozen O’Connor before the firm’s dissolution vote have caused ire among some Wolf Block attorneys and caused many in the community to describe the deal as the merger the two firms couldn’t get done in previous attempts. Leadership at both firms [...]

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Skadden Arps’ Washington, D.C., office and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s U.S. offices confirmed layoffs last week. Due to economic reasons, Skadden’s D.C. office cut 25 staff positions and Gibson Dunn laid off 36 staff members across its nine U.S. offices. Also, 11 Skadden attorneys have left for new boutique Buckley Sandler, which was co-founded [...]

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Fox Rothschild is continuing its traditional growth model of picking up small groups of attorneys in new markets as it prepares to open a Stamford, Conn., office April 1 with attorneys from the Dreier firm, which declared bankruptcy in mid-December. The move is considered an acquisition of Pastore Osterberg, a firm founded by attorneys who [...]

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Clifford Chance has laid off 24 transactional attorneys in New York, and Boston-based Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge has laid off about 25 lawyers and 35 staffers across six offices in response to declining legal work during the recession. The London-based Clifford Chance also said it is deferring the start dates of 50 law school [...]

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With more information conveyed and stored in electronic form, IT professionals and senior managers are grappling with how to implement best practices to manage company data through dissolutions, divestitures, mergers, acquisitions and reductions in force. Attorneys Regina A. Jytyla and R. Jason Straight explore solutions to common data-management quandaries and offer a few simple steps [...]

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In the midst of the toughest job market in anyone’s memory, numerous law firms seem to be eyeing attorneys from the dissolving Wolf Block. Deals are already being struck, with the president of Cozen O’Connor saying on Thursday that his firm, a former potential merger partner of Wolf Block’s, had signed up several groups, including [...]

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The federal trial of two lawyers in Kentucky for allegedly bilking clients out of millions of dollars from a class action settlement over the fen-phen diet drug will continue after a judge refused to grant a mistrial. The threat of a mistrial arose last week when the attorney representing defendant William Gallion became ill with [...]

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A former acting New York state tax commissioner is accused of manipulating the civil service system so she and nine other attorneys could shift from at-will jobs to tenured civil service positions as former Gov. George Pataki’s administration ended. The inspector general’s office said Barbara Billet’s abuse of the system was the “most egregious example” [...]

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Federal Rule of Evidence 502 was intended to provide a remedy for the increasing costs of protecting privilege. But will it reap the cost savings intended, and if so, how? The answer lies in the willingness of litigants to take advantage of the rule’s protections, which, if used strategically, may help alleviate much of the [...]

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McCarter & English has poached a 12-member life sciences team — eight attorneys and four patent agents — from Boston IP boutique Lahive & Cockfield. The group will expand McCarter’s life sciences expertise in New England, said McCarter’s intellectual property/information technology practice chairman. Nine of the 12 group members leaving Lahive, which is known for [...]

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The Chicago law firm Arnstein & Lehr is absorbing the seven-lawyer, Coral Gables, Fla.-based Fieldstone Shear & Denberg as of April 1, expanding its presence in that southern state. Arnstein & Lehr will have 143 attorneys after the addition, including 50 in Florida, with the bulk of the new attorneys joining the firm’s Miami office.

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Many young attorneys and soon-to-be attorneys are grappling with the fallout of the abysmal economy, facing delayed start dates or worse. Some firms have trimmed back or eliminated their 2009 summer associate programs and rescinded 3L job offers. And a few firms have extended offers to current associates to leave for a year and work [...]

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On Friday, a unanimous 2nd Circuit panel denied Bernard L. Madoff’s bid for bail reinstatement while he awaits sentencing for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Some attorneys question what Madoff has gained from his guilty plea, given that he would have been able to remain free longer if he had continued to contest [...]

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Former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review his insider-trading conviction, raising questions about the fairness of the judge who presided at his trial. He also asked for reconsideration of his request to remain free on bail during his appeal. Nacchio’s attorneys said U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham “openly [...]

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Two firms with the bulk of their lawyers in Chicago have announced collective cuts of 23 lawyers and 80 staff members. Katten Muchin, which has about 625 lawyers, dismissed 23 attorneys, including 12 associates and seven non-equity partners, six paralegals and 40 administrative staff members. Jenner & Block, which has 461 attorneys, said it’s eliminating [...]

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With more disputes required by contract to be resolved through international arbitrations, parties must pursue creative avenues to obtain written discovery and witnesses’ testimony. One such avenue is through 28 U.S.C. §1782. Currently, the courts are split over whether an international private arbitration constitutes a “tribunal” entitled to judicial assistance under §1782. Attorneys Sofia E. [...]

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While mass layoffs at big law firms have grabbed headlines in recent months, in-house attorneys also have had their jobs taken away. Relatively few lawyers are being let go as part of mass corporate layoffs, in part because legal departments aren’t that big to start with and because the bigger cost often isn’t a company’s [...]

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All but one of the 11 attorneys in Wolf Block’s Wilmington, Del., office are in talks to move to the Delaware office of Drinker Biddle & Reath, say sources. The 10 attorneys, said to be led by office managing partner Shawn Tucker, have a mix of practice areas including litigation, corporate investigations, white-collar defense and [...]

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President Barack Obama’s first steps in pursuit of his reinvigorated antitrust enforcement priority were the nominations of Commissioner Jon Leibowitz for chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and Christine Varney as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Leibowitz’s and Varney’s enforcement histories are an indication that the business community [...]

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