http://www.law.com/newswire/ The day's top legal stories accompanied with summaries. en-us 07/24/2008 Copyright 2006 ALM Properties, Inc. 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/ A former client of Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner has filed a malpractice complaint against the firm and one of its partners, contending the firm concealed that it was simultaneously working for a key competitor. IVI Smart Technologies and two subsidiaries claim that Thelen, led by California partner David Ritchie, "actively assisted" the competitor in the repeated theft of intellectual property resulting in an alleged drop in the companies' market capitalization from $200 million to $20 million.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423252553&rss=newswire Four top figures in former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's administration broke the law by enlisting or allowing the State Police to gather records designed to tarnish Spitzer's chief political foe, a state commission has ruled. Spitzer himself was not charged. While the commission said it recognizes that politicians and their staffs routinely seek to provide to the press "negative ... information about their opponents," the use of the police to do so elevated the former officials' actions into violations.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423251560&rss=newswire Sources reveal that Wilson Sonsini and its chairman, Larry Sonsini, likely will not be targeted in a backdating derivative suit scheduled to be filed Aug. 1 by a special litigation committee at Brocade. The committee has been weighing whether to sue former Brocade execs, directors and advisers to recover some of the losses sustained by the company in the backdating scandal. Sonsini served on the board and Wilson Sonsini served as outside counsel during the time that Brocade granted backdated stock options.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423252849&rss=newswire Recently, while enjoying a five-minute lunch break of chips and a beef stick at his desk, humor columnist The Snark heard the joyful laughter of a group of summer associates and their mentors heading off for an afternoon of lunching. Was he jealous of their frivolity? Nope, The Snark accepts that the days of daily group lunches are a distant memory. An associate's place in the lunch cycle can be articulated by a simple analysis of five factors at any one stage of a big-firm career, The Snark explains.http://www.law.com/jsp/law/careercenter/lawArticleCareerCenter.jsp?id=1202423232891&rss=newswire Ultraportable laptops may travel easily, but they often sacrifice key features, such as optical drives or keyboard size, necessary for long stretches of work. Alan Cohen reviews the latest models, which, despite some hits and misses, still offer advantages to the mobile lawyer. http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202423244705&rss=newswire In-house counsel with limited licenses to practice in New Jersey will be able to represent officers, employees and directors under rule changes adopted Tuesday by the state Supreme Court. But the court deferred action on more sweeping proposals toward deregulating the practice of law by out-of-state attorneys. Retired Justice Stewart Pollock, chair of the rules committee, says that given the importance of the cross-border lawyering issues it's understandable the court wouldn't want to rush to a conclusion.http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202423235148&rss=newswire In a burst of compassion, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Wednesday suspended an order that would have cost three attorneys their licenses for up to a year for sharing fees with nonlawyers at the defunct firm of Tomar Simonoff. While agreeing with the Disciplinary Review Board that firm leaders Michael Kaplan and Ronald Graziano deserved one-year suspensions and litigator Charles Riley a six-month suspension, the justices put the three on probation instead of lifting their licenses.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423244708&rss=newswire The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause "prolonged mental harm." That heavily censored memo, released Thursday, approved the CIA's harsh interrogation techniques method by method, but warned that if the circumstances changed, interrogators could be running afoul of anti-torture laws.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423248828&rss=newswire The dry, technical world of patent law apparently has a seamy underbelly. And it was all hanging out Tuesday when MultiMetrixs' patent infringement suit against Applied Materials was irrevocably besmirched by documents supposedly signed by a dead man and a witness who'd sold freon to meth dealers.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423242764&rss=newswire Georgia's Court of Appeals has upheld a $10 million jury verdict against PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of four family trusts. In 2007, a jury found the Big Four accounting firm liable for negligent misrepresentation in a series of financial audits of a nursing home conglomerate. Two brothers associated with the trusts claimed that PwC had engaged in fraud that cost them more than $126 million in stock losses.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423245642&rss=newswire U.S. Supreme Court justices on both sides in last term's landmark gun rights case resorted to original documents in making their arguments about the meaning of the Second Amendment. But they -- as well as the lawyers in the case -- used a little-known digital resource to find them: The Constitutional Sources Project, which has digitized and made freely available online more than 11,000 historical documents relating to the Constitution and the amendments.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423240278&rss=newswire The Eastern District of Pennsylvania federal bench will soon be welcoming four new judges and bidding farewell to one judge who will be elevated to the 3rd Circuit if the Senate confirms a package of judicial nominations announced late Thursday. U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond was nominated to fill one of two vacancies on the 3rd Circuit and, if confirmed, would leave the Eastern District with four vacancies. Sources said the package of nominees has a good chance of winning confirmation.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423251503&rss=newswire The son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is suing Duke University, claiming his golf coach manufactured accusations against him to justify kicking him off the team to whittle the squad. The lawsuit also says the coach created a "Lord of the Flies scheme" under which reinstatement might occur. Andrew Giuliani, who contends he hoped to become a professional golfer, said in a statement Thursday that he sued "to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else at Duke."http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423242645&rss=newswire Allen & Overy continues to sit ahead of rivals in global project financing by advising on the largest number of deals for the first half of 2008. Infrastructure Journal research shows the Magic Circle law firm advised on 36 deals worth a combined total of $30.5 billion. Clifford Chance fell just behind the deal volume rankings with a total of 31 deals, but pushes ahead in deal value with an overall sum of $46.3 billion.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423237289&rss=newswire David Remes, among the most visible advocates for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, is leaving Covington & Burling at the end of the month, and says he plans to devote himself exclusively to human rights litigation. Remes, who represents 15 Yemeni detainees, announced his resignation less than a week after he made headlines for removing his pants during a news conference in Yemen while demonstrating how detainees are body-searched at the naval base. The firm declined to comment on Remes' departure.http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423251869&rss=newswire