A Mississippi businessman has been awarded $103 million in a lawsuit against the Chicago-based law firm that he accused of defrauding his oil and gas business.

Lavon Evans Jr. filed the lawsuit in Jones County Circuit Court in Mississippi in 2008. It sought $150 million in damages from attorney Joel Held, who worked at the Dallas office of the Baker & Mackenzie law firm.

Held represented one of Evans' companies and manipulated documents and disclosed confidential information to benefit Reed Cagle, Evans' partner in Laredo Energy Holdings LLC, the lawsuit claims, among other things.

Baker & McKenzie told The Hattiesburg American in a statement that it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal.

The southwestern US state of Arizona executed a prisoner for a 1989 murder late Tuesday, after the US Supreme Court ruled the state can use a non-approved drug for the lethal injection amid a US shortage.

Jeffrey Landrigan was pronounced dead in the state prison in Florence at 10:26 pm Tuesday, KVOA News 4 in Tucson, Arizona reported. A KVOA reporter witnessed the execution.

In a 5-4 ruling late Tuesday, the US high court said a lower court wrongfully blocked Landrigan's execution after officials refused to reveal where they got the necessary drugs and as questions remained about their safety.

"There is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe," the Supreme Court said.

"There was no showing that the drug was unlawfully obtained, nor was there an offer of proof to that effect."

A federal appeals court that blocked the execution had earlier confirmed the drug came from an unidentified foreign manufacturer not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Arizona Attorney General's office has said the drug substitute came from a manufacturer in Britain.

The Federal Reserve won’t join a banking industry trade group in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to let the government continue to withhold details of emergency loans made to financial firms in 2008.

The Clearing House Association LLC, a group of the biggest commercial banks filed the appeal today. The Federal Reserve won’t file its own appeal, according to Kit Wheatley, an attorney for the central bank.

The banks are appealing a lower court order requiring the Federal Reserve to disclose lending records to Bloomberg LP, parent company of Bloomberg News. A federal judge ruled in August 2009 that the Fed had to disclose the names of banks that borrowed from its emergency lending programs.

“Greater transparency results in more accountability, and the banks’ fight continues to engender suspicion among taxpayers about the bailouts,” said Matthew Winkler, Bloomberg News editor-in-chief. “The banks’ move to appeal will deepen the public’s skepticism and defend a position that every other court has disagreed with. The public has the right to know.”

The Fed is facing unprecedented oversight by Congress. The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, known as Dodd- Frank, mandates a one-time audit of the Fed as well as the release of details on borrowers from Fed emergency programs. The Discount Window, which provides short-term funding to financial institutions, would have to disclose loans made after July 21, 2010, following a two-year lag. The Bloomberg lawsuit asks for information on that facility.

Amazon and the state of North Carolina have been fighting in court as NC tries to get residents that purchased on Amazon to pay sales tax the state feels it is owed. NC has demanded that Amazon reveal all sorts of buyer information like names, addresses, and the exact products purchased so it can asses sales tax on the items.

Amazon has refused to give specifics on what was purchased, though it did provide the names and addresses of buyers to NC authorities. Amazon has won a temporary reprieve in court with the judge presiding over the case stating that NC has "no legitimate need" to have details about purchases revealed to it.

However, the court said that the state could destroy the information is has now and then request new information from Amazon that would not be able to be tie a specific product to a specific user. Undoubtedly, NC will request this information and the courts will force Amazon to provide it setting a precedent none of us wants to think about.

A Florida arms dealer convicted in a $300 million Pentagon scheme is pleading guilty to another federal weapons charge.

A plea agreement filed in Orlando federal court shows that 24-year-old Efraim Diveroli of Miami Beach will plead guilty at a hearing Tuesday to firearms possession by a convicted felon.

Prosecutors say Diveroli possessed numerous weapons and tried to broker a deal for thousands of rounds of ammunition and other weapons gear with undercover informants. Diveroli faces a 10-year maximum prison sentence in that case.

Diveroli previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally ship Chinese-made ammunition to Afghan soldiers under a Pentagon contract. He is awaiting sentencing in Miami for that conviction.

The legal industry is falling apart. Not in the sense pundits meant when they gave that diagnosis in 2008 as firms were hit with the harsh reality of the recession.

Rather, the industry is moving away from a monolithic provider of legal services -- the law firm -- to a fragmented service platform where the competition isn't just a broadening array of law firms, but legal process outsourcers and other non-law firm legal service providers as well. "Law firms are really being circled by these things," consultancy Adam Smith Esq. partner Janet Stanton said.

Firms have to decide where they want to compete and how, and what fits in their business model, she said.

Not only are LPOs and other firms that are adapting their business models a source of increased competition for law firms, Edge International consultant Jordan Furlong said, but so too are clients who are increasingly bringing more work in-house.

Read here: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202473909000&Law_Firms_Feel_Pressure_From_New_Breed_of_Competitors