International

Mega-Firm’s Mega-Profit: $1 M-Plus PPP

Impressive profits for the 2007 fiscal year have been announced by one of the world’s largest law firms, Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie. Its gross was $1.83 billion, up from $1.52 billion the previous fiscal year. A 22 percent gain for the first time boosted profits per partner into seven figures,…

Aug 16, 2007 8:23 PM CDT

Liberia Declares War on Rape

Throughout Africa, rape reportedly has been used as a weapon of civil war in many countries by militiamen, rebels and government armies. The crime has rarely been punished, even when children are the victims. But that is changing in Liberia, whose female president publicly says she herself was the victim…

Aug 14, 2007 6:13 PM CDT

Jail a Risk for Vietnam Investors

Investors hoping to make big money in Vietnam face risks, not the least of which is jail. That’s the lesson learned by American businessman Hoan Nguyen, who sat in a Hanoi prison for 14 months while police investigated a business dispute with his government partners, the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Aug 14, 2007 4:10 PM CDT

Alec Scott, Esq: ‘Why I Escaped the Law’

It isn’t just many American lawyers who feel overworked and dispirited. Their Canadian counterparts increasingly feel the same way, according to an article in next month’s issue of Toronto Life magazine. Author Alec Scott, a lawyer who is now a journalist, says that getting fired from a big Toronto firm…

Aug 13, 2007 11:09 PM CDT

Egads! Will US Law Firms Go Public?

Of course it can’t happen yet. But senior partners at big U.S. law firms are talking about the possibility that they will one day be allowed to be have nonattorney shareholders, as Australia already permits and the United Kingdom is expected to allow within a few years. Otherwise, major American…

Aug 13, 2007 10:25 PM CDT

Russian Man Facing Trial for 49 Murders

Accused of being one of Russia’s most prolific serial killers, Alexander Pichushkin is to face trial in a month in 49 murders reportedly committed between 1992 and 2006. The 33-year-old is accused of murdering many of his alleged victims, who are mostly men, by plying them with alcohol and then…

Aug 13, 2007 9:47 PM CDT

Judge: No Jail for Law Office Bat-Wielder

A middle-aged businessman who smashed a baseball bat through an inner window of an Australian attorney’s office after the lawyer locked himself inside will not be sentenced to jail. Instead, a judge imposed a $4,200 fine and a three-year good-behavior bond on Jim Byrnes, 47, who earlier pleaded guilty to…

Aug 13, 2007 7:16 PM CDT

Millionaire Gets Extradition Delay

A U.S. millionaire wanted in connection with an alleged stock option backdating scheme has secured another delay in his extradition hearing in Namibia. Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, founder of Comverse Technology Inc., is seeking recusal of the judge appointed to hear his extradition case. His lawyer, Louis du Pisani, said the…

Aug 13, 2007 4:25 PM CDT

Pakistan Court Acts in Election Case

The Pakistan Supreme Court has issued an order requiring registration of all eligible voters. The court gave the election commission 30 days to complete the task, Reuters reports. A complaint filed by exiled former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had claimed millions of people had been excluded form a draft list…

Aug 10, 2007 1:48 PM CDT

Legal Strategies Hinted in Terror Case

As courts in Trinidad and Brooklyn began initial proceedings against four men accused of plotting to blow up fuel tanks at Kennedy International Airport, hints of their legal strategies emerged. Lawyers for three suspects in Trinidad said they would appeal a judge’s order to extradite them to the United States,…

Aug 9, 2007 5:25 PM CDT

Quelle Crime! Teen Held for Potter Book Posted en Français

A 16-year-old has been arrested and briefly jailed for allegedly translating the entire 759-page book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, into French and posting it on the Internet within days of its July 21 release. The teen, a high school student from Aix-en-Provence in southern France, is not named…

Aug 8, 2007 7:27 PM CDT

A Bitter Japanese Poison Pill

Japan’s Supreme Court has affirmed a company’s right to mount a poison-pill defense to a corporate takeover. The court ruled for Bull-Dog Sauce Co. in a suit by a hedge fund trying take over the company, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. In poison-pill plans, the targeted company makes…

Aug 8, 2007 3:53 PM CDT

Pfizer Defends Nigerian Drug Tests

Pfizer claims its drug tests on Nigerian children saved lives in court papers filed in one of four legal actions being pursued by the country. Nigeria has filed criminal charges and $8.5 billion in civil claims against Pfizer, contending the company’s tests of the antibiotic Trovan led to the deaths…

Aug 8, 2007 2:49 PM CDT

Top Drug Suspect Held, US Seeks Case

An alleged top leader of Colombia’s biggest drug cartel was captured today in an early-morning raid in Brazil, and the U.S. reportedly is seeking extradition. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, reportedly underwent at least two plastic surgeries to avoid detection, but was arrested as a result of an undescribed tip…

Aug 7, 2007 10:53 PM CDT

China Now Regulates Reincarnation

As of Sept. 1, Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, may no longer reincarnate himself—or recognize the reincarnation of others—without permission from China’s communist, atheist government. That is one key provision of new regulations developed by China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, in an effort to limit the influence of…

Aug 3, 2007 9:29 PM CDT