In-house Counsel

Lockheed’s GC Jumps to Hedge Fund

Lockheed Martin’s General Counsel James B. Comey announced plans yesterday to join Westport, Conn.-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates. Comey, 49, who has served as senior vice president and general counsel since September 2005, will remain at the aerospace contractor through June 24 and will “continue to serve on Lockheed Martin’s…

Jun 3, 2010 1:38 PM CDT

25% of In-House Lawyers Report Less Work for Outside Firms, Survey Says

Outside firms will face less work and increased competition from corporate legal departments in 2010. In a poll of 150 in-house lawyers at major U.S. and Canadian companies, nearly one-quarter said they planned to decrease their reliance on outside counsel, according to a survey by legal staffing agency Robert Half…

Jun 3, 2010 10:28 AM CDT

WrestleMania Event & Nude Pic with Veggies Reportedly Are Trouble for GC & Paralegal

A now-former general counsel of World Wrestling Entertainment and a law firm paralegal reportedly have suffered job repercussions over unrelated situations concerning, respectively, a party after a WrestleMania 26 event and a nude photograph with what some observers have assumed to be strategically placed tomatoes sent to a jailed client.…

May 14, 2010 6:01 PM CDT

Onetime Lawyer for Usher Is Now Collecting Food Stamps

Two years ago, Cliff Lovette was doing legal work for Usher. Now the 54-year-old Atlanta entertainment attorney is practicing law out of his basement and collecting food stamps. At the top of his game, he worked for LeFace Records in Atlanta as senior vice president for business and legal affairs,…

May 7, 2010 11:28 PM CDT

Study Finds Experience ‘Sweet Spot’ for Associates Jumping to Corporate Jobs

Young lawyers being tracked in an American Bar Foundation study are extremely mobile, using their law firm experience to find other jobs, most often as corporate lawyers. The study found 19 percent of the 5,000 lawyers tracked were working in the business sector seven years after passing the bar, compared…

May 5, 2010 1:56 PM CDT

Auction Winner Gets Lunch with Google’s Top Lawyer

If you are hungry for lunch with Google’s top lawyer, it will cost you at least $10,000. A new website called allthis is auctioning off a lunch with Google chief legal officer David Drummond. The proceeds will benefit the San Francisco Jazz Organization, a group that “celebrates jazz as a…

May 5, 2010 12:51 PM CDT

Ex-Toyota Lawyer Explains Split with His Counsel: I Wanted to Go to Trial

A difference of opinion about how his whistle-blower case against Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. should be handled prompted a pending divorce with his trial counsel, says a former in-house lawyer for the company. His lawyers recommended settlement after the validity of his severance agreement, which included a $3.7 million…

Apr 27, 2010 5:09 PM CDT

Lawyers Ask to Exit Toyota Whistle-Blower Case Brought By Former In-House Counsel

Citing a “breakdown in the attorney-client relationship” that has made it “unreasonably difficult” to represent a former Toyota Motor Sales USA in-house counsel in a whistle-blower suit against the embattled automotive manufacturer, lawyer Jeff Allen is seeking to withdraw from the case along with his partner, Joseph Wohrle. The two…

Apr 26, 2010 8:23 PM CDT

Feds Waited Too Long to Pursue In-House Lawyer in False Claims Act Case, Judge Rules

On the eve of trial, a judge dismissed a False Claims Act case against a onetime general counsel of Tenet Health Care Corp., finding that the government waited too long to pursue its case against Christi Sulzbach. A whistle-blower had accused the then-corporate integrity officer as far back as 1997…

Apr 22, 2010 3:58 PM CDT

Former Gucci GC Questions the Fuss over His Inactive Status

The former general counsel for Gucci doesn’t think he deserved to be fired for working at the company while on inactive status, and he explains why in an affidavit filed in a battle over privileged communications in a trademark case. Jonathan Moss says he didn’t think his inactive status affected…

Apr 20, 2010 4:44 PM CDT

Apple GC Asks Website to Return Its Secret Prototype iPhone

Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell wants a technology website to return the company’s iPhone. It’s not just any iPhone. According to Gizmodo, the website that paid $5,000 for the gadget, the phone is Apple’s secret next-generation iPhone. An Apple engineer left the phone in a Redwood City, Calif., bar, Gizmodo…

Apr 20, 2010 12:18 PM CDT

Former Blackwater Gen’l Counsel, 4 Other Ex-Execs Indicted in Weapons Case

Five former executives of a private security company that made headlines over its involvement in a 2007 Baghdad shooting incident that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead are now under indictment, facing apparently unrelated charges that they illegally stockpiled automatic weapons at Blackwater Worldwide’s headquarters in North Carolina and filed false…

Apr 17, 2010 12:06 AM CDT

Blank Rome Adds a Texas Lawyer, Looks for Office Space in Houston

Looking to a client’s seasoned in-house counsel for an opportunity to expand its law practice, Blank Rome has brought in a Texas lawyer as a partner and is now apparently making plans to open a new office in Houston. New partner Joseph Speelman has some 35 years of chemical industry…

Apr 16, 2010 6:11 PM CDT

In-House Lawyer at eBay Heads Back to Bingham, Warns of Long Hours

Lawyers who think working in-house is easier than law firm practice should consider the experience of Mary Huser, who is headed back to Bingham McCutchen after two years at eBay. Huser oversaw intellectual property and litigation matters at the online auction company, and the job required more hours than working…

Apr 16, 2010 5:53 PM CDT

Benjamin Hooks, Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 85

Benjamin Hooks, a minister, a lawyer and renowned civil rights leader who revitalized the NAACP while serving as its executive director from 1977 to 1992, died today at his home in Memphis, Tenn., after a long illness. He was 85 years old. A U.S. Army veteran of World War II,…

Apr 15, 2010 8:15 PM CDT