In what marks the latest twist in the long-running disciplinary proceeding against former federal prosecutor G. Paul Howes, the nine-member District of Columbia Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility yesterday issued a split recommendation on what sanctions Howes should receive for his past alleged misconduct. In the board’s report, four members recommended disbarment for the former D.C.

Calif.

Noting a “heightened” concern about the appearance of conflicts within small law firms, a New York federal judge has disqualified a six-person firm from representing a plaintiff in a discrimination suit against a school board because one of the firm’s associates served as an officer of the board. Eastern District of New York Judge Joseph F. Bianco noted that the presumption that clients’ confidences are shared within a firm, while rebuttable, “is much stronger within a small firm than a large firm.”

Lawyers for the District of Columbia are fighting a request from a private attorney who wants more than $3.12 million in fees for successfully challenging the city’s handgun ban. The attorney, Alan Gura, who argued and won D.C. v

Judge Nancy Gertner of the District of Massachusetts has cut the damages verdict against copyright infringer Joel Tenenbaum for illegally downloading and distributing songs by 90 percent, to $67,500. The judge slashed the jury’s award from $22,500 for each of 30 songs Tenenbaum was found to have willfully infringed, to $2,250 per song