Lender OKs Fair Housing Pact, Will Pay $765K, End Mortgage Nixes Due to Maternity Leaves

In a federal fair housing case that represents just a fraction of the discrimination that may be occurring nationwide, a Texas-based lender has agreed to pay $765,000 and stop discriminating against women who are taking maternity leaves. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the settlement yesterday. While…

Jun 2, 2011 8:44 PM CDT

Taming Titans: Let’s Have a Little Fanfare for the Common Man

Jun 1, 2011 5:30 AM CDT

Suspended Attorney Is Criminally Charged, Along with Elderly Client, in Another Foreclosed Home Case

A suspended California lawyer who was criminally charged earlier this month in connection with another client’s foreclosed home is in the news again. This time it’s because Michael Theodore Pines, 59, is charged along with his former client, Hector Zepeda, who is in his 70s, with breaking into the Newport…

May 31, 2011 10:11 PM CDT

IPOs Bring Big Fees to BigLaw, Make One GC a Multimillionaire

Initial public offerings are keeping many large law firms busy. Two law firms profiting from the IPO boom are Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Cooley, the Am Law Daily reports. Wilson Sonsini advised LinkedIn when it went public while Cooley represented the underwriters. LinkedIn has estimated its legal fees…

May 31, 2011 1:25 PM CDT

‘Problem Solver’ Fails: Bank Says Wife with Power of Attorney Can’t Access Spouse Account Online

It seems like there should be a simple solution to Eva Kripke’s issue. But so far neither she nor the Bank of America nor the Chicago Tribune “Problem Solver” columnist has been able to figure out what it is. Kripke’s husband, Sidney, has dementia, so she handles his finances. She…

May 26, 2011 8:39 PM CDT

Small Firm of BigLaw Refugees Handles Credit-Crisis Legal Issues

A boutique law firm of BigLaw refugees has plenty of work on its hands handling the fallout from the credit crisis. Lawyer Gregory Joseph formed his own law firm in 2001, and it has since grown to about 15 lawyers, the National Law Journal reports. Joseph had overseen the litigation…

May 26, 2011 11:00 AM CDT

Report: Civil Suits, Yes, Even Some Prosecutions, But Very Few Big Cases re Financial Meltdown

Are the criminal activities at big banks that led to the financial meltdown of 2008 simply too hard to prove? Or, because of relaxed government regulation in recent years, did they simply not exist? Or, as some say, will it take time, as with Enron, to unravel what occurred and…

May 23, 2011 10:17 PM CDT

Washington Mutual and Big Creditors Settle Shareholder Lawsuit

The bankrupt Washington Mutual Inc. and its biggest creditors agreed to settle a fight with shareholders today, Bloomberg News reports. The agreement gives shareholders control of the company that will emerge from bankruptcy, according to the article, and includes $25 million for a litigation trust that would bring lawsuits to…

May 20, 2011 5:45 PM CDT

Criticism of the Foreclosure Process Brought Bar Probe of Two Fla. Lawyers

Two Florida lawyers who criticized mass foreclosures found themselves under investigation by the state bar for their comments. The bar dropped one probe and was expected to drop the second after former ABA President Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte intervened on the lawyers’ behalf, the Daily Business Review reports. D’Alemberte is also…

May 19, 2011 12:53 PM CDT

Madoff Trustee Settles Litigation with So-Called Feeder Fund

The trustee liquidating Bernie Madoff’s firm agreed to not pursue $212 million from two bankrupt funds related to the Fairfield Greenwich Group, the biggest so-called feeder fund in the alleged Ponzi scheme, Bloomberg News reports. As part of the settlement with the trustee, both funds reduced their claims against the…

May 18, 2011 6:59 PM CDT

UK Watchdog Agency Opens Investigation on Big 4 Accounting Firms

The United Kingdom’s Office of Fair Trading has opened an investigation involving Big Four accounting firms, Bloomberg News reports. The investigation involves allegations of accounting industry practices that stunt competition and block smaller rivals. It is broader than a prior OFT proposal to focus on bank loans forcing borrowers to…

May 17, 2011 3:47 PM CDT

Akin Gump Raids Chadbourne for 4-Partner Project Finance Team

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has raided Chadbourne & Parke for a four-partner project finance team in Los Angeles. The new Akin Gump lawyers are Thomas Dupuis, Lloyd MacNeil, Adam Umanoff and Edward Zaelke, the firm announced today in a press release. Zaelke, who formerly served as managing partner…

May 12, 2011 5:15 PM CDT

Judge Calls Heads of 2 Foreclosure Firms on Carpet, Revokes Their Phone-Appearance Privileges

Fed-up with mistakes and missed appearances, a judge on the west coast of Florida called the heads of two east coast foreclosure law firms into court to explain themselves. Roy Diaz of Smith Hiatt & Diaz and Marshall Watson, who operates a law firm under his own name, appeared today…

May 5, 2011 10:59 PM CDT

Reports: Fake Law Firm Site Targeting Lawyers in Real Estate Scam Uses Actual Law Firm Info, Photos

A photo of the founding partner of “Wagner Elliot” and written material about him and the attorneys in his purported Toronto law partnership appears polished and professional on the firm’s website. That’s because the fake Wagner Elliot firm—which the Law Society of British Columbia has warned lawyers to beware of—plagiarized…

May 5, 2011 5:06 PM CDT

New L.A. Suit Against Deutsche Bank Seeks to Hold ‘Slumlord’ Responsible for Foreclosures

In the latest suit against Deutsche Bank, the city attorney of Los Angeles is pursuing an unusual case contending that the mortgage lender is a “slumlord” and seeking a court order requiring it to clean up foreclosed properties and comply with landlord-tenant law. In response, a spokesman for the bank…

May 4, 2011 6:27 PM CDT