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Edited by David Bario and Nate Raymond

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February 3, 2012

On Trial / Product Liability/Mass Torts

Novartis Scores Back-To-Back Jury Wins in Bone Cancer Drug Labeling Suits

Novartis and Hollingsworth, its national counsel in litigation over the cancer drug Zometa, got a double dose of good news in the past week with federal juries in Kentucky and St. Louis throwing out failure-to-warn claims by plaintiffs who blamed the company for their jaw disease.

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Securities

O'Melveny Beats Back Sucessor Liability Claim Against BofA in Countrywide MBS Suit

Plaintiffs hoping to hold Bank of America liable for alleged fraud by its Countrywide Financial unit got some tough news on Thursday. Despite Quinn Emanuel's aggressive efforts to keep the bank on the hook in a Countrywide mortgage-backed securities case brought by Allstate, Los Angeles federal district court judge Mariana Pfaelzer rejected the insurer's successor liability claim.

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Litigator of the Week

Gary Friedman of Friedman Law Group

The Supreme Court's increasingly tough stance on class actions nearly derailed Gary Friedman's $2 billion antitrust case against American Express over credit card merchant fees. But Friedman, a Skadden and Sidley Austin alum, kept plugging away. And on Wednesday--for the third time in three years--he convinced the Second Circuit to let his case go forward.

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Arbitration / Consumer / Securities

FINRA and Schwab Lock Horns Over Arbitration Agreements with Brokerage Customers

In the wake of a complaint by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Charles Schwab & Co. has turned to Arnold & Porter and gone to court to seek an unprecedented decision allowing it to escape investor class actions.

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Regulatory / Securities

Judge Tosses Claim that NASDAQ Profiled Chinese Company for Delisting

Amid growing scrutiny of so-called reverse mergers involving Chinese companies, China-based CleanTech Innovations accused NASDAQ of singling out the company for delisting in violation of the equal protection clause. But a federal judge in Manhattan agreed with NASDAQ's lawyers at Gibson Dunn that CleanTech's claims were precluded by the Securities Exchange Act.

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Appellate / Other

Ninth Circuit Rejects Fair Housing Act Discrimination Claims Against Roommates.com

The Web site scored a big victory on Thursday when the Ninth Circuit ruled that it can match potential roomies according to personal traits like gender and sexual preference that are crucial for most housemate-hunters. Timothy Alger, who joined Perkins Coie last year after a stint at Google and nearly two decades at Quinn Emanuel, has been litigating the case for Roommates.com since 2003.

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