Blawg Review features a new host every week. Blawgletter will enjoy that honor the seven-day of July 23.
We haven’t settled on our theme just yet, but we did learn something fascinating when having a look at the current Blaw Review host, Corporate Blawg UK — that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in
The WSJ reports, on this Friday the 13th afternoon, that the Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an informal investigation into web postings by the chief executive officer of Whole Foods, John Mackey, about Wild Oats, a competitor that Whole Foods has offered to buy.
Carrie Johnson reports the story in The Washington Post
The U.S. Supreme Court finished its 2006 Term on June 28, 2007. For business trial lawyers and their clients, the key decisions included these — all of which plaintiffs lost:
Blawgletter hasn’t paid much attention to the fraud and racketeering case against Conrad Black, not least because it struck us as an unseemly but semi-ordinary example of insider avarice. Plus it involved mere millions of self-enrichment — not the tens or hundreds to which we’ve accustomed ourselves.
But a federal jury in Chicago today found
Gazing on the gorgon Medusa’s snaky
visage ossified onlookers.
The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 pre-empts state law class and mass actions that allege fraud in connection with the purchase or sale of a "covered security". SLUSA thus tries to stop collective lawsuits that seek to avoid the limitations of the Private Securities
The Seventh Circuit today declined to review remand orders despite their inconsistency with another district judge’s refusal to remand a similar case. Citing Powerex Corp. v. Reliant Energy Services, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 2411 (2007), the court held that 28 U.S.C. 1447(d) "blocks appellate inquiry into whether the district judge [who ordered remand] is
Applying equitable estoppel principles, the Eleventh Circuit today compelled arbitration by a plaintiff-investor despite her failure to sign any of the securities investment advisor and broker agreements requiring arbitration. The court also allowed non-signatory defendants to compel arbitration of certain of her claims against them. Both rulings applied only to the extent the claims that
The Ninth Circuit held yesterday that some state law claims challenging rates for telecommunications services could proceed despite the "filed rate" doctrine. The doctrine relates to the terms and conditions that service providers file, with a government regulatory agency, such as the Federal Communications Commission. It bars claims that effectively seek damages equal to the
The Federal Circuit yesterday reversed a district court’s refusal to grant judgment as a matter of law on a counterclaim of invalidity for obviousness. Relying principally on its own 1988 precedent, the court held that prior art made the patents obvious under KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007). The
Ex-Milberg Weiss managing partner David J. Bershad admitted involvement in paying kickbacks to individuals who agreed in return to serve as class representatives. Mr. Bershad will forfeit $7.75 million and pay a $250,000 fine. He will also cooperate with the government’s ongoing case against others.
See the NYT story here.
Will Mr. Bershad’s guilty