LAWYER

Legal dramas on television helped an Illinois ex-con hone his acting skills and pass off as a hotshot lawyer, enabling him to represent paying clients for between $500 and $4500 till a court clerk recognized him and blew the whistle.

Nevada's new governor-elect and former federal judge Brian Sandoval has named his former clerk Lucas Foletta as his general counsel even though the latter has not passed the Nevada state bar exam.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said it will take longer than expected to win approval of a bankruptcy plan, and projects paying out $60.1 billion as it tries to settle differences with creditors owed six times that amount.

A U.S. judge approved a $7.2 billion settlement on Thursday to pay former customers of the Madoff firm, the largest yet in the worldwide search for money lost in Bernard Madoff's multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Paul Giamatti has always excelled at playing quirky characters in offbeat projects such as Sideways and American Splendor.

Italy's constitutional court ruled on Thursday that a law which has protected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution for corruption and tax fraud was invalid in key points and judges could order him to stand trial.

A plane carrying Polish leader Lech Kaczynski crashed killing all on board because the crew feared that aborting the landing due to fog would anger the president, Russian aviation officials said on Wednesday.

Two Ugandan journalists have been arrested over a cartoon of President Yoweri Museveni on the cover of their magazine which referred to his 24 years in power and asked Where next?, their lawyer said on Wednesday.

Court finds enough evidence to order trial for involuntary manslaughter.

The attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-AZ, and the murder of six innocent bystanders, at a “meet and greet” with constituents on Jan. 8, was a shocking and tragic event nationwide. Unfortunately, trying to kill American politicians is neither unique nor new.

A company suing Cisco systems for patent infringement got a new trial because Cisco's attorney made remarks about a plaintiff's religion, drawing attention to the fact that he is Jewish.

A federal judge in New York has okayed a class action lawsuit that accuses Leucadia National Corp., a financial services firm, the debt-collection law firm Mel S. Harris & Associates, and a Brooklyn-based process serving agency Samserv Inc., of a racketeering scheme that allowed them to fraudulently secure default judgments in New York courts against unwitting consumers around the country.

Survey suggests that a half or more of law school students feel inadequately prepared to handle the various non-academic demands of the profession

New York subway passengers, who were stranded for seven hours on the A train when the city was hit by a snowstorm on Dec. 26, are planning to sue the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

With the U.S. market promising little growth in 2011, law firms are looking at emerging markets in Asia and South America for spurring their expansion.

Richmond, Va.-based law firm LeClairRyan has poached on at least 15 Nixon Peabody lawyers, including 5 partners, who will focus on expand upon the firm's capabilities in intellectual property, bankruptcy and commercial litigation practices in the newly established Rochester, N.Y. office.

In the legal sector, many lawyers are leaving their law firms in search of greener pastures during the Holiday Season.

Hal Turner, a right-wing blogger and Internet radio host, has been sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for threatening to assault and murder three judges of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in response to their 2009 ruling upholding handgun bans in the city.

A California lawyer has agreed to be disbarred over a charge of stealing $117,000 from a widow after representing her in a case regarding her deceased husband's life insurance policy proceeds, according to the State Bar of California and Orange County District Attorney's (OCDA) statements.

King & Spalding has appointed Ross W. Nadel, a veteran Bay Area federal prosecutor, as a partner of its special matters and government investigations practice.

The defense is claiming that Michael may have inadvertently injected himself with a fatal dose of Propofol