Daily News Updates

'Founding Partners' Decision Shows Limits of SEC's Power Over Relief Defendants Jenner and Block's Michael K. Lowman and Andrew F. Merrick examine SEC v. Founding Partners Capital Mgmt., a recent federal court ruling that significantly curtails the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue ill-gotten gains from relief defendants in an SEC enforcement action. The ruling is significant for practicing securities lawyers because it confirms that there are important boundaries that circumscribe the SEC's authority to pursue claims against relief defendants.

Network of Small, Midsize Firms Look for Opportunity in Hard Times Hard times bring opportunities, and the network of small and midsize law firms called Meritas hopes that more general counsel come knocking as their companies look for ways to cut costs. Cost savings isn't the only reason to use one of Meritas' 170 firms, which are based in more than 60 countries (and 49 states). The firms and their clients also tout personal service, geographic reach and quality control.

Two Veteran Lawyers Say Now Is the Time for Fixed Fees In these troubled economic times, fixed fees for particular legal matters have appeal for law firms and their corporate clients. Ben W. Heineman Jr., former GC for General Electric, and William F. Lee, co-managing partner for WilmerHale, strongly believe that this is an idea whose time has come. Fixed fees provide reduced billing hassles, more predictable cost to the client and more predictable payments to the firm. Heineman and Lee address how to set price with quality and achieve cost and value alignment.

GC Didn't Split Stock Options With Ex-Wife, but That Wasn't Contempt The general counsel of LoJack Corp. has beaten a contempt judgment, but he still must kick in additional alimony to his ex-wife for money he made in company stock. In a matter of first impression, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts found on Tuesday that Thomas A. Wooters, top in-house counsel for the anti-auto theft company, ran afoul of a divorce judgment when he failed to pay his ex-wife's portion of the $1.2 million that he made from exercising his stock options.

Who Represents America's Biggest Companies ... and How For years, corporate counsel have been saying that they want to tear up the old model of doing business with their law firms. This year, they may finally start to make good on their threats. The recession is forcing corporate legal departments to rethink the concept of legal services in general. Although most of the same marquee names predominate the top of this year's Who Represents America's Biggest Companies survey, what is changing is the "how," rather than the "who."