We like to compare high stakes litigation to Hollywood dramas. This one actually made it to the silver screen, but on Monday the Ninth Circuit cut the lights on the Winklevosses' battle to undo their $65 million Facebook settlement.

Following a ruling last month dismissing a mortgage-backed securities suit against Countrywide, another Manhattan federal district court judge refused to toll the three-year statue of repose for securities claims in a class action involving Lehman Brothers.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and its lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges may never see the end of litigation stemming from Lehman's bankruptcy, but they've scored a victory in long-running legal battle with origins that predate the bank's collapse: Lehman's $22 billion leveraged buyout of real estate investment trust Archstone four years ago.

Hedge funds that lost billions shorting Volkswagen stock haven't been easily dissuaded from going after Porsche, which pumped up VW's share price in a botched takeover bid. On Wednesday a group of funds that opted for state court cleared a crucial hurdle, when Porsche's lawyers at Sullivan & Cromwell lost a bid to dismiss fraud and unjust enrichment claims that could be worth well north of $1 billion.

In Joe Mullin's latest column at Corporate Counsel, he pulls out some fascinating tidbits from the record of the case between the notoriously litigious patent holding entrepreneur and the company that has vowed never to cave to the demands of trolls.

Gerald Flattmann, who specializes in representing brand-name drug makers, concedes his decision to leave Kirkland is related to the previous departures of two other Kirkland IP stars.

Plaintiffs who withdrew more money than they invested with the Ponzi king may still be victims, but a federal judge ruled they aren't covered by AIG's fraud insurance.

As usual, there was plenty of news about tech patents last week, including the latest developments in the Apple/Samsung fight. But the most interesting story was about a portfolio of patents for grape varieties that's held by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

UBS AG will pay the Federal Housing Finance Agency a hefty $885 million for allegedly conning Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into buying more than $5 billion in dubious residential mortgage-backed securities.

The companies reached a deal Wednesday to end two-plus years of hostilities that kept lawyers busy at more than a half-dozen firms.