Seized cellphones led to capture of ‘most wanted’ Mexican drug trafficker, authorities say

The U.S. will seek extradition of the claimed leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, who was captured over the weekend sleeping in a condo in a Mexican beach resort town in an early-morning raid backed by the American government. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, 56, said to be the “most wanted”…

Feb 24, 2014 6:30 PM CST

ABA asks NSA to explain how intelligence agency deals with attorney-client privilege

Following news reports that a foreign ally of a U.S. intelligence agency may have spied on a BigLaw firm, the American Bar Association has asked the director of the National Security Agency and its general counsel for an explanation of how it deals with attorney-client privilege. In a Thursday letter…

Feb 21, 2014 6:32 PM CST

Are Bitcoin ATMs legal? Las Vegas company will take a flyer on gray-area regulatory question

Despite the popular success of Bitcoin, dubious U.S. regulators worried about possible money-laundering have put the brakes on efforts to make the virtual global currency more widely available. The federal investigation of Bitcoin exchange operators who authorities say provided funds for anonymous drug purchases on the now-shuttered Silk Road website,…

Feb 18, 2014 9:45 PM CST

DLA Piper ends talks with Heenan Blaikie group, will look elsewhere for Canadian merger partner

A potential merger between DLA Piper and a group of lawyers from Heenan Blaikie that would have established a Canadian office for the global megafirm is going nowhere. However, DLA Piper will be looking elsewhere for a possible match to establish a Canadian office for the more than 4,000-attorney firm,…

Feb 10, 2014 6:45 PM CST

DLA Piper may expand to Canada, is in ‘deep negotiations’ with group of Heenan Blaikie lawyers

DLA Piper has 4,200 lawyers in 30 countries. That doesn’t include Canada, but that may soon change. The mega-firm is talking with 60 to 70 lawyers from the Calgary and Toronto offices of Heenan Blaikie, who are forming their own group following a decision Wednesday night by the partners of…

Feb 7, 2014 1:00 PM CST

Storied Canadian firm to begin ‘orderly wind-up’ but some offices and practices will stay in place

A major Canadian law firm that has lost dozens of lawyers recently announced Wednesday night after a partner meeting that it will begin an “orderly wind-up.” However, there will be no interruption in client service, and a number of Heenan Blaikie practice groups and offices will continue to operate under…

Feb 6, 2014 12:45 PM CST

Major Canada firm makes staff layoffs, plans restructuring amidst attorney defections

A major Canadian law firm is planning to restructure and may be considering a return to its original roots as a Montreal regional practice after the departure of several of its best-known lawyers in an attorney exodus from its Montreal and Ottawa offices. Meanwhile, Heenan Blaikie laid off employees and…

Feb 5, 2014 7:30 PM CST

Amanda Knox vows to fight guilty verdict in Italian murder case, says it ‘hit me like a train’

Amanda Knox said the latest guilty verdict in an Italian murder trial over the 2007 slaying of her roommate there, while both women were foreign exchange students, “hit me like a train.” In an exclusive interview Friday with Good Morning America, the Seattle resident said she watched in disbelief as…

Jan 31, 2014 8:55 PM CST

Another guilty verdict for American Amanda Knox in Italian roommate-murder case

Updated: Convicted again—along with her Italian ex-boyfriend—Thursday by an Italian court in the 2007 slaying of her former roommate in that country, onetime American exchange student Amanda Knox wasn’t there to hear the verdict. Knox, 26, has awaited the outcome of the retrial here in the U.S., and she has…

Jan 30, 2014 10:05 PM CST

General counsel takes plea in $39M foreign bribery case

A U.S. lawyer who formerly served as general counsel to an oil and gas company based in the Virgin Islands has pleaded guilty and two former top executives face charges in a federal foreign bribery case made public this week. Attorney Gregory Weisman, 42, pleaded guilty on Nov. 8 in…

Jan 7, 2014 7:35 PM CST

Organized crime leaders and terrorists cross paths in cyberspace

Jan 1, 2014 8:00 AM CST

Lawyer fined for telling friend that client ‘Harry Potter’ author wrote new novel under pseudonym

A British lawyer has been rebuked and fined £1,000 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for violating client confidentiality by revealing to his wife’s best friend that the author of the best-selling “Harry Potter” children’s book series had written a new novel under a pseudonym. The revelation sent sales of the…

Dec 31, 2013 5:40 PM CST

Shareholders suit accuses IBM of defrauding investors by hiding its cooperation with NSA program

IBM is being sued by a group of shareholders for who say it concealed its cooperation in a National Security Agency surveillance program that has cost the company sales and led to a decline in stock prices. In a suit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Pension…

Dec 16, 2013 10:31 PM CST

Nelson Mandela, ‘a giant among men’ who taught us the meaning of the rule of law, dies at 95

Nelson Mandela, a longtime political prisoner who went on to become globally recognized as an inspirational leader of his country and win the Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully amidst his family Thursday night at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa. He was 95 years old. Convicted and sentenced to a…

Dec 6, 2013 8:20 PM CST

Russian diplomats charged—but not arrested—in alleged Medicaid fraud

Federal prosecutors have charged 49 people in an alleged scheme to fraudulently obtain Medicaid benefits, but none has been arrested because of diplomatic immunity. The defendants are current or former Russian diplomats or their wives, report the New York Times, Reuters and a press release. Eleven still live in the…

Dec 6, 2013 3:40 PM CST