After months of cutting quiet deals with banks in the high-stakes Manhattan state court litigation challenging its 2009 restructuring, MBIA Inc. reached a major settlement with Morgan Stanley on Tuesday. But for some of MBIA's Wall Street adversaries, the notion that MBIA had to rely on a loan to fund part of the settlement vindicates their claims that the insurer's restructuring was a fraud.

There's a reason Lumish has been a hot ticket lately on the lateral market: In his first trial since joining Latham in May, the IP litigator knocked out patent claims against TransPerfect Translation International that had threatened to derail the company's business, leaving his adversaries saddled with a $1 million damages award instead.

If we keep going at this rate, there soon won't be a prominent securities litigator in New York who's not involved in a suit challenging the bond insurer's restructuring. The banks' suit--the third in as many months against MBIA--is led by Sullivan & Cromwell, but S&C is not alone on the complaint. Not by a long shot.

The courts have largely ground to a halt for the holidays, though there's still time for few more decisions in 2012 that could ensure a happy or gloomy New Year for the litigators involved. In the meantime, here are some of the biggest rulings we're looking forward to in 2013.

Bank of America announced Monday that it will pay $1.6 billion to the bond insurer MBIA Inc., bringing an end to one of the most vigorously contested disputes to grow out of the mortgage crisis.