THE AM LAW LITIGATION DAILY: June 16, 2008

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June 16, 2008 9:24 AM

THE AM LAW LITIGATION DAILY: June 16, 2008

Posted by Jonathan Thrope

Edited by Andrew Longstreth

ON TRIAL
Winning Strategies In The Courtroom
Today's National Law Journal surveys the land for winning trial strategies, highlighting the victories of several Am Law courtroom stars. They include Morrison & Foerster's James Bennett, who successfully represented JDS Uniphase in a rare securities class action trial last year; Greenberg Traurig's Lori Cohen, who won a $78 million defense verdict in January for medical device maker Medtronic; and Henry "Hank" Asbill of Dewey & LeBoeuf, who followed up his victory last year over the Department of Justice with this year's win over the SEC, in both cases representing a former AOL executive who was charged with misleading investors and accountants.

IP
Baker Botts Wins $55.2 Million IP Verdict For Elan
Bloomberg reported that on Friday a federal jury in Delaware awarded Ireland-based drug maker Elan $55.2 million in its patent infringement case against competitor Abraxis BioScience. Elan, represented by Baker Botts partner Stephen Scheve, claimed that an Abraxis drug designed to fight breast cancer infringed one of its patents. For Abraxis--represented at trial by Michael Jacobs of Morrison & Foerester--it's a big loss: According to the Bloomberg story, the jury award represents 17 percent of the company's total 2007 sales.

WHITE COLLAR
Sentencing Memos for Refco's Phillip Bennett: A Tale Of Two Men
At his sentencing on July 3, former Refco CEO Phillip Bennett--who pled guilty in February to a dizzying array of fraud and conspiracy charges--faces up to 315 years in prison and $2.74 billion in restitution. In advance of that hearing, NakedShorts.com posts dueling sentencing memos from the prosecution and the defense. Bennett's lawyers at Kramer Levin, led by Gary Naftalis, describe him glowingly as a man who has a "strong work ethic, sense of honor and personal morality, commitment to his community, and deep love for his family." Not surprisingly, the Manhattan AUSAs who prosecuted him have a different take, calling Bennett a "dishonest human being" whose "lies were varied, detailed, compartmentalized, at times audacious, and for nearly ten years, totally convincing." Manhattan federal judge Naomi Buchwald will have to figure out who's right.

Where In the World Is Samuel Israel?
On Saturday The New York Times featured details of the worldwide search for Sam Israel, the man convicted of swindling investors out of about $450 million in the spectacular 2005 collapse of his Bayou hedge fund. Israel disappeared on the day he was to begin serving a 20-year prison sentence, abandoning his GMC Envoy by a Hudson River bridge with "Suicide in painless" written in dust on the car's hood. Federal authorities quickly suspected a hoax and, according to the Times, last week questioned the driver of a car seen near the site of Israel's Envoy. Israel's lawyer, Lawrence Bader of the esteemed Manhattan criminal defense boutique Morvillo, Abramowitz, declined comment to the Times.

As The Am Law Daily has noted, Israel isn't the first high-profile Morvillo, Abramowitz client to make an untimely exit: The firm also represents former Comverse CEO Jacob "Kobi" Alexander, an Israeli citizen who fled the U.S. after being indicted on a variety of fraud charges and was most recently seen hosting a lavish bar mitzvah for his son in Namibia, according to The Wall Street Journal.

SECURITIES
Milbank Hired To Represent Royal Bank Of Canada In Auction Rate Securities Case
We've learned that Royal Bank of Canada has hired Milbank, Tweed's Sean Murphy to defend an auction-rate securities class action filed against the bank last month. (The American Lawyer first spotted Murphy as a rising star in January 2007.) We asked Murphy how he got the assignment, but he wouldn't comment.

A few months ago auction-rate securities were a quiet $300 billion market that we and most of America had never heard of. But now that trading in the securities has dried up, there's suddenly an onslaught of litigation arising from investors who generally claim that banks did not make adequate disclosures about the liquidity (or lack thereof) of the securities. Read the Royal Bank complaint--filed by lawyers at Seeger Weiss, Girard Gibbs and Stueve Siegel Hanson--at the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.

Ralph Ferrarhesa Still Mum On Larry Sonsini
At a hearing last week in San Francisco federal court, Dewey & LeBoeuf partner Ralph Ferrara offered precious few clues about whether Brocade will pursue derivative claims against former outside counsel Wilson Sonsini--and its chairman Larry Sonsini--for their role in the options backdating scandal that rocked the company, according to The Recorder. (Brocade recently paid $160 million to settle a related class action.) Sonsini and his firm have already been named in the action, but the question is whether Ferrara, who represents a special litigation committee at Brocade, will recommend that his client join the the case. Ferrara has indicated that the committee will pursue 11 defendants in the federal case but he hasn't named them.

The Dewey partner did say at the hearing that he'll be giving the Brocade 11 a chance to respond before bringing claims against them. He also indicated that he'll be sitting down with the plaintiffs lawyer who filed the derivative case--Frank Bottini--to see if they can work together. Sonsini and his firm are apparently prepared for the worst: They have hired Cravath's presiding partner, Evan Chesler, to defend them.

LATERALS
Wachovia Hires Jane Sherburne As GC
The Dealbook folks at New York Times report that Jane Sherburne, general counsel of Citigroup's global consumer group, is joining Wachovia as general counsel.

Sherburne, a former partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, knows a bit about crisis management. She served as special counsel to President Clinton during several scandals, including Whitewater and Travelgate. As deputy general counsel at Citigroup she helped manage litigation stemming from the frauds at Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat. Wachovia, knee-deep in sub-prime litigation hell, should have no problem keeping her busy.

PRO BONO
Weil Wins Ruling for Widows of Disabled Vets
On Thursday, U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge George Miller granted summary judgment to the widows of three disabled veterans who sought the reinstatement of benefits that they alleged had been wrongly withheld by the Department of Defense. Lawyers for the government had argued that the law required a reduction in benefits to widows who remarry after age 57. Judge Miller disagreed. As a result of the ruling, the widows, represented by Weil Gotshal, are now entitled to more than $150,000 in benefits. Weil Gotshal partner Edward Reines, who oversaw the matter, told us that the decision, which was based on federal law, could mean that a whole class of widows will be entitled to reinstated benefits. According to Reines, the government estimates that the total cost of reinstating those benefits could exceed $30 million. In addition to Reines, Weil associates Michael Franzinger, Azra Hadzimehmedovic, Paul Ehrlich, Rip Finst and paralegal Anupama Chettri worked on the case.

Reines told us the case was referred to him by a lawyer at Disabled American Veterans. It was no accident that he got the referral: Reines, who is usually a patent lawyer, is president of of the Bar Association of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals--which, in addition to patents, oversees veterans' affairs.

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