Today's Legal News from Law.com

Today's top legal news and analysis from law.com. Law.com is a premier information source for attorneys, law librarians, IT professionals working with law firms or legal departments and other legal staff.

Law.com - Newswire
03/10/2010

• After Delays, KLA Backdating Suit Settles Former KLA-Tencor Corp. executives have agreed to settle a lawsuit over stock option backdating after four years of torturous litigation, according to a court filing Monday. About $33 million in cash will be paid by the executives and the California company's insurer to KLA, according to lawyers briefed on the settlement, who requested anonymity because details of the deal haven't been made public. The deal has been a long time coming.
• N.Y. Appellate Panel Affirms Suit Over Alleged Promise to Pay Client's Fee An attorney who conveys an alleged agreement to cover the legal costs of another lawyer's client can be held liable for unpaid fees, a unanimous New York appellate court panel ruled Tuesday. The decision allows the firm of DePetris & Bachrach to pursue claims against the Shiboleth law firm and one of its lawyers, Charles B. Manuel, that they had promised that their clients would make good on DePetris & Bachrach's fees.
• Panel: Senate Filibuster of Judicial Nominees Not Going Away Soon Lawmakers have decried the use of the filibuster to block judicial nominations, but anyone frustrated with the process shouldn't expect a quick change, a panel of Senate experts said Tuesday. Makan Delrahim, now a Brownstein Hyatt partner, saw how "brutal" the process can be for nominees while he was a Republican lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee during George W. Bush's administration. Said Delrahim, "I have a real problem with the filibuster. I think it eats away at the Senate and the decorum the Senate is known for."
• 20 Ways to Link Dispersed Legal Departments With technology, a legal department can speak with a single voice, think with a single mind, and act like a partnership even with lawyers dispersed around the world. Consultant Rees W. Morrison discusses 20 techniques that increase coherence and effectiveness in a spread-out department.
• Sharp-Tongued Judges Get a Scolding 
• Charges in Dallas Office Shooting Depend on Suspect's Recovery Dallas police say charges against a former city attorney accused of shooting a father and son inside their financial business are on hold because the accused gunman isn't expected to survive. Police say Robert Mustard shot himself in the head after shooting the others Monday. The 60-year-old was in intensive care Tuesday. Police Sr. Cpl. Kevin Janse says aggravated assault charges won't be filed if Mustard dies.
• N.J. High Court Weighs Title Insurer's Liability for Attorney's Theft of Client Funds The New Jersey Supreme Court is deciding if a title insurer can be held liable for a lawyer's theft of a home buyer's funds if it fails to tell the buyer directly it is not responsible for the lawyer's misdeeds. The case, Lawyers Funds for Client Protection v. Stewart Title Guaranty Co., argued Monday, is being closely watched by the title industry, which could become a deep pocket for fleeced clients if the appeals court ruling below is allowed to stand.
• King & Spalding Gets Another Partner From Orrick Trial lawyer Kenneth Turnbull started at King & Spalding on Tuesday, the fifth partner to join the firm's professional liability and securities litigation practices from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe since the beginning of February. David Schaefer, global director of communications for Orrick, said that despite the loss of the five partners, the firm still has a 65 lawyer-strong security and litigation enforcement group and "expects another successful year."
• Prosecutors to Seek Indictment Against Attorney for Murder of Former Partner's Ex-Wife Dallas County prosecutors will seek an indictment for murder against plaintiffs attorney Scott Marshall in connection with the Dec. 20, 2009, shooting death of Staci Montgomery, the ex-wife of Marshall's former law partner, Bady Sassin. According to the Dallas County district attorney's office, prosecutors will present the case against Marshall to a grand jury on Friday. Montgomery's death occurred as the two former partners were engaged in a legal battle over the dissolution of their firm.
• Charities Sue Over $400 Million Fortune A Florida lawsuit is a page-turner worthy of a best-seller: A short-term housekeeper employed by a Holocaust survivor in Monaco ends up in control of a $400 million fortune after he dies under "suspicious" circumstances. The lawsuit claims the woman manipulated the widow, who was suffering from dementia, and cheated a number of Israeli charitable, education and research organizations that were the rightful beneficiaries. A defense attorney maintains the suit is fiction, and courts all over the world have agreed.
• Filegate Suits Against Clinton White House Finally Dismissed A D.C. judge has dismissed the Filegate lawsuits, ending a case that bedeviled the Clinton White House. Plaintiffs sued after the administration said it had mistakenly ordered up the FBI files of some 400 Bush I and Reagan officials. Tuesday, Chief Judge Royce Lamberth concluded, "After ... endless depositions, the fictionalized portrayal of this lawsuit and its litigants on television, and innumerable histrionics, this Court is left to conclude that with this lawsuit, to quote Gertrude Stein, 'there's no there there.'"
• Indictments Dismissed Against Lawyers Charged in 'Slayer Statute' Case The Georgia Supreme Court ruled last week that criminal indictments against two lawyers must be dismissed, putting to rest a case that the state's criminal defense bar worried could threaten the livelihoods -- and liberty -- of lawyers whose clients are ultimately convicted. The lawyers were accused of stealing from the estate of a murder victim by accepting legal fees from his wife, who first inherited her husband's estate but ultimately pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire plot.
• TV Producer Admits Attempting Letterman Shakedown A former television producer pressured by debt and riven by jealousy admitted Tuesday he tried to extract vengeance and money by shaking down David Letterman in a case that bared the late-night icon's affairs with staffers. Robert "Joe" Halderman pleaded guilty to attempted grand larceny, acknowledging he tried to chisel $2 million from Letterman, threatening to destroy the TV host's reputation by airing his workplace dalliances -- using information authorities have said he mined from a former girlfriend's diary.
• Despite High Court Skepticism, Advocates Defend Privileges Clause Push A broad spectrum of scholars and advocacy groups agreed that McDonald v. City of Chicago presented the best -- and possibly the last -- chance to revive the argument that the 14th Amendment's "privileges or immunities" clause was the soundest way to apply individual rights like the Second Amendment right to bear arms to states and localities. And after the entire movement seemed to crash and burn in the space of a dramatic few minutes at the Supreme Court, there has been remarkably little regret or recrimination.
• Judge Stirs Up Defense Bar With Comments in Death Penalty Case A federal judge overseeing a big death penalty case in California has ticked off a cadre of defense lawyers by publicly questioning the need for taxpayer-funded victim outreach. Court-appointed attorneys representing alleged MS-13 gang members are fuming because their funding requests are usually kept private, so prosecutors cannot discern defense litigation strategy. But Judge William Alsup made his comments in a public order, in which the judge solicited the views of both defense lawyers and the government.
• Texas Judge Rescinds His Own Order Over Constitutionality of Death Penalty At a hearing Tuesday, Houston Judge Kevin Fine rescinded his March 4 order in which he granted defendant John E. Green's motion to declare the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional, according to Alan Curry, appellate division chief in the Harris County district attorney's office. Curry says Fine now wants the parties to brief the issue that the judge believes was raised in Green's motion, which is: "Is it OK to execute an innocent person so that we can maintain a death penalty?"
• The 4 People Lawyers Won't Meet in Solo Practice "You're so lucky you work for yourself; you don't have to work with people like [fill in the blank]." Solo practitioner Paul Schorn hears this often from friends in midsize and large firms, and in his heart, he knows they're right: Part of what makes solo practice worthwhile is getting to avoid some of the people who can drain all the fun out of practicing law. Here are four types of people Schorn is happy not to face on a daily basis, along with the lessons he believes people can learn from them.
• No Set Salary Rules Exist for Legal Support Staff Associate hiring and compensation are perpetually hot topics of discussion for most law firms, but what about those same issues with regard to support staff? There seem to be few hard and fast rules for determining nonlawyer compensation, according to some Pennsylvania firm leaders.
• The New China Hands Just a decade ago, China's rise as an economic superpower still seemed uncertain. Back then, the China practice of major international firms was still mainly the province of the Old China Hands -- lawyers who perhaps had a deeper affinity for Chinese language and culture than the practice of law -- who focused on representing foreign companies opening factories and shops in China. But with the country's economic rise, the face of the China practice at international firms has grown increasingly ... Chinese.

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