http://www.law.com/newswire/ The day's top legal stories accompanied with summaries. en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 13:48:42 EDT Copyright 2013. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/terms.jsp http://www.law.com/img/newswire/newswire_rss.gif http://www.law.com/newswire/ Prosecutions under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act against individuals, businesses or government entities dropped by 52 percent in 2012, compared to 2011, according to TRACE, a Maryland-based nonprofit that focuses on anti-bribery compliance. However, enforcement actions are surging this year, said Julie Coleman, TRACE's senior director of advisory services. "Originally, it was off to a slow start, but there are a lot of things percolating." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600913366&rss=newswire A divided Federal Circuit has affirmed a jury verdict upholding the validity of a patent owned by licensing company Alexsam that covers systems used to process prepaid phone and gift cards. But it reversed the Marshall, Texas, jury's finding that IDT Corp., had infringed the patent for one system, and affirmed the district court's ruling that there was no infringement on another. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.americanlawyer.com/digestTAL.jsp?id=1202601063587&rss=newswire With the U.S. Department of Justice under fire for secretly obtaining Associated Press phone records, a newly unsealed court document has revealed that federal prosecutors seized far more than phone records in one pending leak case. A DOJ investigation into leaks about classified information about North Korea also looked at a reporter's security badge access records and his personal emails. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600963152&rss=newswire The Justice Department's legal ethics division will look at whether a former U.S. Attorney violated department rules when he disclosed information to a news reporter, an inspector general report released Monday states. Dennis Burke admitted to releasing to a Fox News producer a memorandum related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking program, the report found. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600963970&rss=newswire Everyone knows that litigation often settles on the eve of trial. But sometimes it takes the reality of a retrial to bring the parties to the bargaining table. That was the case for Silicon Valley rivals Brocade Communications and A10 Networks, which reached a settlement in their long-running intellectual property spat even as jury selection was under way for a new trial on damages. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202600953316&rss=newswire Eric Turkewitz, of The Turkewitz Law Firm and author of the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, offers dos and don'ts for first-time legal bloggers. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202596852680&rss=newswire Attorney Daniel Cummins and staff reporter Ben Present discuss the emerging issue of social media law. In this installment, the two discuss the differences between Facebook and Twitter, and whether Twitter posts can be discoverable. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202594676587&rss=newswire Steve Fletcher, CIO at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, speaks to issues "bring your own device" policies bring to law firms, such as securing client data. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202595433638&rss=newswire Attorney Daniel Cummins and staff reporter Ben Present discuss the emerging issue of social media law. In this installment, the two discuss whether Facebook pages are discoverable. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202589225523&rss=newswire The recently established Institute for Law Department Excellence is on a mission to enable in-house attorneys to focus on practicing law, and to help those in key operations learn from each other. "If you are going to enable your lawyers to do lawyering," ILDE president Bill Young says, "they cannot be spending 25 to 40 percent of their time on administrative stuff." http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/corporatecounsel/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202600861735&rss=newswire LegalTech West Coast kicks off Tuesday with keynote from D. Casey Flaherty. Monica Bay interviews Cisco's ethics team and Stanford Law's Roland Vogl. [MORE] http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202600791240&rss=newswire An Indiana attorney has been suspended from practice for three years for pursuing a romantic relationship with a summer law clerk and attempting to destroy her legal career when she rejected his advances. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600884368&rss=newswire http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600977203&rss=newswire Simpson Thacher &amp Bartlett is advising Yahoo in connection with its largest acquisition in a decade: the $1.1 billion cash purchase of blogging and social media platform Tumblr. Tumblr, meanwhile, is represented by Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin &amp Hachigian. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleALD.jsp?id=1202600936580&rss=newswire Latham & Watkins is fighting an attempt to disqualify the firm as lead trial counsel for Union Pacific Railroad, a defendant in multidistrict litigation over freight rail fuel surcharges. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600932526&rss=newswire Companies have wielded the Supreme Court's Morrison v. National Australia Bank in case after case to strike down securities claims related to overseas investments. So it's no surprise that the defense bar -- including the lawyer who won Morrison back in 2010 -- came out in force Friday to back UBS AG in an appeal that could blunt or even undermine Morrison's force. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.americanlawyer.com/digestTAL.jsp?id=1202600888101&rss=newswire Last month, a federal judge wiped out all but $5.7 million in potential damages from Dexia's $774 million fraud case against JPMorgan Chase over mortgage-backed securities. But now, the judge has brought the case back from the dead, ruling that he never had jurisdiction to hear the case in the first place. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.americanlawyer.com/digestTAL.jsp?id=1202600866385&rss=newswire http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202600939937&rss=newswire http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sign_me_in.jsp?article=http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202600691106&rss=newswire