Hughes Hubbard & Reed on Tuesday said it has added an antitrust partner from Howrey in New York. The hiring of Ethan Litwin will allow Hughes Hubbard to expand in antitrust and add support to what the firm said is a growing international transactional practice.

Non-clients have no standing to disqualify attorneys from jointly representing others, a California appeals court ruled Tuesday, despite a federal trial court ruling that seemed to suggest otherwise. The ruling reverses a trial court’s disqualification of Calabasas, Calif., attorney Bruce Graham and his firm, Graham & Associates, from representing clients with some allegedly opposing interests in a libel and breach of contract suit.

Federal prosecutors are hailing the conviction of a former British executive as a signal to corporate leaders to shape up. A federal jury in Philadelphia on Tuesday convicted Ian Norris, the former CEO of The Morgan Crucible Co., of conspiring with others to obstruct justice in a federal investigation of price fixing in the carbon products industry

An Eastern District of New York courtroom was cleared Tuesday after the federal marshal guarding defendant David Brooks, the former body-armor executive who has been on trial for 22 weeks for allegedly masterminding a $185 million investment scheme, said he saw Brooks accidentally drop pills on the floor. Judge Joanna Seybert ordered the courtroom emptied, and the marshals discovered several pens filled with more than 20 more pills.

The judge in the multidistrict litigation against Toyota over sudden unintended acceleration problems approved a joint discovery plan on Tuesday, forestalling a fight over access to evidence. The agreement, endorsed by California federal Judge James Selna, allows Toyota’s lawyers to investigate the vehicles at issue and plaintiffs attorneys to depose executives about the automaker’s electronic throttle control system. Toyota will turn over some of the documents that it gave to Congress earlier this year.