On the opening day of its fall term, the Supreme Court jumped right into a controversial case in which tobacco companies are seeking to block litigation in state courts over health claims made about "light" cigarettes. By the end of Monday's hourlong arguments in Altria Group v. Good, most justices appeared to agree with Altria -- the parent company of Philip Morris -- that the federal cigarette labeling law pre-empts state tort suits like the one before the Court. More

Prominent international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has agreed to pay $97.5 million to settle its part in a securities class action filed against American International Group by three Ohio pension funds, according to the Ohio attorney general's office. The settlement is one of the 10 highest ever paid by an accounting firm to settle a securities fraud class action and closes the book on PricewaterhouseCoopers' role in a suit filed against AIG in 2004. More

Troubled mortgage lender Countrywide will modify risky home loans and suspend some foreclosures as part of a massive $8.7 billion settlement with 11 states, California Attorney General Jerry Brown and Bank of America, Countrywide's new parent company, announced Monday. Brown's office said the deal will likely become "the largest predatory lending settlement in history." The settlement does not drop complaints against Countrywide executives Angelo Mozilo and David Sambol. More

Law firms with banking and finance practices that were recently making deals with free-flowing credit are now scrambling to launch new groups to help clients simply survive the credit crisis. The ripples of collapsing financial institutions are already reaching areas such as white-collar crime, banking, securities and transactions. "Anyone who says they know where this is going is full of baloney," says Bracewell & Giuliani Chairman Pat Oxford, who is heading the firm's new financial industry task force. More

Although more law schools are teaching future lawyers about the economics of law firm life, there are no courses on how to work with support staff. Most new lawyers arrive at their desks without any prior experience in managing and supervising others. Relax, says Molly Peckman, director of associate development at Dechert. There are tons of books and online survival guides for supervisors, but all you really need to know about working with support staff are lessons you learned in kindergarten. More

Barack Obama and John McCain have been running a tight race among the country's top corporate lawyers. McCain has a slight lead in total donations from general counsel at Fortune 100 companies, which is "really striking," according to Michael Toner, an outside counsel to McCain's campaign, who points out that lawyers generally tend to lean left politically. Still, elite GCs are giving significantly more to Obama than they did the previous two Democratic presidential nominees. More

Strict product liability emerged in the 1960s and 1970s as a potent force shaping the way product manufacturers do business. The basic parameters of the theory have been settled for some time, but the Internet is changing market conditions and the law is likely to change with it. More

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A standstill in formal litigation activity was declared late Monday by Citigroup, Wachovia and Wells Fargo, as the three sides tried to work out a settlement last night on the sale of Wachovia. The standstill, which puts a temporary halt to competing state and federal actions in Manhattan, expires at noon Wednesday, giving the parties time to complete an arrangement dividing the North Carolina-based bank's assets. More

The Supreme Court had a busy opening day on Monday, kicking off its October 2008 term with three cases instead of two -- a schedule that will continue on most argument days through November. After hearing argument in one of this term's highly anticipated pre-emption cases, the justices considered a First Amendment case involving union fees for litigation expenses. The third case concerned federal jurisdiction over petitions to compel arbitration. More

A Georgia Supreme Court decision on Monday allowing a suit by an autistic child's parents to go to trial could open the door to product liability claims against vaccine manufacturers. The court held that a federal vaccine statute's pre-emption of liability claims applies only to side effects that were unavoidable "by means other than proper manufacturing and packaging." The court took aim at conflicting rulings from two federal district courts and other states' courts. More

A disbarred attorney who lived three doors down from Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton in suburban New York was convicted Saturday of murdering his wife in what prosecutors said was an attempt to collect life insurance money. Carlos Perez-Olivo was found guilty of second-degree murder and could get life in prison. Prosecutors said he shot his wife in the head as she dozed in their car during a drive home in 2006, and then claimed they had been attacked by a carjacker. More

Could "being male" be a legally recognized disability? A good-faith argument supporting such a claim will be made eventually, says a Proskauer Rose partner who argues that men's greater susceptibility to certain diseases, a shorter life expectancy and a testosterone level that predisposes them to more aggressive behavior are factors that could be classified as a disability. A Morgan Lewis partner says employers are bracing for more disability claims in general, due to a federal law taking effect next year. More

Covington & Burling has added about 50 lawyers from Heller Ehrman, which voted last month to dissolve. The lawyers include 14 partners, six counsel and several associates. Covington also announced Monday that it will open two new California offices, in Silicon Valley and San Diego. Covington already has an office in San Francisco. More

Senior U.S. District Judge James T. Giles has left the federal bench to return to Pepper Hamilton, where he worked for 11 years and became the first black partner before being appointed to the court in 1979. Giles said that he decided to leave the bench for "financial reasons," and that he would have stayed on the court if a "meaningful" judicial pay raise had been passed by Congress. "If there's not some movement on the salary front, more senior judges will leave," Giles said. More

Three people pleaded guilty Friday to a multimillion-dollar subprime mortgage scheme. Galina Zhigun and her son, Garri Zhigun, operators of the Brooklyn-based mortgage brokerage AGA Capital NY, and Maryann Furman, Garri Zhigun's wife and an AGA employee, entered guilty pleas to fraud charges in New York federal court. They were accused of using false documents and straw buyers to obtain loans. A total of 26 people were indicted in the subprime scheme. More

A federal appeals court Monday announced it will wait -- perhaps until next year -- to decide the politically charged White House subpoena dispute between the House Judiciary Committee and top Bush administration aides. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Monday that the court will not expedite the government's appeal of a district court ruling that requires Harriet Miers to respond to a congressional subpoena. More

Long derided as the firm that never met a location it didn't like, Baker & McKenzie is finally getting respect for pioneering the global law firm. Under John Conroy, Baker has raised its sights -- boosting profits, tightening management, and working hard to lose its franchise image. Just when many major law firms with big financial practices are struggling in this economy, Baker is thriving, particularly in China and the emerging markets. Will that be enough to climb into the global elite? More