http://www.law.com Receive current business law headlines, decisions and news summaries. Law.com Practice Center subscription required. en-us 05/15/2008 Copyright 2008 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.law.com/service/terms_conditions.shtml http://www.law.com/img/newswire/buslawpc_rss.gif http://www.law.com/jsp/pc/buslaw.jsp All indicators point to the Philadelphia region as an undeniably thriving economic environment for the paralegal profession. This environment generates almost endless possibilities for paralegals, in both traditional and expanding settings. Until recently, paralegals were only hired to work in a law firm setting. Today, paralegals are in high demand by corporations and government agencies to perform legal research and provide information in the ordinary course of business. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421412927&rss=null A Texas appeals court on May 14 overturned a multimillion-dollar verdict against Merck & Co. in one of the few trials it lost over its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx. In April 2006, a jury awarded $32 million to the widow of 71-year-old Leonel Garza, a short-term Vioxx user who died of a heart attack in 2001. That award -- $7 million for compensatory damages and $25 million for punitive damages -- later was cut to about $7.75 million under Texas law limiting damages. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421413541&rss=null As firms have continued to cram into Philadelphia and some have focused on expanding west to Pittsburgh, Lancaster and Harrisburg, the Lehigh Valley has been quietly transforming its image as an economic casualty to that of a promising region for new homes and businesses. Over the past decade or so, firms, particularly midsized firms, have gradually started to take notice. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421309248&rss=null Slip and fall at one of California's 57 Indian casinos and you might have a case in court. But hurt yourself at another of them, perhaps one just miles down the highway, and your claim might be headed to a tribal council. Or to arbitration. Or to a claims adjustor. Or nowhere at all. Ten years after Gov. Pete Wilson signed the first compact with a tribe allowing Las Vegas-style slot machines in California, personal-injury and property-damage protections in Indian casinos vary as widely as the tribes themselves. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421308876&rss=null Law firms needing extra capital from banks to weather the rough economy are finding that the times -- and the terms -- have changed. Many law firms are seeing a slowdown in work and a lengthening in their client payment cycles. At the same time, banks that provide lending to law firms to help cover their revenue gaps and fund bigger projects are implementing more onerous requirements for doling out credit. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421161602&rss=null A timely maneuver by Yahoo's lawyers apparently played a key role in scaring off Microsoft for the moment. In a letter to Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said concerns over Yahoo's plans to pursue a deal to outsource some online advertising to Google would bring "a host of regulatory and legal problems" and weaken Yahoo's paid search advertising position. Observers say it was a clever delay tactic by Yahoo's lawyers at Skadden that gave the company time to come up with the Google deal. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421156553&rss=null Federal Arbitration Act does not permit enforcement of contract clause requiring aggrieved party, before filing lawsuit, to institute mediation or non-binding arbitration. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawDecision.jsp?id=900005629271&rss=null Bankruptcy Code § 303(b)'s requirements for filing involuntary bankruptcy petition are subject matter jurisdictional in nature (applying circuit precedent while recommending that rule be reexamined). http://www.law.com/jsp/LawDecision.jsp?id=900005629275&rss=null Amended limitations period of Sarbanes-Oxley does not revive securities claims on which previous statute of limitations had run (joining sister circuits in addressing issue of first impression in circuit). http://www.law.com/jsp/LawDecision.jsp?id=900005629277&rss=null Although a sports agent's work can touch on everything from contracts to criminal procedure, the handful of Atlanta lawyers in the business say it's difficult for practicing attorneys to break into the cutthroat field. The recent experiences of three Atlanta attorneys who have attempted to generate new practices as sports agents show how tricky the business can be. http://www.law.com/jsp/LawArticleCorp.jsp?id=1202421309122&rss=null