The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Lay Offs at Dechert

Dechert has laid off 13 associates in its finance and real estate practice, reports the Legal Intelligencer, a Legal Times sibling publication. But after issuing the layoff notices, the firm appears to have switched course, offering the associates positions in other practice groups.

See this Intelligencer story for more detail.

A&P Snags a Lateral

Arnold & Porter is bolstering its healthcare practice with Edith Marshall, whose career spans government, in-house, and private practice positions. Marshall joined the firm as counsel from Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access, a health policy trade organization, where she served as director of legal regulatory affairs.

Prior to that, she was a partner at Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville, a healthcare and education firm in the Disctrict, and she has worked as a staff attorney in the Department of Health and Human Services and as a litigator at the Department of Justice as well.

“Her background is a classic A & P type background. She has government experience, legal expertise, but also she has very significant experience in the policy world,” says Daniel Kracov, head of Arnold & Porter’s FDA and healthcare practice.

Wall Street Journal General Counsel is Out

The new ownership of the Wall Street Journal is having an impact in the newspaper's legal department. Stuart Karle, vice president and general counsel of the Journal since 1992, was asked to leave on Thursday. Reached by phone this afternoon, Karle declined to comment on the reasons he was given, and would only say that "I've had a spectacularly good time" helping the Journal achieve and defend its high level of journalism. Future plans are uncertain, he said.

Karle is a former Journal reporter and lawyer at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, where he worked with the noted Robert Sack, a First Amendment expert who represented Dow Jones and now sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Karle helped the Journal erase a $223 million libel verdict — the largest in U.S. history — awarded by a Houston jury in 1997 in the case of MMAR, a defunct brokerage house. The case and the judgment were dismissed in 2000. Karle also waged battle in foreign courts over articles in the Journal and other Dow Jones publications.

The Journal's parent company Dow Jones, now a subsidiary of the News Corporation, named Mark Jackson as its new general counsel in December, soon after the sale of Dow Jones to the company founded by Rupert Murdoch.

eBay Agrees to "Buy It Now"

A long-running patent dispute that went all the way to the Supreme Court and then back down to lower courts has settled out of court. The parties, eBay and MercExchange, announced settlement on Thursday. Though the exact terms were not disclosed, eBay announced that as part of the settlement it will purchase from the Virginia firm all three patents at issue in the litigation, as well as related technology and inventions.

MercExchange went to court in 2001 asserting that eBay infringed on its patents when eBay added the "Buy It Now" feature to its online auctions. A jury sided with MercExchange, and on appeal, an injunction was imposed on eBay ordering it to stop using the technology.

It was the injunction issue that went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2006 that injunctions in such cases should not be automatic. The case returned to lower courts and the two parties began negotiating. Sidley Austin's Carter Phillips, who won the case for eBay, said Friday, "I was happy to see it come to an end for the sake of the client."

Morning Wrap

Big Settlement: Covad Communications agreed to settle a $7 million derivative suit originally filed by former GC and co-founder Dhruv Khanna. The plaintiffs sought to recover at least $125 million in damages on behalf of the company, according to news reports. Last fall, the defendants - who included directors and a venture capital firm - agreed to pay Covad $5 million to settle allegations involving self-dealing directors, sexual harassment and retaliatory firing.

Name Game: An aspiring model's request to keep from being identified in a sexual battery suit she filed against basketball star Jason Kidd was denied by a Manhattan judge.

Lone Star: McDermott Will & Emery will open an office in Houston on March 3 staffed by three energy lawyers from Houston firm Bracewell & Giuliani.

Big Award: A Philadelphia jury awarded $12 million to a woman with terminal breast cancer in her suit against two doctors for allegedly failing to diagnose the disease before it had progressed to an incurable stage.

D.C. Madam Headed to Trial

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, charged with running a prostitution ring in the D.C. area, has mounted an unconventional defense in the last 17 months, while aggressively denying allegations that her business was anything but a high-class escort service. And now the D.C. Madam is scheduled for trial on April 7th, she said today.

“Without doubt, I am in the fight of my life,” Palfrey said in statement. “Unfortunately, the Government will not capitulate, nor will I in this extremely bizarre case.”

A quick recap of the bizarre: She’s moved to have the prosecutors and the judge thrown from her case; outed a U.S. senator and a State Department official who availed themselves of her services; sought subpoenas for Congressional leadership and reporters; fired her first two court-appointed attorney, in favor of her long-time civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley (who has been known to wear a kilt to court); and then fired Sibley last month. (For a comprehensive catch-up, click here, here, here, and here.)

Palfrey is now back with her second court-appointed attorney, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s Preston Burton, as of Tuesday. She’s also on her second jurist, U.S. District Judge James Robertson. Senior U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler removed herself from the case last December for reasons unknown.

From the looks of it, there’s a lot to look forward to at trial. “I intend to defend myself vigorously against the charges of racketeering, money laundering and conspiracy. I will call witnesses to testify on my behalf about the legal, sexual nature of my former business — Pamela Martin & Associates. These witnesses likely will be culled from the existing research — conducted over the past 8 months — by a variety of press/media, bloggers and interested third parties,” Palfrey said.

Covington Negotiates Settlement Over Textbooks

College textbook publishers McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education, Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and Cengage Learning, Inc. have settled a trademark and copyright dispute with the operators of the Web site ValoreBooks.com, which sells discounted textbooks.

Of counsel Ronald Dove Jr. and junior associate Hope Hamilton of Covington & Burling’s Washington office represented the publishers. Christ Gaetanos of the Buffalo, N.Y. firm Amigone, Sanchez, Mattrey & Marshall represented Valore.

The publishers’ lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, alleged that ValoreBooks.com had sold foreign versions of textbooks not authorized for sale in North America, as well as pirated electronic copies of the publishers’ materials. Though the terms of the settlement are largely confidential, part of the agreement prohibits Valore from engaging in either of these activities.

Dove, who belongs to Covington’s intellectual property and litigation practices, specializes in copyright and trademark litigation. He says Covington was retained for this matter because of the firm’s previous experience protecting clients against the sale of counterfeit products.

Dove has represented the National Football League in enforcement actions against the unauthorized display of NFL game telecasts, as well as various luxury good companies against the unauthorized sale of their products.

ABA Offers A Hand in Military Tribunals

In a letter to Bush administration officials yesterday, the president of the American Bar Association offered his organization’s assistance in ensuring fairness in the military commissions used to try suspected terrorists.

The letter, which was critical of a process described as existing outside “established principles of due process fundamental to our nation’s concept of justice,” is a continuation of the ABA's efforts to bring the military tribunals more in line with the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

“No matter how outrageous the conduct, we must insure that these detainees receive fair trials that meet the highest standards of due process and justice for which this nation has long been recognized throughout the world,” wrote ABA President William Neukom. “We believe the established principles of due process must be followed, and the ABA is prepared to assist.”

Neukom stopped short of offering to find civilian counsel for detainees charged in the tribunals, as the Pentagon has asked. The ABA had previously agreed to help find lawyers but withdrew its support last year, in protest the tribunals’ procedures.

So far, the Pentagon has assigned a military lawyer to represent one of the detainees, Mohammed al Qahtani. Al Qahtani is also the only detainee of the six with civilian representation, though Guantanamo Bay officials recently denied him and his lawyers a joint meeting. (Click here for an Associated Press story.)

In the letter, Neukom criticized the tribunals’ evidentiary rules — which could permit prosecutors to present hearsay and statements made by detainees under duress — and the limits placed on detainees’ access to their lawyers. He advocated a system that would provide for habeas corpus review and rein in military prosecutors.

Neukom’s concerns, he said, were heightened by the government’s decision to seek the death penalty in the co-conspirators case. The complexity of a capital case requires more from defense attorneys — more skill and more experience than perhaps is currently available, he said.

FCC General Counsel Joins Jenner & Block

Chicago-based Jenner & Block is touting a recent recruit for its telecom ranks.

The Federal Communications Commission’s former general counsel, Samuel Feder, is slated to join the firm’s Washington office on March 3. He will be a partner in the firm’s telecommunications and appellate practices.

Feder became general counsel of the FCC in 2005. Prior to that, he was a legal advisor to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.

Majoras Moves

The Deal is reporting that Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras plans to leave the nation's capital for a lofty perch in the legal department at Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. Before joining the FTC, Majoras was a partner at Jones Day and is married to Jones Day antitrust partner, John Majoras.