Lawyers for Western Digital are attempting to vacate a $630 million arbitration award against their client, arguing that the arbitrator “engaged in prejudicial misconduct” by levying what they call a record-setting award as a punitive sanction in Western Digital’s trade secrets war with Seagate Technology.

Finding ineffective assistance of counsel, a New York state appellate panel has reversed a shoplifting conviction reached after the defense attorney elicited at trial what amounted to an admission that his client was guilty as charged.

Kenneth Roger Markman, a solo practitioner in Los Angeles, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he smuggled 26 balloons containing heroin and methamphetamine into a holding facility where his client was being held pending a court appearance in an attempted carjacking case.

A national Tea Party organization has won a battle with one of its founding members over ownership rights to the group’s intellectual property — including name, website and social media. The attorney for the Tea Party Patriots said she is pleased the outcome helped her client “retain its identity.”

A lawyer’s attempt to shield himself from discipline via a release in a divorce agreement was not only void — it was itself an ethics violation, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled, finding that the lawyer knew the release was unenforceable but included it as a tactical block against the client’s wife.