LAW

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says he enjoys making banks squirm thinking they might be the next targets of his website which has published U.S. diplomatic and military secrets.

A Mauri, Hawaii-based man has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for passing on classified national defense information to China, besides committing other offenses such as money laundering and filing false tax returns.

Donald Verrilli Jr., a former partner at Jenner & Block, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as the Solicitor General of the United States.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay the U.S. government $2 million to settle charges that it acted with others in knowingly violating the False Claims Act by rigging a contract at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

A federal judge in California has allowed a committee of Hewlett-Packard's directors to begin a probe into the circumstances culminating in Mark Hurd's departure from the company.

BigLaw layoffs have slowed considerably in 2010 compared to the previous year, according to a blog that tracks layoffs at major law firms.

Bank of America Corp's Merrill Lynch unit has agreed to pay $10 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that has accused it of fraudulently misusing customer orders so it could trade for its own benefit.

U.S. generic drug maker Mylan Inc has settled two U.S. patent disputes with global pharma giant Pfizer Inc, which will enable the former to sell the generic versions of cholesterol drug Lipitor and combination blood pressure and cholesterol treatment Caduet.

Sara Lee Corp plans to split into two separate public companies focusing on North American meats and international coffee after takeover bids it received were not enough to entice it to sell the company.

Nasdaq did not publish quotes for its main indexes after the market opened on Friday due to a data outage, but individual stock quotes were unaffected.

Eric Schmidt, Goggle’s outgoing Chief Executive has expressed his intention to expand the firm’s business in china, said a report by BBC

British police arrested five young men on Thursday as they and U.S. authorities conducted searches as part of a probe into Internet activists who carried out cyber attacks against groups they viewed as enemies of the WikiLeaks website.

LinkedIn Corp announced plans to go public this year in what could be a test of investor appetite for social networking websites ahead of a highly anticipated Facebook offering.

Borders Group Inc received a financing commitment from GE Capital, providing a potential lifeline to the troubled bookseller, but said it would also explore options, including an in-court restructuring.

An American diplomat has shot and killed two Pakistani men riding on a motorcycle in the city of Lahore, apparently in self-defense, according to local police.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday said there was no possibility of providing India access to corporate emails on BlackBerry devices.

Bankrupt financial company Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc proposed a new plan for dividing up billions of dollars among its creditors and offered a bigger payment to bondholders, provided they sign on.

Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who played a vital role in the 1998 al Qaeda bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people including 12 Americans and wounded thousands of others, has been sentenced to life by a Manhattan federal court.

The Department of Justice was reprimanded today by the U.S. Congress for suggesting the necessity of the Internet Data Retention legislation, which if passed would require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to preserve records of user activity longer, but failing to provide more details on how it could aid in criminal investigations.

World's No.1 automaker Toyota Motor Corp. has agreed to pay $10 million to a family of four people who were killed in a runaway Lexus crash near San Diego last year that prompted a string of recalls of millions of Toyota vehicles.

Scott Farah, the head of New Hampshire-based failed mortgage firm Financial Resources Mortgage has been sentenced to 15 years in prison by a federal judge for duping hundreds of investors.

The president and the auditor of a Costa Rican company selling reinsurance bonds to life settlement companies have been arrested and charged for their role in a $670 million fraud scheme.

In what is being billed as the biggest crime bust in history, the FBI have arrested 119 Mafia suspects and have charged nearly 130 people connected to different crimes ranging from murder and drug trafficking to extortion, gambling, loan-sharking and prostitution.

Two owners of a Houston health care company have pleaded guilty to charges that they have swindled Medicare of $5.2 million by filing false claims.

A top antitrust partner at Howrey is leaving the law firm, adding to the growing number of top lawyers who have quit the firm in recent months.

A Massachusetts-based lawyer, who was suspended for defrauding 10 mortgage lenders of more than $10.6 million, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

MTV executives have ordered changes in a new hit drama called 'Skins' because of fears that some explicit scenes could violate child pornography laws by featuring the sex- and drug-fueled exploits of misfit teenagers.

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft has reportedly poached on as many as nine partners from McDermott Will & Emery and dozens of associates are also expected to make the move in the coming days.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters have topped the list of legal advisers to European mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by value and volume in 2010, according to Legal Week.