States

CA Associates Look to Bonuses as Pay Holds Firm

Some California associates are hoping that New York law firms will raise annual starting pay to $200,000, leading to another round of salary wars. But many observers say a cooling economy is likely to keep new associate pay at the big California firms at $160,000, the Recorder reports. In view…

Oct 8, 2007 12:54 PM CDT

TX Law Firm Dodges $1.4 M Emotional Distress Award

The Law Offices of Windle Turley saw the tables turned when an ex-client won a $1.4 million judgment for emotional distress after the firm sued him for legal fees. Now a Texas judge has set aside the verdict, Texas Lawyer reports. The law firm had sued ex-client Robert French to…

Oct 8, 2007 12:24 PM CDT

London Snubbed So Far in White & Case Restructuring

White & Case’s London office doesn’t have a single representative on the firm’s newly restructured management committees—so far. The firm’s new chairman, Hugh Verrier, has already selected the members of his new executive committee, the American Lawyer reports. And only two spots are still open on the partnership committee, elected…

Oct 8, 2007 11:30 AM CDT

Prosecutor Charged in Sex Sting Commits Suicide

A federal prosecutor accused of traveling to Detroit to have sex with a 5-year-old girl has committed suicide in prison. J. D. Roy Atchison, a U.S. attorney in Pensacola, killed himself on Friday. He was in a special housing unit for inmates who are segregated for a variety of reasons,…

Oct 8, 2007 10:27 AM CDT

Possible Motive in Law Office Shooting

A retired municipal worker who shot five people in an Alexandria, La., law office yesterday may have been motivated by a divorce settlement dispute, authorities say. However, an investigation is continuing and further details of what may have driven John Ashley, 63, to shoot three attorneys, a legal secretary and…

Oct 5, 2007 11:47 PM CDT

MA Sues Lender, Seeks Foreclosure Role

In a legal action that takes an aggressive and perhaps unprecedented approach to the nationwide mortgage foreclosure crisis, the Massachusetts attorney general is blaming a California-based subprime lender as a “significant” cause of the debacle and seeking damages and an oversight role over all of its foreclosures. Martha Coakley filed…

Oct 5, 2007 10:06 PM CDT

$6.1 M Award in McDonald’s Strip Search

A Kentucky jury has awarded $6.1 million to a young McDonald’s employee who was pressured by a supervisor into cooperating with a strip search and bizarre requests made over the telephone by a male caller pretending to be a police officer investigating a theft. Louise Ogborn, who was 18 at…

Oct 5, 2007 7:55 PM CDT

Mortgage Enforcement Targets Lawyers

No lawyers apparently were among the 11 borrowers, sellers and real estate industry professionals arrested today in three separate alleged mortgage fraud schemes in South Florida. But attorneys are likely to find themselves on the wrong side of such cases in the future, authorities say. ”In the coming months, you…

Oct 5, 2007 6:42 PM CDT

Paintball Suit Seeks Warnings

A man whose wife was killed in a paintball accident says a successor manufacturer has not lived up to a promise to publicize the dangers of older equipment. Mark Contois plans to file a complaint today in a California court seeking to force KEE Action Sports to do more to…

Oct 5, 2007 4:30 PM CDT

NY Admits Strip Searches Violated Settlement

New York’s Department of Corrections has agreed to settle a lawsuit that contended as many as 150,000 inmates at Rikers Island were improperly strip-searched in violation of a 2002 settlement. The inmates were nonviolent and had been charged with misdemeanors, the New York Times reports. The city will stop the…

Oct 5, 2007 3:47 PM CDT

Nuns Evicted, Gagged in Pedophile Priest Settlement

The Catholic Church has obtained a gag order to prevent disgruntled nuns in California from talking about their evictions. The church is ousting nuns from five convents so it can sell the buildings to help fund a $660 million pedophile priest settlement, the Washington Post reports. One of those who…

Oct 5, 2007 3:15 PM CDT

Law Firm Sues for Bridge Collapse Documents

A law firm that represents victims of the Minneapolis interstate bridge collapse has filed a freedom of information lawsuit seeking access to engineering documents. Minneapolis law firm Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben wants access to records, studies and inspections related to the bridge collapse, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports. It…

Oct 5, 2007 2:57 PM CDT

Judge Goes Easy on Insider-Trading Lawyer Couple

A lawyer couple who pleaded guilty to insider trading will not have to spend any time in prison. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of New York noted that defendant Christopher Collotta, 34, suffers from heart problems caused by a battle with cancer, the New York Law Journal reports. Collotta was…

Oct 5, 2007 1:01 PM CDT

Heller Ehrman Axes 65 Support Staffers

Heller Ehrman has cut 65 administrative staffers—but no attorneys—in its offices throughout the United States. The aim was to cut costs, firmwide managing partner Robert Hubbell told the Recorder. He said the expanding law firm needed to consolidate work that was initially done in each of its offices. The move…

Oct 5, 2007 12:37 PM CDT

Attys Ask for One More Year of Trial Prep

Attorneys representing triple murderer Joseph Duncan in Idaho have asked for a one-year delay to prepare for his federal death penalty trial. The case already has been moved from July to January. But attorneys for Duncan say they need much more time because a lead attorney stepped down and investigators…

Oct 5, 2007 11:50 AM CDT