Sideways Society

One of the top cases of the current Supreme Court term is , asking whether a state law tort action challenging the
labeling on a Wyeth drug is pre-empted by federal law. Now, the outcome
of the case could be in question because of the recent announcement by
Pfizer Inc. that it would acquire Wyeth. Chief Justice John Roberts
Jr.’s ownership of Pfizer stock has prompted his recusal in previous
cases. The decision in the case is likely to affect Wyeth’s value, and,
in turn, Pfizer’s.

Facebook paid the founders of ConnectU $65 million to settle lawsuits
accusing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for the
wildly successful social-networking Web site, according to a law firm’s
marketing brochure. Lawyers in the heavyweight fight had expended great
effort to keep the settlement secret, but ConnectU’s former lawyers from
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver Hedges published the amount in a firm
advertisement trumpeting the firm’s prowess. The disclosure was
apparently inadvertent.

This weekend’s news that New York Yankee star Alex Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for anabolic steroid use in 2003 has moved the steroids-in-baseball conversation beyond the eventual admissibility of evidence to whether the disclosure of supposedly secret test results could be a crime. A former prosecutor said he expects U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to order criminal contempt hearings to determine who leaked the news of Rodriguez’s failed test.

Choosing to make a lateral move is a difficult decision. Making a lateral move in a partnership year poses especially unique challenges. Attorney Meredith S. Auten successfully switched firms as an associate
in her eighth year of practice, and she was promoted to partner within a year of her move. She discusses her experience, including some of the pros and cons of such a move. She also provides some tips, including one of the most important things she learned, which she wishes she had done better.

Omair Farooqui had always wanted to hang up his own shingle, but he had a good job as a mid-level associate at Manatt, Phelps Phillips. Then he got laid off last June. It was the nudge he needed, and the following month, he and attorney Javed Ellahie announced their new operation. Farooqui is not alone, as several small firms seem to be sprouting up due to large firm layoffs or rising out of the ashes of large firm meltdowns. Some are finding surprising upsides to starting up small firms in a recession.

The day after Thanksgiving, James Christodoulou found himself in an impossible situation. The CEO of Stamford, Conn.-based Industrial Shipping Enterprises had just received word that a band of Somali pirates had boarded and hijacked one of his tankers — the Liberian-flagged MV Biscaglia — in the Gulf of Aden. Christodoulou turned to his company’s longtime outside counsel at Seward Kissel for assistance in rescuing the ship’s 28-man crew and putting company investors at ease.

Guantanamo Bay was where George W. Bush went to avoid law, both international and domestic. Closing the detention center is an easy decision for President Barack Obama — and the executive order to close it within a year comes as no surprise. Then what? Constitutional lawyers are bitterly divided, and where they stand depends on whether they think U.S. courts are capable of trying terror suspects.

In a significant victory for white-collar prosecutors, the 9th Circuit has held that corporate executives lack standing to challenge workplace searches outside their offices unless they can show a personal connection to the place searched or material seized. The decision, which has already created a buzz among white-collar lawyers, treads into new territory by importing language from similar search cases in the 10th Circuit, but the 9th Circuit expands and clarifies the language.

The new administration has repeatedly stated how technology will make government more transparent and how the country’s infrastructure requires innovation. Richard Raysman and Peter Brown discuss Barack Obama’s technology-related initiatives, and the legal issues involved.

As the capital market freeze wears on, corporate lawyers’ energies have shifted from helping clients borrow money or raise cash through stock offerings to crafting complex debt-restructuring deals and calling in litigators to fight lawsuits from existing bondholders. Lawyers say many companies’ need to push bond repayment dates into the future is driving the rush to restructure. They also say that healthy companies flush with cash are jumping on opportunities to buy back debt at low interest rates.