Legal Industry News

China Business Regulation Rising.

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: China Law Blog

Neither I nor my firm have ever represented a Chinese company within China. There are many reasons for that, chief among them that we are not licensed Chinese lawyers and it makes no sense to use American lawyers for domestic Chinese legal work. I mention this by way of explaining why we lack knowledge of how the Chinese government treats its domestic Chinese companies.

But we do know that Chinese government regulation of foreign businesses has been steadily increasing and we also know that most of the laws regulating foreign businesses are at least supposed to apply equally to Chinese companies as well. And though I do not believe the Chinese government actually applies its laws equally between Western and Chinese companies, I was at least a bit heartened to read today, in a China Private Equity post entitled, "Under New Management — Chinese Corporate Management Is Changing Fast."

The post talks of how the Chinese government is becoming "increasingly demanding as a regulator and law-maker," necessitating corporate management in China become "so much more complex." The post rightly notes how "in a short space of time, China has gone from a more laissez-faire stance to one...

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Looking Global: Ginsburg Speaks Out on Kagan, Comparative Law Issue

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: WSJ.com: Law Blog - WSJ.com Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday invoked the Federalist Society’s chairman to refute conservative attacks on court decisions that reference foreign and international law.

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Juice Maker Backs Off TRO Request, Word of FTC Probe Comes Out

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: WSJ.com: Law Blog - WSJ.com Juice maker POM Wonderful on Friday afternoon withdrew its request for a restraining order against the National Law Journal, freeing the publication to disseminate word that POM is under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

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Marijuana, Chocolate, Indian Translations . . . And the Law

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: WSJ.com: Law Blog - WSJ.com Will the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office grant the application of an American chocolate maker to trademark a common Indian word?

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Lawyers See Both Promise and Problems in $20B Gulf Coast Compensation Fund

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories Note: The related CLE, "The Price of Oil," is Wed., Aug. 18. The legal repercussions from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are spreading quickly. But like so many other aspects of the catastrophe, it is hard to predict where the legal battles will lead—and impossible to say when, or how, they will end. By the end of June, with the closure of vast stretches of federal fishing waters, and with tourism plummeting along the U.S. Gulf Coast, emergency claim centers established by BP already had been flooded with some 87,000 requests for compensation to keep mortgages… Read the rest of the...

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7th Circuit Cites ‘Unreasonable Fury’ of Chief District Judge as Reason for His Mid-Trial Removal

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories Putting an end to speculation about why a chief federal district judge was suddenly removed from an ongoing criminal trial in Chicago, the federal appeals court that axed him earlier this week explained today in a written opinion that it acted because of the jurist's "unreasonable fury" against prosecutors. Responding to a petition for a writ of mandamus by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, a three-judge appeals panel not only agreed with the government that excluded fingerprint evidence should have been admitted in the drug prosecution but took Chief U.S. District Judge James Holderman off the case in a Tuesday order… Read the rest of the...

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RICO Suit Seeks Billions from David Stern and His Foreclosure-Mill Law Firm

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: ABA Journal Top Stories A racketeering lawsuit seeking class action status and, potentially, up to billions of dollars in damages has been filed against a Florida lawyer and his foreclosure-mill law firm. Also named as a defendant is a bank-created company that, the complaint alleges, owned a criminal enterprise which operated to violate homeowners' legal rights by intentionally obscuring the true holders of mortgages under the guise of running a "registration" company that purportedly kept track of mortgage ownership. Filed Monday in federal court in South Florida, the suit (PDF) contends that David Stern and his Plantation law firm violated the Racketeer Influenced and… Read the rest of the...

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Baker & McKenzie to Pay $6 Million in Settlement Over Coudert Business

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: Law.com - Newswire Baker & McKenzie has agreed to pay $6.65 million to compensate Coudert Brothers' bankruptcy estate for profits Baker earned from unfinished business that partners took with them when they left the defunct Coudert. Baker will forfeit most of its interest in an estimated $17 million in contingency fees for litigation that former Coudert partners were handling. The settlement follows a recent setback for retired Coudert partners who sued to have several firms held as Coudert successors responsible for paying their pensions. Read the rest of the...

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ABA Delegates to Weigh Judicial Finance Training, Same-Sex Marriage

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: Law.com - Newswire Attorney Josh Markus will urge delegates at the ABA's annual meeting in San Francisco this week to officially encourage financial products and practices education and training for judges in the U.S. and abroad. The proposal is one of 35 resolutions up for debate, including a proposal that would urge state-level governments to eliminate all legal barriers to civil marriage between two persons of the same sex and oppose a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Read the rest of the...

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Financial Reform Keeps Law Firm Banking and Securities Practices Busy

Saturday, July 31st, 2010
Source: Law.com - Newswire Regulations for the recently enacted financial reform law are months away, but law firms with strong financial services practices are rolling out the welcome mat for client conferences and filling their calendars with client meetings. Clients' initial questions have largely focused on the so-called Volcker rule, which generally bans banking institutions from investing in private equity or hedge funds or engaging in proprietary trading, said Greg Lyons of Debevoise & Plimpton. Read the rest of the...

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