Prominent trial lawyer Robert Bennett, who said last week that he would defend the operators of file-sharing website Megaupload against charges that they had violated federal copyright and online piracy laws, has reportedly dropped the case due to a client conflict involving his firm.

Covington & Burling’s sports practice maintained its hot streak last week, helping the National Football League negotiate a nine-year extension on television contracts with three major networks that will bring the league billions each year.

A software maker suing Zynga for allegedly stealing its proprietary application is itself a defendant in a similar suit, by Massachusetts-based 1stWorks.

Lawyers for two men charged with facilitating the massive trade in online poker took aim at the government last week, insisting that Congress exempted financial institutions from liability for processing gambling monies and did not include poker in its definition of gambling.

Energy lawyers are in demand in Washington these days, with top-ranked lawyers jumping from firm to firm as the practice area heats up. The most recent move came last week, when McDermott Will & Emery announced it picked up go-to natural gas regulatory partner Karol Lyn Newman from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.Visit lawjobs.com News & Views