It's not clear how the Supreme Court's landmark Concepcion arbitration ruling might apply to shareholder litigation. The Carlyle Group and its lawyers at Simpson Thacher are ready to test whether a public company can ban shareholder class actions.

For years, culminating with his Ninth Circuit win against UMG Recordings this week, Elkin has relied on a safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to fend off copyright infringement claims against his client Veoh Networks. Elkin's pioneering work has paid off for Veoh, and so far it's paying off for Google and YouTube as they defend against Viacom's $1 billion copyright suit.

You don't often hear complaints about working for Apple, Google, Intel, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intuit, or Pixar. But according to plaintiffs lawyers at Lieff Cabraser, Berger & Montague, and Grant & Eisenhofer, employees at the companies were the victims of a conspiracy to suppress their salaries and keep them tied down at their jobs. And on Wednesday, a judge in San Jose ruled that the lawyers had come up with enough evidence to allow their case to move forward.

Kirkland & Ellis partner William Pratt led the team that represented Discover in its landmark $2.75 billion settlement with Visa and MasterCard. We talked with him about the challenges to the litigation.