Clifford Chance on Monday said it had hired a Mayer Brown partner to lead its Americas real estate group. Douglas L.

A federal judge has granted shareholders’ request to have an independent examiner investigate whether creditors and the Washington Mutual estate are leaving billions on the table in a proposed settlement. The shareholders believe the proposed plan might shortchange the value of certain WaMu assets and of potentially explosive legal claims WaMu might make against JPMorgan. An examiner, to be appointed Monday, will issue a preliminary report by Sept

Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre has chosen a novel defense against regulators accusing him of fraud: He’s blaming the in-house lawyers. In a filing Monday in federal court, the self-described “Fabulous Fab” denied SEC allegations that he made materially misleading statements or omissions in a 2007 deal involving subprime mortgages

Bingham McCutchen expanded its energy and project finance practice in New York on Monday by hiring the co-chair of Fulbright & Jaworski’s global infrastructure group.

In a major separation-of-powers ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said that members of an accounting oversight board created as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act were too insulated from presidential authority to be part of an accountable executive branch. The ruling represents a defeat for Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who had defended the constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.