The National Law Journal
Criminal enforcement chief reaches outside the ranks to hire a New York corporate defense lawyer to lead a section tasked with probing and prosecuting white-collar crime, a key role as the Obama administration ramps up efforts to fight financial fraud.
The Recorder
Wells Fargo will buy back about $700 million in troubled auction-rate securities from California investors under a settlement announced by the state's AG on Wednesday. In a separate deal, the bank will repurchase nonliquid auction-rate securities totaling some $700 million from non-California residents.
The Recorder
Google Inc. revised its controversial books settlement late Friday night and revived the debate over who should decide the fate of orphan works: Google or the government.
Corporate Counsel
After months of silence on the bank's controversial merger with Merrill Lynch, former general counsel Tim Mayopoulos tells Congress what legal advice the bank received—and says he still has no idea why he was fired.
The Associated Press
Senior House Democrat says the government didn't force Bank of America to take over Merrill Lynch, but Republicans charge that a committee inquiry was covering up the role of an Obama administration official.
Corporate Counsel
Three bank officials insist before a House panel that the firing of its general counsel in the middle of a giant merger was just ordinary corporate 'downsizing.' The panel's chairman, however, says 'it sounds like someone didn't like his legal advice.'
The National Law Journal
Head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division warns that the agency is planning to focus more criminal enforcement on the industry's interaction with foreign officials 'in the months and years ahead.'
Legal Times
The Supreme Court handed a big pre-emption defeat to business when it ruled 6-3 in Wyeth v. Levine that state litigation over drug labeling is not pre-empted by federal law.
The Recorder
K&L Gates partner Jeffrey Bornstein represented Merriman Cuhran Ford's former general counsel Christopher Aguilar, who was punished by the FCC for not detecting fraud at the investment bank.
The National Law Journal
It's all about location, location, location: Auto rental giant Hertz is incorporated in Delaware, has its headquarters in New Jersey and does its biggest volume of business in California. So where is Hertz's 'principal place of business?'