Will a possible antitrust class action settlement stop the Supreme Court from deciding a major issue related to class certification? Not according to Comcast counsel Miguel Estrada of Gibson Dunn.

Washington Mutual Inc.'s lawyers at Weil Gotshal filed the new disclosure in advance of a hearing Wednesday, but we've heard the settlement hasn't gotten final approval from all of the parties.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan ruled that, to put EMC Mortgage on the hook to repurchase failed loans underlying a mortgage-backed security, Syncora and its lawyers at Patterson Belknap need only show that EMC misrepresented the quality of the loans when the security was issued.

Just as they did after officials reached similar settlements with UBS and Bank of America, plaintiffs lawyers in private multidistrict litigation against the banks may argue that the JPMorgan deal sidelines class claims in the MDL.

"They definitely are not going to support the plan," said Boies, Schiller & Flexner's Nicholas Gravante Jr., about the position of his clients, who hold $6 billion of the debt of Washington Mutual Bank. "We are prepared to oppose it in bankruptcy court and any other forum necessary."

The American Lawyer named Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott as Litigation Boutique of the Year winner. The firm's work at trial separated it from the rest. As reported by David Bario, in the last two years, the firm's 69 lawyers took more than 15 cases to verdict in ten states and lost just three times. "Clients know we're perfectly prepared to go to trial," partner Philip Beck told Bario. "If you're afraid to lose, because you haven't won enough and you haven't lost enough, that's going to distort the advice you give clients. For lack of a better way to describe it, we're unafraid to try cases."

In further evidence that international securities plaintiffs are invading U.S. courts, Coughlin is claiming on behalf of a group of Hong Kong investors that HSBC failed in its obligations to back Lehman investment products.