Axiom Law | Media Monitor

Want A California Law License? You should take 15 units of law-school skills training, panel says: A passing grade on the bar exam wouldn’t be enough proof of legal competency in California under a proposal approved on Tuesday by a state bar task force. (ABA, 6.13)

Track Job Outcomes 9 Or 10 Months After Graduation? The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has voted to defer action until August on a proposal to push back by a month the date on which law schools measure graduate employment outcomes. (ABA, 6.10)

Offer Rates At Top Law Schools Are Better Than At Some Elite Kindergartens: Getting into a top law school is easier than getting into kindergarten at a private school in New York City. (ABA, 6.10)

Corporate Counsel/Governance/Compliance

The Problems of GCs Thrust Into the Media Spotlight: With the recent spate of government scandals general counsel are finding themselves increasingly thrust into the public arena. But are GCs ready for their media close-up? (CC, 6.13)

Lewis Steverson Goes From Motorola to Corning GC Job: Lewis Steverson has been appointed senior vice president and general counsel of specialty glass and ceramics manufacturer Corning Incorporated. (CC, 6.13)

Are GCs More Than Just Legally Trained Executives? General counsel are both lawyers and businesspeople, and their role is to further the interests of the corporation in any arguably lawful manner they see fit. (CC, 6.13)

What General Counsel Can Bring to a Company's Board: One of the notable features of the last two proxy seasons is the increasing number of shareholder complaints of misleading or inadequate disclosure materials, with courts often issuing preliminary injunctions enjoining proxy votes. (CC, 6.13)

Interactions Corp. Interfaces With its First GC: Boston-based Interactions Corporation named Dean Breda as its first in-house lawyer and general counsel. (CC, 6.12)

CIA GC to be Nominated Top Pentagon Lawyer: President Barack Obama intends to nominate CIA general counsel Stephen Preston to lead the legal department at the Department of Defense. (CC, 6.11)

In-House Counsel Talking to In-House Counsel: Corporate Counsel's 25th Annual General Counsel Conference offered a wide variety of talks and panels, including sessions on crisis management, bringing e-discovery in-house, and learning to be a GC. (CC, 6.11)

The Greatest Compliance Show on Earth! At the University of Houston Law Center's second Ethics and Compliance Symposium, forecasting expert Dr. Philip Tetlock and ex-GlaxoSmithKline in-house lawyer Lauren Stevens stole the show. (CC, 6.11)

Legal Department of the Year (Large Team): Emirates Group: Under the leadership of Rick Ward, the Emirates Group's legal department has been restructured into three divisions to align lawyers more closely with the group's core activities. (LW, 6.14)

General Counsel of the Year: Afshan Akhtar: Afshan Akhtar joined Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) with a brief to build a cutting-edge legal department befitting of one of the world's leading aluminium producers. (LW, 6.14)

Firm/Talent /Ownership News

The NLJ 350: In this annual survey of the nation's largest law firms, the number of lawyers increased just slightly in 2012. Most of the gains were among partners, and associate results were flat. (NLJ, 6.11)

Percentage of Women in 'NLJ 350' Law Firms Remains Low: Women accounted for about one-third of the attorneys and about 16 percent of equity partners at the largest U.S. law firms in 2012. (NLJ, 6.13)

The Careerist: Ladies, Is Your Firm on the List? WILEF releases its annual list of best firms for promoting women and there are some notable firms that didn't make the cut this year. (AL, 6.12)

Nina Gussack, the $65 Million Woman: She's female, a partner in Big Law, and she's got business. Tons of it. What's her secret? (AL, 6.11)

Scots Partners Brand Ashurst Launch As 'Unfair' And 'Anti-Competitive': Ashurst's launch of a low-cost base in Glasgow has provoked strong feelings in the Scottish legal market, with senior lawyers voicing concerns over the potential impact of the move. (LW, 6.14)

Epstein Becker To Close Atlanta Office: Epstein Becker & Green will close its Atlanta office by the end of the year as a cost-cutting measure, Thomson Reuters reports. (IC, 6.12)

Bank’s New Cybersecurity Audits Catch Law Firms Flat-Footed: Under pressure from federal regulators, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch has begun conducting audits on the law firms it does business with, to verify what they are doing to protect sensitive information. (ABA, 6.13)

DLA Gives Edinburgh Transfers Three-Month Trial In New Home: DLA Piper has taken the unusual step of giving staff transferred to its Edinburgh office three months to decide whether they are happy to make the move permanent or would prefer redundancy. (LW, 6.14)

Olswang Aims To Boost Female Partner Numbers With Flexi-Work Push And Gender Bias Training: Olswang is urging all of its partners to attend unconscious bias training as part of a push to increase its proportion of female partners, as the firm looks to ramp up the use of flexible working. (LW, 6.14)

Herbies Expands Belfast With Flexible Working Initiative: Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has launched a part-time, flexible working team in its Belfast office as it further expands the team in Northern Ireland. (TL, 6.10)

Ex-Patton Boggs Partner Sues Firm Over Discrimination: A former Patton Boggs partner claims he was treated unfairly and not paid money he was owed after he resigned because he had a disability. (NLJ, 6.13)

Proskauer, Former CFO Settle Bias Suit: In a suit filed in November 2011, former Proskauer Rose chief financial officer Elly Rosenthal accused the firm of discriminating against her—and, ultimately, firing her—because of her age, her gender, and a medical leave she took after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Rosenthal dropped the age and gender claims earlier this year. (NLJ, 6.13)

Copyright/Patent/IP

Apple Lashes Out at Morgan Lewis, Patent Holder Fires Back: Earlier this month Apple Inc. filed an astonishing motion to disqualify opposing counsel in a Northern District patent suit. (Recorder, 6.12)
Supreme Court Rules Natural DNA Not Patentable: A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that "naturally occurring" DNA segments cannot be patented. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for the court in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics. (CC, 6.13)

Patent Board's SAP Ruling is First Under New AIA Rules: In the first ruling of its kind since the America Invents Act established a new system for reviewing patents, the Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board ruled that a patent used in a case brought by Versata Inc. against SAP America Inc. is too abstract and therefore invalid. (CC, 6.12)

It's Not Just the Trolls, It's the Patent Quality: It has become fashionable in the U.S. to pin the blame for the problems in our patent system exclusively on non-practicing entities, but the larger problem is the poor quality of many patents, not the identity or business model of their owners. (CC, 6.10)

Firms

Defense Lawyer Gerald Shargel Jumps to BigLaw: Prominent defense attorney Gerald Shargel, whose client list runs the gamut from white-collar defendants to Mafia boss John Gotti, Sr., is closing his office and joining the litigation practice at Winston & Strawn LLP. (WSJ, 6.10)

Patent/Copyright/IP/Royalty

Pfizer Wins Patent Settlement: Pfizer and Takeda have reached a $2.15 billion settlement with Teva and Sun Pharmaceutical for patent-infringement damages resulting from their launches of generic Protonix in the U.S. (WSJ, 6.13)

A Bitter Dispute Over ‘Happy Birthday to You’: “Happy Birthday to You” is the subject of a new lawsuit against the publishing arm of Warner Music Group, which claims copyright ownership in the song. (WSJ, 6.13)

BMI Sues Pandora Over Royalty Rates: After unsuccessful negotiations concerning publishing rates, Broadcast Music Inc – better known as BMI, which represents more than 600,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers – has filed a lawsuit against music streaming service Pandora. (Forbes, 6.12)

Marc Toberoff, Superman's Lawyer: Marc Toberoff is an attorney who specializes in suing movie studios on behalf of artists and writers. For 11 years he has represented the heirs of the creators of Superman, in a campaign to regain the rights to the original superhero from Warner Bros. (BBW, 6.13)

Justices, 9-0, Bar Patenting Human Genes: The ruling will shape the course of research and testing, and it may alter the willingness of businesses to invest in understanding genetic material. (NYT, 6.13)

Bankruptcy

In Bankruptcy, Do Examiners Help? Bankruptcy courts' use of examiners can be costly, and the reports they produce don't always move cases forward. (WSJ. 6.10)

Antitrust

Apple's Eddy Cue Takes The Stand In E-Book Antitrust Trial: Hammered by the DOJ on the effect of higher e-book prices on consumers. (Fortune, 6.13)

Did Steve Jobs Give The DOJ An Antitrust Smoking Gun? The old joke among Apple insiders was that the ship leaked from the top. (Fortune, 6.12)

SEC

Recusals Likely for SEC's New Top Cop: Some of Andrew Ceresney's former law-firm clients are linked to at least seven continuing SEC investigations. (WSJ, 6.8)

SEC Sues Firm, Manager in Insider Case: The SEC filed suit against a California wealth-management company and one of its hedge-fund managers for alleged insider trading. (WSJ, 6.8)

S.E.C. Charges and Fines Revlon for Misleading Shareholders: The SEC said Revlon hid crucial information from its independent board members related to a complex corporate finance transaction that the company tried to execute with its minority shareholders. (NYT, 6.13)

SEC Chair Mary Jo White's First Big Test: Appointing Robert Rice as SEC counsel could have a chilling effect on the regulator's whistleblower program. (Fortune, 6.12)

Additional Probes, Suits, Settlements and Sentences

Walgreen Settles Over Painkillers: Walgreen reached an $80 million settlement with federal authorities over the drugstore chain's distribution of highly addictive painkillers in Florida, long the nation's epicenter of illicit prescription drug sales. (WSJ, 6.12)

Suit Against GM Dismissed: A U.S. judge has dismissed a $3 billion lawsuit filed by Dutch car maker Spyker against General Motors Co. (WSJ, 6.11)

Rand Paul Recruits for a Class Action Against NSA: Paul isn't sure yet whether he wants people to join the ACLU's lawsuit or will file one of his own. (BBW, 6.13)

Innovative Executives

Apple Plays Up Its Cool: Apple sought to recapture its authority as a tastemaker, unveiling the biggest redesign in iPhone software since the smartphone was introduced. (WSJ, 6.11)

Lululemon CEO to Step Down: Yoga-wear maker Lululemon Athletica said CEO Christine Day is stepping down after a 5 1/2-year tenure. (WSJ, 6.11)

Innovative Culture

Debunking The Narrative Of Silicon Valley's Innovation Might: The real innovation engine in the global economy is not the entrepreneurial class blazing capitalist trails through the thicket of government red tape and taxation. No. The real engine of innovation is government. (Forbes, 6.13)

Innovation: Leadership Is Always The Key: The transformation will come from leadership. (Forbes, 6.13)

Innovation Is 1% Inspiration, 99% Perspiration: It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen. (Forbes, 6.13)

Innovative Companies

Why Nike's Startup Accelerator Matters: The company is trying to jumpstart the wearable computing revolution -- not just hop on the Silicon Valley bandwagon. (Fortune, 6.11)

The Yogurt Company Growing As Fast As Google And Facebook: How do you get from zero to $1 billion in revenue in five years? (Fortune, 6.10)

Innovation Funding/Hubs

E-Cigarettes Attract Investors, Scrutiny: A group including Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Parker is investing $75 million in a leading maker of electronic cigarettes, part of a wave of money firing up a market that is under increasing regulatory scrutiny. (WSJ, 6.10)

Startups Tap Into Mobile-App Explosion: As the mobile business booms, an industry of little-known companies that serve app developers is growing quickly. (WSJ, 6.10)

Wrapp Raises $15 Million As Social Gifting Matures: Stockholm-based Wrapp is locking up more funding and moving headquarters to San Francisco. (WSJ, 6.13)