http://www.law.com/newswire/ The day's top legal stories accompanied with summaries. en-us 11/20/2009 Copyright 2009. Incisive Media US Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml http://www.law.com/img/newswire/newswire_rss.gif http://www.law.com/newswire/ More companies are paying their outside counsel off the clock, according to the Hildebrandt 2009 Law Department Survey. Just over half of the 231 companies surveyed said they either have started or will start negotiating non-hourly billing arrangements with their outside counsel. The results weren't surprising to Lauren Chung, director of Hildebrandt's law department consulting practice and the survey's editor. "Everyone wants to do it," she says. "But the question is: to what extent?" http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435675459&rss=newswire The liquidation plan administrator for the Coudert Brothers estate is claiming that Baker & McKenzie breached an agreement with the defunct law firm by failing to hand over a portion of a contingency fee earned from work for former Coudert clients. The claims against Baker & McKenzie, contained in an amended complaint filed in bankruptcy court last week, involve a contingency fee that could be as high as $17 million. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435681853&rss=newswire The government made the right call. In retrying former McKesson HBOC Chairman Charles McCall, prosecutors decided not to put one-time cooperator and former CEO Albert Bergonzi on the stand. That forced McCall's lawyers to summon Bergonzi instead, and the jury didn't think much of his testimony. The jury convicted McCall on Thursday on four securities fraud counts and one charge of circumventing accounting controls. They acquitted the company's former GC, Jay Lapine, on each of the three counts he faced. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435683122&rss=newswire A controversy has been brewing in law firms as more documents find their way into Microsoft SharePoint's SQL Server: Is SharePoint a viable replacement for a DMS? Mark Gerow, of Fenwick & West, discusses the case for moving documents out of SQL Server using an "External Blob Store." http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435564733&rss=newswire A South Florida jury has ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker, agreeing that the tobacco company's negligence was the cause of her emphysema. The award for Cindy Naugle, 61, is the largest to date among 8,000 lawsuits filed in the state against tobacco companies. The award amounts to $56 million in compensatory and $244 million in punitive damages against Philip Morris USA, a unit of Altria Group. The company said it will seek further review of the verdict. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435712769&rss=newswire The federal judiciary saw a huge spike in online applications for clerkships from last year, according to a release from the judiciary. The Web site used by about two-thirds of all federal judges to find clerks saw 401,576 electronic applications between Oct. 1, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2009. That's a 66 percent increase from that time period last year, when 241,529 applications were turned in. The applications came from only 10,722 applicants this year, meaning each applied for an average of about 38 clerkships. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435705982&rss=newswire Some of London's leading law firms are considering outsourcing legal work as increasing numbers of firms look to cut costs by using external providers. Linklaters, SJ Berwin, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and CMS Cameron McKenna are among the eight. Camerons and SJ Berwin have yet to identify which areas they would like to outsource, while Linklaters is considering sending some document review, due diligence, contract development and legal research functions to an outside provider. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435664784&rss=newswire Cassidy & Associates vice chairman Gregg Hartley didn't like a critical New York Times story on one of the firm's biggest clients, Equatorial Guinea. So he's hitting back against the reporter using an unusual vehicle: his personal Twitter feed. The reporter's father, a federal judge, presided over a high-profile case involving Equatorial Guinea. Hartley acknowledged that he hadn't verified the connection before tweeting. "Here's one thing about social media. You don't have to always be right," he said. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435670880&rss=newswire During the third quarter of this year, gross revenue among law firms industrywide fell by 6.9 percent and net income by 6.1 percent, according to a new survey by Wells Fargo Corp.'s Wachovia Legal Specialty Group. "What that tells you is there is going to be a lot more riding on the fourth quarter," said Jeff Grossman, national managing director at Wachovia. The survey was of 131 firms nationally, 50 percent coming from the Am Law 100 and with at least 10 in each region of the country. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435677000&rss=newswire Habush Habush & Rottier is one of Wisconsin's largest law firms, but search for iterations of "Habush" and "Rottier" and a sponsored link for Cannon & Dunphy attorneys often shows up. The practice of paying for keywords on search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's has occasionally prompted a rival to claim trademark infringement, but Habush is trying a new angle. In a suit filed Thursday, Habush accuses its competitor of violating privacy laws. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435677621&rss=newswire The Justice Department announced Thursday that it has secured nearly $2 billion from lawsuits filed under the False Claims Act's qui tam provisions in the last year. Given the importance being placed on these cases, a 9th Circuit decision this week should take on greater significance, especially for parties that end up settling but don't admit to any wrongdoing. The circuit ruled the act does not preclude a settling defendant from seeking recovery and bringing claims against a third party for its alleged violations. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435676733&rss=newswire After doubling the bonus figures set by Cravath, Swaine & Moore last year, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom will this year match Cravath (and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton) by giving out a bonus that represents a sharp cut for younger associates. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435677440&rss=newswire As partners at Lovells and Hogan & Hartson met this week to discuss their planned trans-Atlantic merger in depth, more details emerged concerning the structure of the deal, which would see the two firms integrate governance and remuneration but maintain separate profit pools. The merged Hogan Lovells would bring the two firms' compensation structures into closer alignment, with Lovells implementing a structure similar to Hogan's merit-based model for partner pay. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435684853&rss=newswire Voting 59 to 39, the U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed David Hamilton's nomination to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The nomination had stalled for five months amid criticism from Republican lawmakers about Hamilton's pro bono work for the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Earlier this week, the Republican caucus fell short of maintaining a filibuster. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435674200&rss=newswire The New York Court of Appeals affirmed on Thursday the recognition of same-sex marriages by a county executive and a state agency, but by a bare 4-3 margin declined to extend full New York recognition to such marriages contracted in other states and countries where they are legal. The dissenting judges wrote that the ruling would "permit an unworkable pattern of conflicting ... directives." http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202435681299&rss=newswire The economy isn't giving us a lot to cheer about this holiday season ... and it could get worse. This year, it appears more companies are saying no to an annual tradition: the office holiday party. But attorney Kelly Phillips Erb notes that not only are holiday office parties a good way to say thank you to employees -- they may also bring tax benefits to the firm as well as employees. Phillips Erb discusses some of the things to keep in mind if law firms want to take advantage of those benefits. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202435670766&rss=newswire Big Law is governed by many unspoken social rules, says The Snark, and what is acceptable behavior often depends on where you fall in the Big Law hierarchy. The Snark, no anthropologist, nevertheless attempts to provide some meaningful guidance on the basic power structure and how it plays out in specific situations. A good rule of thumb is that Power Partners at the top can do whatever they want. The rest just need to pay attention and follow the example of those who have survived and are upwardly mobile. http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1202435674097&rss=newswire