Shrader & Associates has filed a petition in Texas state court alleging a former office manager, who was indicted for allegedly taking more than $200,000 from the firm, provided “confidential, proprietary, and privileged information” from the firm’s computer server to a Houston lawyer and firm.

Houston plaintiffs lawyer George Fleming and his firm, Fleming & Associates, have filed a motion asking for clarification of an order to disgorge 32 percent of the fees they charged 10 fen-phen clients.

In cases involving financial products, it’s pretty tricky to get national class action status. But plaintiffs lawyers going up against Conseco Life Insurance framed their case on behalf of seven policyholders as a breach of contract instead. In doing so, the Gilbert law firm in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco’s Millstein & Associates succeeded in getting national class action status where “many other ‘vanishing premium’ life insurance cases have failed,” said Stephen Weisbrod, a partner with the Gilbert firm.

Citing persistent client conflicts and poor work flow with the U.S.

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled Tuesday that filmmaker Joseph Berlinger and his associates can be questioned about events that occurred when his cameras were not rolling on his documentary about environmental litigation against Chevron in Ecuador. Berlinger had already been compelled by Kaplan to produce outtakes from his movie “Crude” that Chevron claims shows plaintiffs lawyer Steven Donziger engaged in misconduct by influencing Ecuadorean officials and experts in the case.