LAW

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).

The number of U.S. consumers who filed petitions for personal bankruptcy protection grew 9 percent to 1.53 million in 2010 and this could rise as consumers struggle with excess debt in an uncertain economy, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), an association of attorneys and other bankruptcy professionals, and the National Bankruptcy Research Center (NBKRC).

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.

Attorney General Eric Holder has named Gary G. Grindler as the new chief of staff to the Attorney General.

Detroit-based non-profit healthcare service provider Detroit Medical Center (DMC) has agreed to pay the federal government $30 million penalty to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute by involving in improper financial relationships with referring physicians, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

A California-based former consultant for an expert networking and an investment advisory firm, Primary Global Research LLC, has been arrested by the federal authorities on charges related to her involvement in an insider trading scheme and has been detained for the New Year weekend.

Steven Rattner, former head of the U.S. government's Automotive Task Force, has agreed to pay $10 million in restitution to settle kickback allegations involving the roughly $132.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund and resolves the two lawsuits filed by the Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

A man was arrested at Miami International Airport after bullet components exploded in his checked luggage as it was being offloaded from an American Airlines flight in Miami.

Wilmington, Delaware-based chemical manufacturer DuPont has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $3.3 million for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

The federal judge in the Washington District of Columbia has granted preliminary approval to a long-running and highly contentious $3.4 billion Cobell Settlement - a move that could end the class action litigation over the mismanagement of trust fund assets for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans.

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

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has scored a big win for its client News Corporation (News Corp.) in its bid to buy the remaining shares in BSkyB by securing the clearance from the European Commission (EC).

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.

Toyota Motor Corporation has agreed to pay $32.4 million in fines to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) over delays in reporting safety defects in its vehicles on two separate occasions.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has been sued by The New York Times (NYT) for routinely violating Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) that requires government agencies to provide information to the press and the public.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, has accused Bank of America (BofA) and its lending unit, Countrywide Financial, of misrepresenting the risk associated with mortgage-backed securities it bought from them beginning 2005, and is suing them for more than $700 million.

Paris-based telecoms equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent SA and three of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay a combined $92 million penalty to settle a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation into the global sales practice of Alcatel S.A. prior to its 2006 merger with Lucent Technologies Inc.

A federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has convicted three members and the national president of a violent motorcycle gang known as the American Outlaw Association (Outlaws) of running a highly organized criminal enterprise, participating in racketeering activities and conspiring to commit violence in aid of racketeering.

Deutsche Bank has entered into a non-prosecution agreement to pay $553.6 million penalty for participating in fraudulent tax shelters that let clients hide billions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and dodge taxes, U.S. prosecutors said.

Dey Pharma, a subsidiary of Mylan Inc., has agreed to pay $280 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it had violated the False Claims Act by engaging in a scheme to report false and inflated prices for its products, knowing that federal health care programs relied on those reported prices to set payment rates.

Two former senior executives of Latin Node Inc. (LatiNode), a Miami-based telecommunications company, have been charged with bribing more than $500,000 to Honduran government officials and laundering money.

Death sentences in the United States continued to decline with just 46 executions in 2010, down 12 percent compared to a year earlier.

Lawyers for 20 U.S. states and Obama administration sparred in a Florida court over the constitutional challenges of the new healthcare law that requires all Americans to have medical insurance before 2014 or face a fine.

A former head of a talent agency has sued Jonathan Bristol, a former law firm partner of Winston & Strawn LLP, and the law firm, and is holding them accountable for the $2 million allegedly misappropriated from his investment account.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Jonathan Bristol, a former law firm partner, with aiding and abetting Kenneth Ira Starr's Ponzi scheme by allowing Starr to use his attorney trust accounts as conduits for transferring the funds stolen from Starr's clients to Starr and his two companies for personal use.

Four people, including an executive from an expert networking firm, have been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in an operation seen as part of a widening probe into insider trading.