Vivek Maru: Drawing the arc to global justice

After finishing at Harvard College and before entering Yale Law School, Vivek Maru, born and reared in the U.S., took off more than a year to live in a hut made of sticks and dung amid the poverty and pollution of India’s Kutch region, from which his grandfather came. Maru…

Sep 2, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

The Bluebook’s 20th edition prompts many musings from Bryan Garner

About 10 years ago, I was finishing a book for a friend of mine in London, the late Sir Robert Megarry, when in his mid-90s his health began to fail. The book was his New Miscellany-at-Law (2006)—the third in a series of humorously erudite books that he began in 1955.

Aug 1, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

China cracks down on lawyers said to have ‘sabotaged the legal order’

China’s crackdown on lawyers is likely intended to crush a movement to defend the rights of individuals, according to an editorial. Chinese authorities have detained more than 200 lawyers and associates in recent weeks, and some believe it is the most serious assault on lawyers in decades, according to the…

Jul 31, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

China detains or queries 100 lawyers, activists and others in sweep targeting human rights law firms

An unprecedented crackdown focused on one of China’s most prominent human rights lawyers and her firm has resulted in the arrest and/or questioning of over 100 attorneys, activists and others during the past week. The lawyer, associate Wang Yu of the Fengrui Law Firm in Beijing, has been criminally detained,…

Jul 13, 2015 2:40 PM CDT

8 of 10 men accused in shooting of teen Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai are acquitted

News reports earlier this year said 10 men charged in the 2012 shooting of a Pakistani schoolgirl who subsequently became a Nobel laureate had been convicted and sentenced to life terms. In fact, only two of the 10 were convicted and eight were acquitted in the attack on Malala Yousafzai,…

Jun 5, 2015 2:10 PM CDT

Opposing moves by U.S. firms in China show difficulty of overseas practice

May 1, 2015 2:20 AM CDT

Lawyer for doctor who helped US track down and kill Osama bin Laden is assassinated in Pakistan

A lawyer for a Pakistani physician who helped U.S. military forces track down and kill Osama bin Laden in 2011 has himself been killed in a vehicle ambush in Pakistan. Attorney Samiullah Afridi died of his injuries while being treated at a hospital in Peshawar after the Tuesday shooting, according…

Mar 17, 2015 4:10 PM CDT

Morgan Lewis announces merger with Singapore law firm

Morgan Lewis has announced a merger with Stamford Law Corp., a law firm with about 80 lawyers in Singapore. The combined law firms will have about 2,000 lawyers and will be known as Morgan Lewis Stamford in Singapore, report the Am Law Daily, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Business…

Mar 16, 2015 7:07 AM CDT

Signing ceremony marks Dentons’ combination with Chinese firm, creating world’s largest law firm

Leaders of Dentons and Chinese law firm Dacheng commemorated the joining of their two law firms—producing the world’s largest law firm by head count—in a signing ceremony this week. The ceremony was held in Beijing on Tuesday morning after Chinese regulators approved the deal, Law 360 (sub. req.) reports. A…

Jan 27, 2015 6:57 AM CST

Dentons and Chinese law firm vote to merge, producing the world’s largest law firm by head count

Dentons and Chinese law firm Dacheng have approved a merger that would create a 6,600-lawyer entity, the world’s largest law firm by head count. The firms are awaiting approval by Chinese regulators for the combination, which will use a Swiss verein structure, report the American Lawyer and the Wall Street…

Jan 22, 2015 7:57 AM CST

Fried Frank will ‘substantially downsize’ its offices in Asia, internal memo says

Less than 10 years after opening offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai, a 470-attorney U.S. law firm plans to “substantially downsize” in the region. Chairman David Greenwald of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson also said in an internal memo that “our growth potential in Asia was not sufficiently attractive…

Jan 20, 2015 1:16 PM CST

Judge OKs use of funds from slain mom’s estate to pay lawyer in daughter’s Bali murder trial

Updated: A 19-year-old Chicago woman on trial in Bali for the slaying of her mother at a resort hotel has won an emergency motion filed Thursday in Illinois state court seeking to get money for her defense from her mom’s $1.56 million estate. In a Friday hearing, Cook County Chancery…

Jan 16, 2015 8:30 AM CST

Chinese Communist Party announces reform measures to increase judicial independence

China’s ruling Communist Party has announced measures to increase judicial independence, particularly by shining more sunlight on party officials getting involved in legal matters, the Associated Press reports. While some critics scoff at the likelihood of true reform, some others see the move as positive at the local level, where…

Oct 23, 2014 2:23 PM CDT

22 Bingham partners, including 18 in London, leap to Akin Gump

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has acquired 22 partners from overseas offices of Bingham McCutchen. Bingham’s London office, which is losing 18 partners, is most hard hit by the mass departure. Two other departing partners are from Bingham’s Frankfurt office and two are from its Hong Kong office. The…

Sep 17, 2014 10:01 AM CDT

Illegal trafficking of animals is becoming a growing issue in global trade

Efforts by the Obama administration in recent months to focus on illegal trafficking of wildlife and related activities undermining wildlife conservation have not received widespread attention. But that could change in the near future. The under-the-radar nature of the issue may help explain why only a dozen people attended a…

Aug 7, 2014 11:16 PM CDT