After the plaintiffs lawyer in a qui tam case against Sallie Mae and several other defendants repeatedly missed deadlines and court appearances, a Chicago judge gave him a final warning: One more misstep, and the case would be dismissed. Soon thereafter, the plaintiffs lawyer leaked a confidential document. True to his word, the judge bounced the case. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit said the judge had not overstepped his bounds.

Van Sicklen was drastically outnumbered in the courtroom when he argued for confirmation of the Wisconsin insurance commissioner's plan to segregate $60 billion in Ambac insurance policies in an account that will pay policyholders only 25 cents on the dollar in cash. But sometimes, smaller is better.

YouTube's $1 billion copyright showdown with Viacom over Internet content keeps getting more interesting.

Let the great Lehman v. Barclays fight begin! Jones Day has a tough road ahead--to recoup anything from Barclays for Lehman, the firm will have to show that the British bank did not negotiate in good faith. But the firm got over its first hurdle Wednesday, when the Lehman bankruptcy judge agreed to let the Barclays investigation proceed.

Lawyers for various Lehman Brothers directors and officers, including former CEO Richard Fuld, filed papers Wednesday in Lehman's Manhattan federal bankruptcy proceedings seeking the release of $90 million in insurance funds to settle securities fraud claims pending since June 2008.