Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Howrey, LLP

Buffett May Boost Burlington Northern Stake to 25%
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. may raise its stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. to at least 25 percent on speculation that railroads will haul more freight.”

Berkshire is now the railroad’s largest shareholder, with a 15 percent stake, about equal to Buffett’s ‘bellwether investments in American Express, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo,’ Banc of America Securities analyst Marisa Moss in New York wrote today in a note to investors.”

Under U.S. antitrust regulations, investors such as Berkshire are required to notify a company and get regulatory approval before reaching ownership levels set by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act of 1976.”

They get the authorization now and they have up to a year after they get the clearance to cross that threshold,’ said John Taladay, an antitrust specialist at the law firm Howrey LLP in Washington.”

09-04-2007

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Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, P.C.

Howard Rice Represents Client in $300 Million Acquisition by Yahoo!
Howard Rice represented WaldenVC, a principal shareholder of Blue Lithium, Inc., in connection with Blue Lithium’s acquisition by Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo! will pay $300 million in cash for San Jose-based Blue Lithium, an online advertising network. Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2007.

09-04-2007

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Edwards & Angell, L.L.P.

Client Advisory - U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Final Rule Changes to Practice for Continued Examination Filings, Patent Applications Containing Patentably Indistinct Claims, and Examination of Claims in Patent Applications
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a Final Rule in the Federal Register [72 FR 161, 46716-46843]. The Final Rule becomes effective November 1. 2007. It also is provided that for applications filed before November 1, applicants are to comply with the provisions of 37 C.F.R. 1.78(f)(1)/(f)(2) within the applicable time periods specified in the rules or by February 1, 2008, which ever is later. The effect of these changes will be felt immediately notwithstanding the date the rules become effective.

The Final Rule includes provisions that:

* limit the number of continuation (CON) or continuation-in-part (CIP) applications and request for continued examination (RCE) that can be filed as of right from an initial or divisional application; and require an applicant to justify the filing of any further CON/CIP applications and RCE to maintain the benefit of the earlier priority date;
* require submission of an examination support document when an application or a group of related applications with patentably indistinct claims exceed a threshold limit of 5 independent and 25 total claims (the so-called 5/25 Rule);
* require an applicant to identify to the USPTO all applications that are related to one another;
* changes practice for continuation-in-part applications; and
* re-define divisional applications.

09-04-2007

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Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC

Baker Donelson Boosts Tech Group with Industry Veteran
Technology industry veteran and Nashville native Steve Wood Jr., has joined Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC as Of Counsel, bringing the number of Nashville attorneys in the technology group to 11.

"We pursued Steve because of his unique background in the business of technology," said Bruce Doeg, managing shareholder of Baker Donelson's Nashville office and co-founder of the firm's Business Technology Group. "As a former tech company CEO, he understands the practical technology and business challenges that business owners face and is able to help them better balance the legal issues."

Mr. Wood brings to his law practice an unusual background that includes business experience in both commercial real estate finance and the vertical market software industry. He began his career as a commercial construction lender with a major bank in Charlotte, North Carolina, for three years before returning to Nashville as a commercial mortgage banker for two more years. Mr. Wood then attended law school at Vanderbilt, where he began work on a software application for automating the administration of commercial mortgage investment portfolios.

While practicing law in Nashville in the 1990s, he co-founded a business with his father to bring the technology to market, and he eventually left law practice to devote full attention to running the growing software business. The company achieved a 35% market share and was acquired by a NYSE-listed firm, and Mr. Wood stayed for two more years as division executive with the acquiring company.

Mr. Wood then spent five years as a full-time faculty member of Vanderbilt Law School, concentrating on practical business transactional law, and as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management. During that time he also worked as a business consultant and advisor to technology-oriented businesses.

The Business Technology group at Baker Donelson helps clients navigate the complex and wide-ranging issues of eBusiness and technology. The group's attorneys have a broad range of experience working with traditional companies incorporating technology, as well as business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies, eHealth concerns, financial service companies, eSolutions providers, capital sources and infrastructure companies.

09-04-2007

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Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP

Sheppard Mullin Welcomes White Collar Litigator Richard M. Steingard To Los Angeles Office
Today Richard M. Steingard joins Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton LLP as special counsel to head the Los Angeles office’s White Collar and Civil Fraud Defense practice. Steingard has exclusively practiced criminal defense for 25 years and joins the firm after 17 years of a solo practice in Los Angeles. Steingard's criminal trial and appellate practice emphasizes pre-and post-indictment representation of individuals and corporations, primarily in federal court.

His recent matters include RICO; mail and wire fraud; political corruption; trade secret, securities and foreign export violations; tax offenses; and environmental offenses. He has tried scores of cases in federal and state courts, and appeared in federal appellate courts throughout the country. Among his successes, he won an acquittal for Jeffrey Lo, who was accused of illegally smuggling an infra-red thermal imaging camera to China.

Steingard received a J.D. from Loyola Law School in 1982 and a B.S. from UCLA in 1979. He joined the California Bar in 1982 and the New York Bar in 1988. He is a former Board of Directors member of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and is the current co-chair of the Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit for the Central District of California.

09-04-2007

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Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell Attorneys At Law

Federal Judge Absolves Gulf County Commissioners of Liability in Landmark Ruling
Court finds commissioners cannot be sued in their official capacity

A Federal judge dismissed with prejudice August 30 a First Amendment case brought against five Gulf County commissioners by Freedom Communications, parent company of The Star, a Gulf County-based community newspaper. The County commissioners were represented by Rumberger, Kirk & Caldwell Partner Leonard Dietzen and County Attorney Timothy McFarland.

County commissioners requested an apology when The Star refused to publish an article on civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. The Amended Complaint alleges that because of The Star’s refusal, the commission issued a request for proposals regarding future placement of its legal ads and notices.

Though The Star continues to do all of the County’s legal ads and notices, the company decided to file suit against the County and each commissioner, alleging they violated rights to free speech and editorial discretion.

U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak sided with the county commissioners in dismissing the Amended Complaint with prejudice. Now, only the County is remaining as a party.

In handing down his ruling, Judge Smoak cited a Biblical verse stating that The Star “appears to have transposed the wording of the admonition of St. Matthew and has strained at a camel and swallowed a gnat.”

Thursday’s ruling may mark the first time a Florida federal court has directly held that individual commissioners cannot be sued in their official capacity with the county in a civil rights case.

09-04-2007

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Orrick LLP

Five-Member Global Compliance Team Joins Orrick in New York
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP announced today that a five-member global compliance team including Christopher R. Germain, Laura L. Becking, Joyce Chen, Adam S. Wolrich and Winston Suntaree has joined Orrick’s compensation and benefits practice in New York.

“This exceptional team has been working together for many years and will greatly benefit Orrick’s global clients for whom mastering the international regulatory environment is vitally important,” said Peter Bicks, the Partner-in-Charge of Orrick’s New York office.

With a worldwide network of relationship firms in more than 90 countries, the team will focus on advising global companies on the laws and regulations governing equity compensation grants for their executives and employees worldwide. Other areas of service will include advising on post-acquisition issues, international data privacy compliance and corporate governance such as document retention.

Germain joins Orrick as of counsel from Citigroup, where he led global regulatory initiatives for the Investment Bank as Director and Counsel to Citi Markets and Banking’s Strategic Regulatory Initiative group. While with Citi, he played an integral role in rolling out its equity compensation program in more than 100 countries in addition to establishing the worldwide privacy compliance framework for the implementation of Citi's global HR electronic information system.

Laura Becking, who joins Orrick as of counsel, is a former partner at Donahue & Partners, where she was head of the firm’s Human Capital Group. She has extensive experience managing international employment law, employee equity compensation, and data privacy projects for a wide range of companies in the financial, insurance, publishing, and e-commerce industries. In particular, she has assisted post-merger clients with operations in the Asia-Pacific region and the EU with the integration of data privacy, employment law and employee equity standards and systems from the legal and compliance perspective.

Adam Wolrich, joins Orrick as an associate from Citigroup, where he was a compliance officer for the Investment Bank. Joyce Chen and Winston Suntaree, also join Orrick from Donahue & Partners as an associate and project manager, respectively.

“We are very excited to welcome this great team to Orrick, which complements our global Corporate Secretary Services and enables us to expand the solutions we offer to large global companies,” said Jonathan Ocker, a San Francisco partner who leads Orrick’s compensation and benefits practice. “Now, for example, we have enhanced capability to design equity compensation and compliance programs not only for our global clients’ U.S. employees but for all of their employees throughout the world.”

"The need for a global corporate solutions team is a natural outgrowth of the globalization of our client base," added Orrick chairman Ralph Baxter. "We are talking with a number of major public companies about outsourcing aspects of their global compliance functions to Orrick. With the addition of this team to our Global Operations Center resources and our technology platform, we have in place all of the pieces to deliver that service.”

“Orrick’s top-notch global platform and its strength in practices complementary to our own, such as corporate and employment litigation, were key factors in our decision to join the firm,” said Becking. “We look forward to playing an integral role in deepening and expanding the firm’s client relationships and global capabilities.”

About Orrick's Compensation & Benefits Practice
Orrick lawyers are advisors to corporate boards and compensation committees at dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including multinational institutions, start-ups, tax-exempt entities, founders, and executives who are industry leaders in technology, biotechnology, communications, energy, media and entertainment, and financial services.

About Orrick’s New York Office
Orrick’s New York office is the firm’s largest, with more than 200 lawyers who are leaders in global finance transactions as well as in U.S. litigation and international dispute resolution. The firm’s New York lawyers have extensive experience in domestic and cross-border finance transactions, including structured finance and securitization; energy and project finance; and public finance. The corporate team represents new and emerging companies as well as established technology-oriented corporations. The New York litigation team handles commercial litigation, product liability, intellectual property and employment law in venues ranging from state and federal trial courts to the U.S. Supreme Court and in international arbitration.

09-04-2007

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