A bit of news for you, LBers, before you clock out for the evening: The U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan is bringing back one of its own to head a unit formed earlier this year to pursue potential civil actions in complex financial fraud cases.

An announcement is expected Thursday that Heidi Wendel will serve as the new head of the office’s civil frauds unit, which was formed in March. Wendel left the office three years ago to head New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid fraud unit.

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The hourly billing rate charged by corporate lawyers rose from 2007-2009, according to a new billing rate report from CT TyMetrix and the the Corporate Executive Board.

But we shouldn’t be so quick to cue up the sad songs for corporate lawyers, at least according to a new report out from CT TyMetrix and the the Corporate Executive Board.

The groups studied more than $4 billion in law firm billings from 2007-2009, submitted by more than 3,500 law firms. The reports concluded, in effect, that billing rates have held up quite nicely, thank you very much.

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Animal law is hot, as we’ve discussed in past posts and stories. A new case of (not-for-the-squeamish) animal abuse in a lab uncovered by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) stands to validate the trend.



PETA has filed a complaint with the USDA against a North Carolina lab used by Pharma companies that tests flea and tick pesticides. According to this AP story, local prosecutors and the company’s president are paying attention.

PETA referred videos of the abuse to local prosecutors, an increasingly common tactic animal rights groups are using. Local District Attorney Frank Parrish said his office is reviewing the case and will investigate to see whether or not criminal charges should be filed.

“We will certainly be very thorough about looking at these issues,” he told the AP.

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Just because you graduate first in your law school class doesn't necessarily mean you have to go work at BigLaw or head back to the academy.If you're Edward Swartz, who died Friday at age 76, you devote your life to making the nation's toys safer for children (and along the way, you make a lot of money as a personal injury lawyer).



The annual list, which tended to hit the media in the run-up to Christmas, featured a range of toys, from crossbows to trampolines to figurines that could cause choking.

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You may well have missed the news over the weekend: the online bulletin board Craigslist decided to disable its "adult services" section after 20 state attorneys general demanded that Craigslist shut it down.



Craigslist didn’t comment on the move, which amounted to placing a black “censored” bar over the “adult services” link. So it’s hard to know exactly how long the bar is going to be up.

Another puzzler: why Craigslist made the move in the first place. According to legal experts, it didn’t have to. Craigslist, and other website operators, are largely shielded from liability arising out of posts, commentary, etc., made by third-party users.

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Technology has made it increasingly easy for the government to track an individual's whereabouts. But on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit ratcheted back the government's surveillance power.



But on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit ratcheted back the government’s surveillance power, finding that judges have the right to require warrants before police get cell phone records that could pinpoint a customer’s location.

The background sounds like the stuff from the now legendary HBO show, The Wire. Judges in a Pittsburgh drug case had insisted that federal agents get a warrant for cell-phone records to be used to track a suspect.

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What to make of H-P's suit against former CEO Mark Hurd? Can the company win?

The Internet on Tuesday seemed stuck all day on the Mark Hurd channel. First came the news late Sunday that the former H-P CEO would become the president of Oracle. Then came the more interesting news (at least to the LB’s ears) that H-P had sued Hurd to keep the Oracle move from happening.

But what to make of H-P’s suit? Can the company win?

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Well it sure didn't take long for Hewlett-Packard Co. to formally object to Sunday's news that Oracle Corp. had hired former H-P CEO Mark Hurd.



On Monday, H-P sued Hurd in California Superior Court in Santa Clara, Calif. Click here for the complaint. The gist of the claim claim: that in the course of his duties with Oracle, Hurd will inevitably disclose H-P’s trade secrets and confidential information, in violation of his severance agreement.

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It's not every day that the U.S. Senate holds an impeachment trial for a federal official.



In fact, it’s not even every decade. Consider this: the last one overseen by the Senate, in 1999, involved President Bill Clinton.

But another impeachment trial is set to begin early next week, one involving New Orleans federal Judge G. Thomas Porteous (pictured), who is accused of corruption dating back decades, including an alleged kickback scheme with a law firm.

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Every move you make, I'll be watching you. Sting sang those lines back in 1983, but the sentiment could well apply to the current relationship between Google and regulators all over the world.



Trouble in Texas? For starters, Greg Abbott, the Texas attorney general, is conducting an antitrust review of Google’s core search-engine business, a sign of widening government scrutiny of the Web giant.

Texas’s top prosecutor has inquired about allegations by several small companies that Google unfairly demoted their rankings in search results or the placement of their advertisements on the search engine, Google said Friday.

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The Supreme Court's recent decision in U.S. v. Skilling to narrow the scope of the federal honest-services statute has already benefited a handful of folks. But it just hasn't yet helped Jeff Skilling.



The Fifth Circuit on Friday turned down the former Enron CEO’s request for bail pending the continuing judicial review of his 2006 conspiracy and fraud conviction. The former Enron chief executive is serving a 24-year prison sentence.

In this ruling, the Supreme Court in June ordered Skilling’s case to be re-reviewed by the Fifth Circuit to determine if his conviction on 19 counts should be vacated or otherwise modified. That matter is still pending before the appeals court.

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In a decision that could affect the financial relationships between record labels and performers, a federal appeals court in San Francisco on Friday ruled that songs downloaded from Apple’s iTunes store are not actually purchased, but are rather “licensed” by the ostensible buyer.



The distinction is hardly academic. Under most recording contracts, artists are entitled to 50% of revenue from licensed uses of their music. That usually means soundtracks for movies, TV shows and ads. Sales, on the other hand generate royalties for the artist at a much lower rate—generally in the low teens, and rarely more than 20%.

But in reviewing a decision in a suit brought against Universal Music Group by producers affiliated with rapper Eminem, the Ninth Circuit held that iTunes downloads (even the DRM-free variety) are encumbered by enough restrictions that they can’t be considered sales at all.

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If you break laws at Burning Man, there's one guy to call.



Yeah, we know there are a few hipster 20-something lawyers out in LA and San Francisco who’re wearing ties and sweater sets now, but once the whistle blows this afternoon, it’s time to grab the ewire, dust masks, Luna bars, goggles, rebar, steel-toed boots, fur-lined leg warmers and head east to… the playa. The Playa. The Playa!

That’s right, ladies and gents, it’s Labor Day weekend. And that means it’s Burning Man time once again.

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In recent weeks, there's been a lot of talk about this outfit called Righthaven, a sort of online copyright enforcer for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The enterprise won a key ruling in a Nevada federal court on Thursday.



The company is a business created by Las Vegas attorney Steven Gibson and members of the Arkansas-based Warren Stephens family. On behalf of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the company surfs the web looking for online infringements of Review-Journal copyrights. When it finds infringements, it purchases copyrights from the Review-Journal and sues. Defendants typically get no warning, no take-down request, just a suit.

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There are, assuredly, several ways to look at the Roger Clemens prosecution.



One might see it as the justified targeting of an arrogant (and cheating) bully, who lied not only to Congress but to the American public.

Or one might see it as a purely political exercise, an exercise in grandstanding and muscle-flexing for a “crime” (lying to Congress) that, at best, gets prosecuted selectively.

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Recently revealed statistics show that illegal immigration is down. But another method of gaining residence in the U.S. is up: seeking political asylum.

According to the story, which cites statistics from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan research organization at Syracuse, asylum seekers’ rate of success in the nation’s immigration courts is the highest it has been in 25 years.

One significant factor is increased legal representation, new research has found. During fiscal 2010, for example, only 11% of those without legal representation were granted asylum; with legal representation the odds rose to 54%.

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Well, that didn't work. By "that," we're referring to the recent effort by a conservative group out in California, the Pacific Justice Institute, to force California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to defend Proposition 8.



To recap the situation: last month, a federal judge in San Francisco shot down Proposition 8, the voter-passed California initiative that bans same-sex marriage. Since then, questions have arisen as to whether the plaintiffs in the case have standing to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit.

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Updated August 19, 2010:

BOARD MEMBERS NOW FIND THEMSELVES UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR FRAUD AND NEGLIGENCE

The American Board of Internal Medicine has bungled its recent high-profile "investigation" according to two groups of lawyers filing charges. Board members THEMSELVES are now under Investigation for fraud and negligence charges. Two groups of class action lawyers are also gathering evidence.

Fraud investigation applies to the following Board members:

David B. Reuben, MD, Chair
Catherine R. Lucey, MD, Chair-Elect
Clarence H. Braddock, III, MD,
William J. Bremner, MD,
Marie T. Brown, MD
David L. Coleman, MD
John G. Harold, MD,
David P. Huston, MD
David H. Johnson, MD
Lynn Langdon (no medical degree)
Sue A. Ravenscraft, MD
Christine A. Sinsky, MD
Robert M. Wachter, MD
Keith R. Young MD



Original story information below:

The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) sanctions approximately 140 docs in exam scandal



WACHLER & ASSOCIATES P.C. -- Legal Updates

June 15, 2010: The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has filed suits against 5 physicians for alleged copyright infringement, the misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract. ABIM also immediately suspended or revoked approximately 140 physicians' board certifications. The organization alleges that physicians solicited or shared confidential examination questions used to certify doctors in internal medicine and its subspecialties.

The American Board of Internal Medicine has settled its lawsuit with two physicians it accused of collecting and disseminating questions from the ABIM's certification exam.

Modern Physician (Modern.Physician.com)

July 12, 2010: The lawsuit was filed in December 2009, and after a lengthy investigation, in June the ABIM formally sanctioned 139 physicians who are accused of collecting and sharing certification exam questions through the Arora Board Review, a Livingston, N.J.-based test preparation service. The affected physicians had their certifications suspended or revoked. As of June 28, related lawsuits filed against five physicians in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia were pending.

A settlement was reached June 10 in the initial lawsuit between the ABIM and doctors Rajender Arora, M.D., and Anise Kachadourian, M.D. The settlement included the surrender of Arora's internal medicine, geriatric medicine and gastroenterology certifications and the stipulation that Kachadourian not be allowed to take the certification exam for several years, ABIM spokeswoman Lorie Slass said. The lawsuit stated Kachadourian had taken and failed the test 10 times.

The court issued a permanent injunction barring Arora, Kachadourian, and the Arora Board Review company and its employees and representatives from copying, distributing, displaying or offering for sale any ABIM-copyrighted materials or any material derived from ABIM exams.

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http://www.modernhealthcare.com/arti...IAN/307129999#

ABIM Sorts Through Physician Appeals Over Arora Sanctions

WSJ's blog on health and the business of health

July 1st, 2010: We wondered how many of the doctors were appealing the sanctions — which range from a one-year suspension of board certification for sending a small number of questions to Arora after an exam, all the way to an indefinite revocation for “physicians who functioned as ‘ringleaders’; explicitly sought, collected and distributed many questions,” according to the ABIM. (Five physicians were also sued.)

The ABIM wouldn’t give us a breakdown of responses, but through a spokesman told us that some of the physicians have “admitted wrongdoing and are appealing for leniency in the sanction,” which the organization will consider as part of its appeals process. Some physicians haven’t appealed, and “many have asked for extension of the initial response for the appeal and those requests have been granted.” But overall, “most are appealing and a number have obtained counsel,” the spokesman says.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/07/...ora-sanctions/

About ABIM

Certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)

Quick facts about ABIM Certification

• ABIM certifies one out of every four practicing physicians in the United States
• There are more than 200,000 ABIM Board Certified physicians
• A patient’s most frequent encounter is with an internist

The subspecialties of Internal Medicine include:

Adolescent Medicine
Advanced Heart Failure & Transplant Cardiology
Cardiovascular Disease
Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology
Critical Care Medicine
Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Gastroenterology
Geriatric Medicine
Hematology
Hospice & Palliative Medicine
Infectious Disease
Interventional Cardiology
Medical Oncology
Nephrology
Pulmonary Disease
Rheumatology
Sleep Medicine
Sports Medicine
Transplant Hepatology

American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)

ABIM is one of 24 medical specialty boards that make up the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Through ABMS, the boards supposedly work together to establish common standards for physicians to achieve and maintain board certification. The boards were founded by their respective specialties to protect the public by assessing and certifying doctors who meet specific educational, training and professional requirements. ABIM is an independent, non-profit organization.

It's time for a cool change, LBers, in the form of an afternoon roundup post to finish the day.



Here goes:

Catholics Win in Wisconsin . . . A federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday against the University of Wisconsin at Madison in a case over whether the university could refuse to distribute student fees to a group of Roman Catholic students.

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The Justice Department on Thursday filed a civil lawsuit against Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff Joe Arpaio.



Arpaio told the USA Today that he was disappointed by the suit. “I thought we were really close to getting this resolved,” he told the paper.

Arpaio has for years been a vocal critic of illegal immigration and has carried out operations aimed at detaining immigrants and turning them over to federal law enforcement for deportation.

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