Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath closed all 22 of its global offices Tuesday due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. Attorneys worked remotely after concerns that employees in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office had potentially been exposed a day prior.
An ongoing royalties dispute between Indiana spine surgeon Rick Sasso and medical-device giant Medtronic will continue in state court despite Medtronic’s efforts to remove the matter to a federal judge.
For those of us who manage employees, how we engage (or don’t engage) them impacts how our work gets done.
A Pendleton Correctional Facility inmate will be paid $425,000 by the state after spending four years in isolation for a disciplinary violation he says he didn’t commit. But the settlement might not have been agreed upon without the help of a Chicago-based justice center that says it advocates for underdogs.
Volkswagen’s recent emissions scandal triggered criminal and civil prosecution by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2017, Volkswagen’s estimated cost resulting from the scandal was more than $30 billion, and that number is growing. In the wake of this scandal, the EPA has declared “war” on an entire subindustry — aftermarket parts — and anyone who manufactures, sells or installs devices that allow drivers to tamper with their vehicle emissions.
Law firms with offices and law schools with programs in China have been proactive in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. For example, Dentons has temporarily closed its office in Wuhan and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP told Indiana Lawyer it has closed some offices in China. Law schools in the state have suspended all staff and faculty travel to China.
On the heels of luring some key lateral hires and opening three new locations in December, Barnes & Thornburg is again expanding with the opening of its first office in New York.
A legal titan in the Indianapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg is facing attorney discipline charges over an alleged improper romantic relationship. The litigator and former federal prosecutor is accused in a disciplinary complaint of an improper relationship with the ex-wife of a former Fishers money-manager client who was convicted of securities fraud and is nearing the end of a 10-year prison sentence.
Hoosier attorneys Ann Marie Waldron and Mike Simmons just returned home after weeks on a boat they plan to work from for the next few years. The couple have decided to work remotely from their boat as they complete a tour of the Great Loop: thousands of miles of waterway along the riverbanks and shorelines of eastern North America.
Lawyers who have had a hearing or trial in the Indianapolis City-County Building often had to bring their own equipment, lug in the hardware, use their own applications and programs to present their material, then pack and lug everything back to the office. The situation will be dramatically different at Marion County’s new Community Justice Center under construction southeast of downtown.
Even after the advent of e-filing and some paperless offices, courier services are still available, and the need for such services persists. That need has evolved in the digital age, but attorneys and delivery companies say there are options available when technology can’t yet get the job done.
A new legal services company rooted in Nashville has recently settled in Indianapolis, with a Hoosier attorney at the helm. Latitude, a Tennessee-based legal services provider founded in 2014, announced the establishment of its Indiana office last month. The company claims it will provide on-demand, sophisticated attorney expertise for Indiana corporations and law firms while increasing flexibility and reducing costs.
The Baker & Daniels name which has been listed among Indiana law firms since 1889 was erased Feb. 1, 2020, as the historic legal entity transformed into Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath and is now one of the 50 largest firms in the country.
The world’s largest law firm now has an Indiana address as the combination between Dentons and Bingham Greenebaum Doll launched Monday as part of the global firm’s first step to creating a national law firm in the United States.
The year 2020 will go down in the Indiana legal history books as the time when big law came to the Hoosier state. Firm leaders say the growth is driven primarily by client demands for varied legal services.
SmithAmundsen and the Indianapolis intellectual property firm of Brannon Sowers & Cracraft have agreed to a strategic alliance which will allow each firm to retain its identity while having access to the other’s attorneys and resources.
Law firm managers have long known they can’t require attorneys to sign noncompete agreements when they join a firm. Even so, there have still been instances where firms have made it challenging for a lawyer trying to make a lateral move. But a recent opinion from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility makes it clear that any provision of an employment agreement that interferes with a client’s autonomy is never acceptable.
Faegre Baker Daniels is being sued by a former client in the cryptocurrency industry who claims the law firm provided erroneous advice that led to allegations of federal security laws violations and a $200,000 fine by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A federal appeals court’s reversal of Madison County killer Fredrick Baer’s death sentence was the most-read story on the Indiana Lawyer’s digital edition, www.theindianalawyer.com. Indiana Lawyer readers clicked on stories on our website more than 2.6 million times between Jan. 1 and Dec. 10, 2019, according to Google Analytics. Here are the 50 most-viewed story headlines during that time.
When those in the legal community look back at 2019, they may turn their heads and look forward instead. While the year had bright spots, several sordid sagas dominated the headlines.