The year 2011 is likely to be remembered as a time of sea change for how law enforcement deals with corporations. And nowhere was the change more noticeable than in the use of deferred and non-prosecution agreements, which became vehicles to resolve a wide range of corporate liability questions.

The legal industry is falling apart, but not in the way pundits meant when they gave that diagnosis in 2008 as firms were hit with the reality of the recession. Rather, the industry is moving away from a monolithic provider of legal services — the law firm — to a fragmented platform where the competition isn’t just a growing array of law firms, but legal process outsourcers and other non-law firm legal service providers as well.

Federal prosecutors have reached a new deal with a former Pennsylvania judge who admitted in December to fixing the appointment of a neutral arbitrator for a case in exchange for use of a New Jersey beach house. Michael T. Toole now faces one count of corrupt receipt of a reward for official actions instead of an honest services fraud charge.

More than just the future ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers is at stake in the extraordinarily nasty divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt: The reputation of a respected partner at an Am Law 100 firm is on the line, too. The couple’s former lawyer, Bingham McCutchen partner Lawrence Silverstein, has come under heavy fire over allegations that he “fraudulently altered” the 2004 marital property agreement at the center of the dispute. Meanwhile, Frank McCourt’s lawyers call the change a “drafting error.”

Baker Botts associates are learning this week about potential changes to their pay and bonus packages that become effective Jan. 1, 2011, says Maria Boyce, partner-in-charge of the firm’s Houston office. The firm is moving associates from lockstep promotions and pay to a merit-based system, she says