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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (186880)	2/19/2010 4:24:06 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361946

The law firm McDermott Will & Emery has launched Legal Crisis Strategies, a blog devoted to legal crisis management. The blog will provide advice on "preventing, managing and ending a crisis while protecting a company's reputation and limiting its legal liability." Notably for those in Massachusetts, one contributor to the blog is William F. Weld, the former two-term governor of this state. The blog's three primary editors are Lanny J. Davis, a partner in McDermott's Washington office; Eileen M. O'Connor, counsel in the Washington office and former broadcast journalist for CNN and ABC News; and Stephen M. Ryan, head of the firm's Government Strategies Practice Group. Just one post on the blog so far, aptly titled, The Dreaded Phone Call... legalcrisisstrategies.com

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (186880)	2/19/2010 6:49:55 PM
From: SiouxPal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361946

Rise In Teen Pregnancy Proves Teens Still Got It mobile.theonion.com

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (186880)	2/22/2010 10:09:46 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361946

Alvarez & Marsal Gets $233 Million for Advising Bankrupt Lehman By Linda Sandler Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Alvarez & Marsal LLC, the liquidator of bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., has collected $233 million in fees for “interim management” over 16 months, according to a regulatory filing. The restructuring firm, which provided Lehman with its current chief executive officer, Bryan Marsal, has made more than any other adviser of the investment bank since the September 2008 bankruptcy filing, according to a Feb. 19 report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Lehman said it paid all its lawyers and advisers $641.9 million through January. Lehman’s payments to advisers haven’t faced major challenges like those in the case of bankrupt automaker Chrysler LLC, which is using U.S. Treasury loans to wind itself down. On top of reported fees, Marsal’s firm has started earning a so- called “success fee” that can run to 25 percent of the amount the firm gets for dismantling New York-based Lehman over the life of the case, according to court documents. “Flashing a big number in this environment may be what people want to do, but it just isn’t correct,” Marsal said in an e-mail yesterday. “A&M was not hired as a legal or financial professional but instead as the interim management of the company.” Alvarez & Marsal employees working at Lehman as managers or analysts currently account for about 20 percent of the investment bank’s full-time employees, Marsal said. The success fee, equal to 0.175 percent of all the money above $15 billion that is paid to unsecured creditors, will be included in an outline of Lehman’s reorganization plan, which Marsal has said he seeks to complete by March 31. Cash Holdings Bankrupt Lehman and its affiliates reported cash holdings of $17.6 billion on Jan. 31, an increase from $17.2 billion a month earlier. In earlier months during the bankruptcy, the firm’s cash holdings rose as much as $1 billion as Lehman sold assets and closed out trades. Through January, law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP of New York collected $149.5 million for acting as the defunct investment bank’s lead bankruptcy law firm. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP got $42.4 million for advising Lehman’s creditors’ committee. Jenner & Block LLP, the law firm chaired by Lehman examiner Anton Valukas, earned $38.4 million for a year’s work producing a 2,200-page report on the bankruptcy that was filed in a Manhattan bankruptcy court under seal Feb. 8. Valukas has said he wants the report to be public. Lehman, once the fourth-biggest investment bank, is liquidating in bankruptcy to pay creditors. It filed the biggest U.S. bankruptcy in September 2008 with assets of $639 billion. Creditors include UBS AG, the New York Giants football team and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as well as individuals who hold Lehman bonds. The case is In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., 08-13555, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan). To contact the reporter on this story: Linda Sandler in New York at lsandler@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 22, 2010 00:01 EST

To: Cactus Jack who wrote (186880)	2/23/2010 1:26:54 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361946

Tech Lawyers Say 'Uh Oh' as Microsoft Outsources Legal Work to India By Alex Aldridge Legal Week February 23, 2010 Microsoft has entered into an agreement with legal outsourcing provider CPA Global to offshore legal work to lawyers in India. The technology giant began a pilot scheme with CPA in October and formally rolled it out at the end of 2009. A team of between three and five qualified lawyers at CPA are handling multi-jurisdictional legal support work, including legal research, for Microsoft. The lawyers are based in CPA's offices in Gurgaon, near Delhi. Microsoft has been outsourcing basic intellectual property (IP) and patent renewal work to CPA for five years, using a team of around 70 CPA staff. However, the new arrangement for general legal work operates separately. Microsoft's associate general counsel and director of worldwide IP operations Marty Shively, who is based in Delhi, has played a key role in putting the outsourcing project together. CPA chief financial officer for India, Anand Sharma, told Legal Week: "The arrangement principally involves legal research work with a flexible shared service team varying according to transactions handling matters for the company." News of the outsourcing comes after Microsoft cut its legal budget by 15% over the last two years, leading to a 5% reduction in headcount. Before the cuts, Microsoft's legal department had an annual budget of $900 million (£570m) and 1,050 staff, including 450 lawyers. Microsoft's tie-up with CPA is similar to a deal struck between mining company Rio Tinto and CPA in June last year, which involves a team of 18 lawyers — also in Gurgaon — handling tasks such as contract review, drafting and legal research. Other companies offshoring legal work to CPA in India include Bupa and Carillion.