Remember what a rough time Microsoft had with the European Commission's (EC) competition directorate in 2007 and 2008?

The housing collapse let Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal follow its growth plan by gobbling up more than half the attorneys at a failed rival

In 2007 Democrat Steve Beshear was elected governor of Kentucky after pledging to expand state-run gambling. Once in office, Beshear found that competition from online gambling was a huge obstacle. So in September 2008, his state filed a civil suit against absolutepoker.com, fulltiltpoker.com, goldencasino.com, and 138 other websites for exploiting its citizens. The Bluegrass State’sdemand: Block access for Kentucky-based gamblers, or we’ll take over your domain names.

There were 70 new law firm mergers and acquisitions in 2008, according to a new report from the legal management consultancy Altman Weil Inc.

Little did I know when I wrote about the origin of that famous pet saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" that Alabama still has a law on its books that declares altering the teeth of a horse or mule to make him appear younger than his actual years a serious state offense.

A proposed change to bankruptcy laws that would allow judges to reduce consumers’ mortgages may not succeed in reducing the foreclosures that have been dragging down property prices, according to a Barclays Capital strategist.

Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, pledged Wednesday that decisions at the agency will be based on science and the law and not politics.

A state panel is urging the governor and legislators to change "Jessica's Law," saying its restrictions on where sex offenders can live are counterproductive and calling the nearly $25 million a year spent to house them a poor use of taxpayers' money.

You may not have heard about this, but chances are, you will.

I heard something in passing but never paid attention. Today, I read about a hooper selling her hoops in Oregon who was told she can no longer sell them by shop owners.

The "Law & Order: SVU" star will continue to work even though her rep says she's been "sidelined with a pneumothorax," report news sources.

Many of us know calling or texting on your phone can cause problems on the roads, but a new law in effect July 1st will make texting while driving illegal.County Legislators voted Tuesday night that come July 1st, it is against the law in Monroe County to text on your cell phone while driving.In a rare move, both parties worked together.

OnlineNIC, the cybersquatter (define) against which telecommunications giant Verizon was awarded a record $33.15 million judgment recently, is one of the largest domain name registrars in China, InternetNews.com has learned.

Legal experts chime in about what's really behind the Free Software Foundation's legal action against Cisco, and what it means for the industry.

In California the law is copyrighted. That means it's illegal for citizens to copy or distribute the law of the land among themselves. An official digital copy of the California Code costs $1,556; a printed copy is $2,315. According to the California Office of Administrative Law, the state generates about $880,000 annually by selling its own laws to its own people.

What happens when interior designers battle other interior designers? In the 1980s sitcom Designing Women, catfights inevitably ensue, the occasional pantsuit with enormous shoulder pads gets torn asunder, and everyone has to reapply lipstick. In a more contemporary case, up-and-coming nonfictional interior designers are taking on an entrenched design cartel with the help of the libertarian litigators at the Institute for Justice.

The managers of the Fort Worth Employees' Retirement Fund thought they had dodged a bullet when Bernard L. Madoff was arrested on Dec. 11 for alleged fraud. Just a few months earlier the $1.7 billion public pension plan had pulled $10 million out of a hedge fund that invested exclusively with Madoff. But now the managers face the possibility of having to give back the money—a sum that includes all of the pension's purported gains over the years plus its initial investment.

Starbucks' legal wrangles with a union that wants to organize its baristas is tarnishing the coffee chain's reputation for social responsibility

I was intrigued by Donna Scheeder’s presentation on the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), which she gave during the 2008 IFLA World Library and Information Congress (www.ifla.org) in Quebec City. Not only is it a fine example of an information resource for the global legal community, but it also presents valuable lessons for cross-cultural digitization projects beyond the topic area of law. I caught up with Scheeder, director of law library services for the Law Library of Congress, a month after IFLA, at the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, Calif., and asked her to explain GLIN and answer some of my questions about the best practices revealed during the project’s planning and implementation.

The surplus of corporate litigation in the United States is rarely viewed as a positive, but for at least one British firm it constitutes a unique investment opportunity.

Creationists who want religious ideas taught as scientific fact in public schools continue to adapt to courtroom defeats by hiding their true aims under ever changing guises

The plaintiffs allege that the companies colluded to raise rental prices, as a result of Wal-Mart's decision to bow out of the DVD-subscription market in 2005.

Wade Roush reports on xconomy.com  that a Massachusetts legislator is reintroducing legislation in Massachusetts with the intent to ban non-compete agreements.    According to Roush's article,

20 August 2003. QuestNet, a financial research firm, offers this useful EDGAR research tool. Search EDGAR documents from 1994 to present by CIK code, ticker symbol, company name or keyword. The keyword feature utilizes Boolean and proximity connectors (e.g., (mars near(15) candy not music)). This is a subscription-based resource, but researchers receive a KWIC peek at the placement of search terms as well as bibliographic information about matching filings. The site also offers an alert feature for subscribers.

I receive e-mails to trade links all the time. Usually, these e-mails are from people I’ve never heard of telling me about websites that I’ve never visited before. I just assume that the names are all fake and are sent in bulk to e-mail addresses harvested from around the web. Today, Seth Godin blogged that he received such an e-mail from a well-known company. A very well-known one, especially if you are a lawyer or conduct a lot of legal research. This company is none other than Reed Elsevier, the parent company of LexisNexis. Just put all your case law online for free and everyone will be more than willing to link to you. Seriously.

Did you see this story, "Virus Suspected as 42 at Nursing Home Sickened"? It was a headline from the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal. The story is about residents and staff members at the Oaks at Forsyth who became ill last week from a a gastrointestinal virus. The symptoms included vomiting, diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps.

Is there a reason we've always been told not to stand too close to the microwave oven? If you can't remember the reason, it may be because you're using your cell phone too much. Scientists at the Division of Neurosurgery, Lund University, in Sweden Nittby studied rats that were exposed to mobile phone radiation for two hours a week for more than a year. They concluded that these rats had poorer results on a memory test than rats that had not been exposed to radiation. The radiation caused brain damage in the rats resulting in memory loss.

Discussion of personal injury law and legal issues, with focus on Virginia.

Author: Ben Glass, who edits this blawg, is a Virginia lawyer.

"You have to think of it as a death penalty case,” began Professor Paul Stephan. “Nowhere in the legal instruments is anything about capital punishment, but it’s not possible to understand everyone’s approach without framing it as a capital case.”

The West Virginia University College of Law offers a curriculum which blends skills, perspectives, and substantive law courses in a supportive learning environment. WVU is recognized nationally as a leader in providing a student-centered learning experience. The Law Center provides access to the Internet through a wireless network and has other state-of-the-art technology, including connections for laptops at each seat in the classrooms, web access at each carrel in the library, and video conferencing and distance learning facilities. Our graduates are employed at the major law firms in West Virginia, are members of the judiciary, and hold important positions in government. They are also in major law firms from New York City to Hong Kong, Rome to Pittsburgh and San Diego to Richmond. Many graduates also run their own offices and work tirelessly for those who have little or no money but desperately need legal representation.

W&M Law School professors are more than merely "accessible." They’re personally invested in your education and your success. Their teaching philosophy goes hand-in-hand with the Law School’s belief in the citizen lawyer. The goal is to educate the whole student, something that won’t be accomplished through lectures alone.

Atlanta-based King & Spalding is in talks to acquire most, but not all of Thacher Proffitt & Wood's lawyers, say two sources aware of the discussions. In order to avoid dissolution, New York-based Thacher hopes to find a partner to acquire it, these sources say.

The Supreme Court has already shown its skepticism of the Bush administration's war-on-terror policies through a series of rulings vindicating the rights of Guantanamo detainees and "enemy combatants."

Many partners will pick collegiality as the most important element of a strong law firm culture.

Divorce, custody, child support and alimony are matters of state law. In a divorce, issues of property division, child support, child custody, and alimony are decided by the judge in a trial, or agreed on by the parties in a Separation Agreement, which can be negotiated by their lawyers or in mediation.

Around the country, several local communities are abandoning planned holiday displays, reports Forbes. But the cancellations aren't the result of budget cuts, or even First Amendment-based claims of improper commingling of church and state activity. Instead, threats of copyright infringement actions are shutting down the displays.

Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, AIG: As Wall Street's woes continue, Law.com presents ongoing coverage of the financial meltdown from across the globe, with updates on the firms handling the bankruptcies, the fate of in-house legal teams, the legal implications of the Fed's fix and other ramifications for the law firms and lawyers involved. Check back for regular updates from all Incisive Media publications, collected here.

Authorities in Aruba said Tuesday they have dropped the case against three men in the disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway for lack of sufficient evidence.

A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a marathon deliberating session.

Eli Lilly and Co. said on Thursday it has agreed to pay up to $500 million to settle 18,000 Zyprexa lawsuits alleging it had failed to adequately warn patients that Zyprexa may increase the risk of diabetes.