By Joe Palazzolo . . .in the legal profession:�LegalZoom, the do-it-your-self legal documents company. The company filed for an IPO with the SEC last week that could raise as much as $120 million. It’s couch change next to Facebook’s zillion-dollar offering, sure, but LegalZoom aspires to take a big bite out of the�$266�billion legal services market in the U.S. And it already has spawned competition in the way of BizFilings, RocketLawyer and The Company Corp. LegalZoom’s growth — the company took in�revenue of $156.1 million in 2011, up 29.2% from $120.8 million in 2010,�according to its S-1 filing — points to a demand for cheap legal services that many have underestimated.The company sells a self-help document service online aimed at helping customers resolve common legal ... Continue reading →

By Joe Palazzolo What happens when a federal appeals court, reviewing a case en banc, votes 5-5? It takes a�majority�to reverse a lower court’s ruling, so the win goes to the appellee. It’s a rare thing, the en banc tie, and it’s even rarer that judges issue opinions in a deadlock,�but that’s what happened today in the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. So, the court issued three opinions, none of which represent the law of the circuit, since there is no majority ruling. (There is, however, a plurality opinion, and oddly, it happens to be the dissent.) The case concerns so-called���class of one� equal-protection�claims. Rather than alleging discrimination based on membership in a group such as a racial or religious minority, ... Continue reading →

By Chad Bray Bloomberg Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs Inc. director and former senior partner at McKinsey & Co., left, leaves federal court with his attorney Gary Naftalis. The upcoming insider-trading trial of Rajat Gupta, a former director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co., could be quite the affair. Several corporate titans are among the potential witnesses that could testify or whose names could come up at trial, which begins Monday, according to a filing by federal prosecutors made public�Thursday. The list includes Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and chief executive; A.G. Lafley, the former chairman, president and CEO of Procter & Gamble; and Kenneth I. Chenault, the chairman and CEO of American Express Co. and a Procter & Gamble director. Mr. ... Continue reading →

By Joe Palazzolo iStock Back in February, Raymond Bragar and Gregory Blue sued legal database providers Westlaw and LexisNexis, claiming they were engaged in the �unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works” created and owned by lawyers and law firms. Those works, of course, are legal briefs. But who really registers their legal briefs with the copyright office? Edward L. White, for one. He’s one of the plaintiffs, representing a purported class of lawyers who have gone to the trouble. Another plaintiff, Kenneth Elan,�represents�the vast majority of lawyers who have not. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan booted the would-be class of lawyers without registration from the lawsuit. “The statute is unequivocal that completing registration or pre-registration is a prerequisite to ... Continue reading →

By Joe Palazzolo iStock Trial watch: John Edwards’s�defense�lawyers rested their case�Wednesday�without him testifying, to the surprise of no one. Meanwhile, the government’s star witness in the perjury trial of Roger Clemens struggled with his recollections Wednesday, offering shifting explanations under cross-examination about the former pitching great’s alleged steroid use.�WSJ,�WSJ CDOs: U.S. securities regulators are investigating hedge-fund firm Magnetar Capital LLC, which bet on several mortgage-bond deals that wound up imploding during the financial crisis. “As we have stated publicly and acknowledged many times, the SEC has been investigating a variety of aspects of the CDO markets for some time,” a spokeswoman for Magnetar said in a statement. “We continue to cooperate with the SEC in relation to these inquiries,” the statement added.�WSJ Gupta case: In ... Continue reading →

By Chad Bray Bloomberg News Rajat Gupta’s lawyers want to show at his insider-trading trial next week that the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director is motivated by things other than money. However, the former head�of consulting firm McKinsey & Co. may have to take the stand to do so, a federal judge said Wednesday. Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for Mr. Gupta, argued at a hearing in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday that�he should be able to present evidence about Mr. Gupta’s charitable giving, saying his client was a renowned “humanitarian.” Mr. Naftalis said he believes prosecutors will present an inaccurate picture of Mr. Gupta and will argue in part that his was motivated by greed. Prosecutors said Wednesday that they had no intention of ... Continue reading →

By Joe Palazzolo iStock Otis Mobley Jr., a 23-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, faces charges that could put him away for a long time, including assault on a federal agent. Prosecutors say he orchestrated a bogus deal to sell a grenade launcher in the parking lot of a Chevy’s restaurant in Richmond, Calif. Rather than hock a large weapon, Mr. Mobley, his 18-year-old cousin and an associate tried to rob the buyer of $1,000, according to prosecutors. The Justice Department believes the charges and Mr. Mobley’s past — he admitted in 2009 to shooting a man to death in a drug deal gone bad, for instance — counsel keeping him behind bars pending the outcome of his trial. But U.S. District Judge Yvonne ... Continue reading →

By Jennifer Smith Nothing left but empty chairs at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP’s office of the chairman, the crisis team formed in late March to lead the embattled New York law firm as it contended with partners exits, compensation disputes and negotiations with creditors. Washington D.C. partner Charles Landgraf, the last remaining member of the office of the chairman, joined Arnold & Porter LLP,� a firm spokeswoman said Wednesday. Over the weekend WSJ spoke at length with Mr. Landgraf and his co-chair, departing bankruptcy partner Martin Bienenstock, about plans to wind down Dewey’s operations and how the firm ended up in this state. Earlier last week their former co-chairs, litigator Jeffrey Kessler and corporate partner Richard Shutran–both long-time members of Dewey’s executive committee–said their goodbyes. ... Continue reading →

By Jennifer Smith In the years since the 2008 financial downturn forced law firms to trim lawyers and discount services, one question has loomed large: will the changes be permanent? Unfortunately, yes, according to a new poll of law firm leaders out Wednesday from the consulting firm Altman Weil Inc. From fiercer competition on price to outsourcing, shrinking equity partner ranks and increased �commoditization� of more routine legal work, the challenges facing the $100 billion global corporate legal industry are here to stay. That�s the widening consensus among law firm leaders, and a �dramatic� change from attitudes three years ago, when far fewer thought the shifts would be permanent, the survey found. The data comes from a survey Altman Weil conducted in March and April ... Continue reading →

By Joe Palazzolo Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press Former Major League baseball pitcher Roger Clemens arrives at federal court on Wednesday. The trial of ex-ace Roger Clemens on charges he lied about steroid use is in its fifth week, and already two jurors have been booted for sleeping on the job. You’d think the star pitcher’s�presence�alone would command more attention, and what about�Rusty Hardin’s suits? Aren’t they loud enough to cut through the torpor? No, it seems. From The New York Times: The first juror excused by the judge, Reggie Walton of United States District Court, was a 27-year-old chronically unemployed man who was let go last week. During juror questioning, he told prosecutors that he would �rather be asleep� than serve on the jury. In the ... Continue reading →