Most people have had to put up with the odd disturbance from noisy couples in neighbouring hotel rooms or shared student accomodation. But this is in a different league. Caroline and Steve Cartwright were appealing against an abatement notice, which was imposed in November 2007, and a subsequent Asbo, banning them from making so much noise during sex. Or, as the court put it, preventing the couple from "shouting, screaming or vocalisation at such a level as to be …

On the basis of their product lines alone we’d support the Germans on this one. You won’t find too many fans of the garish rubber shoes in this office.

Footnoted.org (via ATL ) has been digging around in the quarterly reports of various companies following this quarter’s filings. They found this disclosure in the 10-Q (US quarterly report) of Crocs:

On May 11, 2009, Crocs Europe B.V. received a letter from Dr. Ing. H.c.F. Porsche AG (”Porsche”) claiming that the Company’s …

The cold British air hangs thick with irony this morning.

Yesterday, World leaders marked the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall variously stating how the fight against injustice around the world must continue. Presumably they consider freedom of speech and protection of civil liberties to be part of that equation.

Funny then this morning’s news reveals how our very own Government plans to store information about every phone call, email and internet visit in the United Kingdom have only just …

In a recent case in the US, two men sued PepsiCo claiming that the drinks manufacturer violated trade secrets and stole their idea to sell bottled water. They sued the company and two Wisconsin distributors in April but PepsiCo didn’t respond for various reasons, including the fact that a secretary who received letters relating to the case failed to act on them. Yep, they just got filed away.

After no response was forthcoming from the defendant, last month, a judge …

More lawyers losing the magic touch. Clifford Chance is to make eight fee-earners redundant in its capital markets practice. Although the firm has confirmed that it does not intend to introduce further widespread redundancies, all of the proposed redundancies are compulsory.

The latest cuts in headcount come nearly a year after CC launched a large-scale redundancy programme. Back in January around 80 lawyers in the City were axed. This was followed up in March with news that the firm would …

Reflecting the mixed vibes of the economic stats…

Denton Wilde Sapte has increased revenues through the downturn by 3.5% during the first half of 2009-10. Fee income reached £87.7m for the six-month period, up from last year’s figure of £84.7m. Revenue from the firm’s international offices was up from 29% last year to 32% for the first half of this year and the firm attributed its growth to the international offices.

Simmons & Simmons meanwhile has seen turnover drop significantly from …

Ok so something tells us that it’s not quite time to jump for joy with the good news. Basically because there isn’t much. More QE signalled that we are not out of the economic woods yet, a feeling you might get from this week’s roundup of legal tales…

It has been revealed that SJ Berwin is restructuring its partnership and a number of partners are being asked to leave. Commenting on the cuts, one partner told Legal Week : "It …

The Central London Employment Tribunal has been getting a dose of sex, bitterness and racism this week…

Earlier this week one of the US’ favorite legal blogs was facing a rather large ($22m) claim brought by disgruntled law professor, Donald Marvin Jones, who was on the receiving end of some of their wit. It emerged yesterday that the claim has been voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff so the excitement is over for the time being. Founder David Minkin, pictured left, is off the hook along with the company and the blog’s editor David Lat. From ATL …

Big names pick up this week’s big deals. Slaughter and May, Linklaters and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have all been instructed on Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group’s restructuring and  branch sell offs, deals expected to hit the region of £50bn plus. Meanwhile top US firms Cravath Swaine & Moore, Sullivan & Cromwell and Munger Tolles & Olson all worked on legendary investor Warren Buffett’s $44bn purchase of giant train set, BNSF.

On the UK banking deals, Slaughters is …

The outfall from Halloween might just be a few mouldy, chopped-up pumpkins and a lot of empty beer bottles where you are. But some had a much harder time over the spooky weekend; referring to wooden stakes:

“The damn things are not safe,” Dracula told a reporter.  “You can quote me on that.”

From Carbolic Smoke Ball

More than a bit of banter.

Maureen Murphy, 30, and Anna Francis, 37, are each suing their former employer, investment bank Nomura, for £1.5million for loss of earnings and hurt feelings. The women claim they were dumped for being female and not Japanese.

Originally, both worked in Asian equities sales at Lehman Brothers, Canary Wharf but after Lehman collapsed in September 2008, Nomura took over. Miss Murphy, a senior analyst earning £55,000 a year, and Miss Francis, a director on £250,000 …

First things first, we’re glad its not us. Secondly, if someone did sue us for $22m we’d probably feel some sort of backhanded flattery. And slightly sick.

The case involves the blog’s coverage of a prominent University of Miami School of Law professor and civil rights advocate Donald Marvin Jones, who was arrested on suspicion of, but never charged with, soliciting an undercover officer for sex. The suit by the African-American academic, nicknamed by ATL as "The Nutty Professor", claims …

Record numbers of students are starting law courses this year…

Safe hands Slaughter and May has had a stranglehold on advising the Government since armageddon hit the banks two years ago. After the collapse of Northern Rock, Slaughters was seen as the only magic circle firm not conflicted because of ties to financial institutions. Although the Treasury is not the biggest payer, last year Slaughters received £22 million in fees assisting the Government wade through the financial mess and working for the Treasury has obvious kudos.

Now that the initial …

There’s not a lot to thank striking postal workers for but there’s always an exception…

Lord Justice Elias has quashed the conviction of a speeding driver in the High Court because a statutory police letter failed to arrive within the 14-day legal deadline. Thousands like him could avoid a fine and three points on their licence as the backlog of post continues to suffer long delays.

Although upstanding citizens generally like to see the laws of the land adhered …

Not in the sense that they are paid too much because they get more than the average worker; or more to the point, more than me. But in the sense of business economics. According to Professor Stephen Mayson, director of the Legal Services Policy Institute, they are and this will be detrimental when it comes to attracting external investment. The Gazette refers to extracts of a speech considering potential business models for the Legal Services Act 2007, in which …

Not wanting to be doom mongers or anything but this week the bad news continues after last week’s rubbish GDP figures. Even the mighty Slaughters has opted to cut associate bonuses in half from 10% of salary to 5% whilst continuing with a salary freeze until the end of this year.

More widely, the prognosis for patient UK is looking horribly poor as the public sector faces massive cuts. Centre for Cities said in the Guardian that graduates would find …

In political terms the cross-Atlantic Special Relationship might not be so special anymore but why leave it to the politicians. So many reasons to keep it sweet.

The fathers have given their approval now it’s down to the rest of the family. Management teams at Lovells and Hogan & Hartson have unanimously backed the firms’ proposed merger and will recommend that their respective partnerships back the union to create a new top 10 global law firm. Details of the terms …

The last year has seen major changes for junior-level lawyers. Mainly because they have either been booted out or have been kept on whilst colleagues have vanished around them. That’s not all however. Firms have taken the opportunity to revisit their strategy going forward and implement new structural ideas in the wake of the economic crisis.

Clifford Chance is to ask its senior associates to choose one of 13 nominated industry sectors for their career path rather than just choosing …