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Microsoft Pays A Mere $511M in Legal Fees
Lawyer Blog News |
2007/08/13 19:07
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Legal payouts of $511 million in one year would be enough to sink many companies. But for Microsoft, it amounts to a small victory.
That's what the Redmond company paid in legal settlements and related expenses in its fiscal year 2007, ended June 30. It was Microsoft's lowest total in years -- down from about $2.3 billion in payouts two years earlier.
But with cases still pending, most notably in Europe, it's not clear if the trend will continue.
The $511 million total for the year included payments in antitrust and unfair-competition class actions, intellectual property claims and a payment to extend a patent agreement with Sun Microsystems, Microsoft said in an Aug. 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
During the year, the company's highest-profile antitrust payout was the settlement of a consumer class-action suit in Iowa. Microsoft agreed to pay up to $180 million in that case.
In one sign of the change, legal subjects were barely mentioned during Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts in Redmond last month. In years past, antitrust issues weighed more heavily on the minds of analysts. |
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The Harris Law Firm Adds Family Law Specialist
Law Firm News |
2007/08/13 18:59
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The Harris Law Firm announced attorney Carla A. Scarpone has joined the firm.
Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Scarpone worked as a paralegal for Lehman Brothers in New York City, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center. She also clerked for Denver District Court Judge Robbins.
During her second year of law school at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, Ms. Scarpone received the University of Michigan Child Welfare Law Bergstrom Fellowship, and was one of a group of students awarded the Julie A. Nice Award for Outstanding Writing and Research for her contribution to a handbook on domestic violence. In addition to her law degree, Scarpone also earned a Master's in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Denver. She is also a trained and certified Child and Family Investigator (CFI).
About The Harris Law Firm
Established in 1993 by attorney Richard A. Harris, The Harris Law Firm is one of Denver's largest family law firms, and employs a legal team of skilled attorneys, law clerks, and paralegals. In addition to divorce, legal separation, and child custody and support issues, the firm also handles cases that include marital agreements, maintenance, and step parent adoptions.
The Firm represents clients from counties throughout the Denver Metro Area. |
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Qantas May Face Big US Fines
Lawyer Blog News |
2007/08/13 18:32
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QANTAS has admitted it may have to shell out far more than the $47 million set aside to pay potential fines and damages that could arise from a United States price-fixing investigation.
Managing director Geoff Dixon said yesterday that Qantas was not able to estimate the likelihood of fines in jurisdictions outside the US or what the outcome might be of third party class actions launched elsewhere.
Maurice Blackburn Cashman, a Melbourne legal firm of class action specialists, is suing Qantas, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa over allegations that fuel surcharges introduced in 2000 were artificially inflated.
The law firm alleges the airlines followed an index originally set up by Lufthansa and used it as a mechanism to inform each other how and when surcharges would be imposed.
Kim Parker, a principal of the law firm's major projects division, yesterday appealed to businesses that have shipped air freight over the past seven years to lodge a claim via her firm if they were unduly affected.
Earlier this month British Airways and Korean Airlines agreed to plead guilty in the US courts and pay separate fines of $US300 million ($355.6 million) after admitting their involvement in fixing fares and cargo charges.
At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, the UK Office of Fair Trading imposed an additional fine of pound stg. 121.5 million ($289.4 million).
Two other airlines, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, escaped prosecution by admitting their involvement and giving evidence against other carriers to the US prosecutors.
In his official statement yesterday, Mr Dixon said Qantas had thoroughly investigated the matter and was co-operating with regulators in the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand other jurisdictions.
"These investigations revealed the practice adopted by Qantas Freight and the cargo industry generally to fix and impose fuel surcharges was likely to have breached relevant competition laws," he admitted.
"To date, it has not been possible to quantify any direct or indirect liability associated with these matters.
"We are confident that the unacceptable conduct was limited to a small number of people," said Mr Dixon, adding that it was not appropriate to offer further comment.
Qantas yesterday continued to dismiss speculation it was selling its Frequent Flyer program to the Canadian company Aeroplan which also runs Air Canada's loyalty business.
The Australian carrier's corporate affairs department recycled late yesterday a statement issued on Friday denying that it was about to list the $3 billion-plus business and bring in Aeroplan as a partner.
Qantas fell 4 yesterday to $5.35. |
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Arent Fox Announces New Healthcare Lawyers
Law Firm News |
2007/08/13 18:15
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Arent Fox LLP is pleased to announce that Lowell C. Brown and Jonathon E. Cohn will join its Los Angeles, CA office as partners on August 7, 2007. The two lawyers, who were previously with the Los Angeles office of Foley & Lardner LLP, are two of the preeminent health care lawyers in California. The firm expects that it will add at least three associates to the health care group as well.
Robert O’Brien, the partner-in-charge of Arent Fox’s LA office, said, “The addition of Lowell and Jon strengthens the firm’s leading national health care and life sciences practices.” He said the incoming group “will serve as the core of a dynamic health care practice in California.”
Brown advises hospitals, health systems, long-term care facilities, medical groups, and other health care provider organizations in business, regulatory, and medico-legal matters; he has significant experience with laws relating to operational issues, including the design and implementation of compliance programs, practitioner credentialing, peer review, disciplinary hearings, Medicare certification, licensing and accreditation issues, and related policies and procedures. He is nationally recognized for his work involving the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), the federal law prohibiting improper emergency patient transfers by hospitals. Brown has extensive experience defending clients against actions by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to terminate Medicare provider agreements. His practice also encompasses operational issues, such as bioethics, medical records, and consent and confidentiality.
Cohn’s practice focuses on litigation and trial work with an emphasis on health care issues, such as long-term care, Medicare and Medicaid, fraud and abuse, and reimbursement disputes. He represents various long-term care providers in many areas, including licensing, certification, civil and criminal enforcement, reimbursement and collections, and other regulatory and administrative proceedings. Cohn also represents health care professionals in licensure and workers' compensation proceedings.
Arent Fox’s LA office has doubled in size to 20 lawyers since it opened on January 1, 2007. The firm expects to see continued growth in the office through strategic hiring to expand its core practice areas in California.
About Arent Fox
Arent Fox – a full-service law firm with offices in Washington, New York and Los Angeles – is a recognized leader in areas including intellectual property, real estate, health care, life sciences, and litigation. With more than 300 lawyers, Arent Fox has a wide range of expertise in corporate securities and transactions, financial restructuring and bankruptcy, government relations and regulation, labor and employment, finance, tax, corporate compliance and the global business market. The firm provides services to Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, trade associations, foreign governments, long-term care facilities, start-up companies, and other entities.
www.arentfox.com |
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Andrew Bleiman Joins Cheng Cohen LLC in Chicago
Law Firm News |
2007/08/13 18:09
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Cheng Cohen LLC, a Chicago-based firm focusing in corporate, franchise, technology and business litigation today announced that Andrew Bleiman will join the firm as counsel.
"Andrew is a smart, tough and experienced litigator," said Fredric "Ric" Cohen, partner of Cheng Cohen LLC. "His addition to the Cheng Cohen firm is an important step toward our goal of building the finest full service boutique law firm around."
With nearly a decade of commercial and civil litigation experience, Bleiman was most recently an associate attorney with DLA Piper US in Chicago where his practice concentrated on commercial and civil litigation.
Bleiman attended Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology where he received his J.D. with Honors. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from The University of Texas at Austin.
Founded in 2007, Cheng Cohen LLC provides experience in a wide range of
legal matters including corporate, litigation and franchising. The firm innovatively tailors legal services to meet each of their clients' specific needs effectively and efficiently.
Cheng Cohen LLC is located l101 West Fulton Market, Suite 200 Chicago,
IL 60607. The Firm's phone number is (312) 243-1701.
For more information,
please visit the corporate Web site at http://www.chengcohen.com. |
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Reyes Verdict Impacts Valley Executives
Court Feed News |
2007/08/13 17:55
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In the cubicles and offices of Silicon Valley, some executives and company officials are quietly worrying about the impact of a jury's decision convicting former Brocade Communications Chief Executive Greg Reyes of securities fraud, according to several attorneys involved in other backdating cases.
Tuesday, Reyes was found guilty of 10 criminal charges, including conspiracy and securities fraud, in the first criminal case associated with stock-option backdating. Many local attorneys following the case had predicted the prosecution would have a tough time proving that Reyes intended to defraud investors in part because he did not personally benefit.
"Before, people were waiting and holding their breath," said Darren Robbins, an attorney at Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins in San Diego who is involved in several cases against companies still under investigation by regulators and the Department of Justice. "Many defendants are, at least what we are hearing, is they are trying to pick themselves back up from the surprise."
Since the first disclosures of stock-option backdating in early 2005, more than 200 investigations have been launched nationwide. In the valley, where the biggest number of internal and outside probes are being conducted, there have been two indictments. In addition to Reyes, who plans to appeal, prosecutors earlier this year filed a criminal case against Kent Roberts, the former general counsel at McAfee.
Backdating refers to the practice of going back in time, typically to when a stock's price was lower, to pick the date for option grants, increasing the odds that the recipient could sell the stock at a profit. While the practice is not illegal, prosecutors said failing to disclose the change and the impact on a company's financial statements is fraudulent.
Some executives who already have participated in a company's internal investigation may be especially nervous, said Christopher Cooke, a partner with Cooke, Kobrick & Wu in San Mateo and a former enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That's because one of the key pieces of testimony in the Reyes case came from Craig Martin, an attorney who conducted Brocade's internal investigation. Martin testified that Reyes told him the company did not engage in backdating, contradicting a key part of the defense argument.
During the trial, Reyes' attorneys acknowledged that Brocade had engaged in periodic backdating to hire the best talent. But they said the company's finance department believed it had properly accounted for the option grants, that Reyes relied on their expertise and that he had no intent to deceive or defraud investors and regulators.
"It would make CEOs who were asked to provide information to their audit committee pretty nervous about doing that," Cooke said. "If the clients say anything that can be shown to be inconsistent," he said, that could later come back to haunt them as evidence of intent.
Matt Jacobs, an attorney with McDermott Will & Emery in Palo Alto and a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District, said, "Certainly, everyone involved in these cases has taken note of the jury's verdict, and the government will probably be emboldened to bring more criminal cases."
He noted that there are still many cases in which the Justice Department hasn't made a decision about whether to pursue criminal charges.
But many other attorneys say every case is different and that Reyes' conviction may not spawn more criminal charges. Prosecutors in Reyes' case, in an interview with the Mercury News on Wednesday, gave no indication that they plan to unleash new criminal charges anytime soon.
"It does depend on the facts of a particular case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Crudo. "I don't know if it's helpful to lump them all together." |
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