With Jones in the lead for Merck in the second bellwether Fosamax trial, it took a Manhattan jury only 25 minutes to decide that the osteoporosis drug didn't cause Louise Maley's jaw problems.

Court-appointed trustees in big-ticket bankruptcies are taking bold steps to recover billions from alleged malefactors on Wall Street and beyond.

The government laid it all on the line in its first major criminal case against Wall Street during the financial crisis. But, at least partly thanks to their lawyers at Williams & Connolly and Brune & Richard, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were pronounced not guilty Tuesday by a federal jury in Brooklyn.

To earn a crucial victory for background music provider DMX Inc. on Wednesday at the Second Circuit, Rich stood up against an entrenched licensing model, industry titans, and the daunting duo of Seth Waxman and Ted Olson. The win, he said, advances his "transcendent objective" of increasing competition in the music licensing world.

As expected, Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau yesterday announced criminal charges arising from a fire that broke out at the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan in August 2007, killing two firefighters. Charges were leveled against the subcontractor, John Galt Corp., and three construction supervisors.

A federal court judge rejected Merck's argument that the testimony of plaintiffs' expert witnesses was inadmissible.