May 23 (Bloomberg Law) — While failed law firms make for notoriously difficult bankrupty cases, Dewey & LeBoeuf’s time in bankruptcy court was quicker and easier than other notable law firms. Joe Samet, head of restructuring at Baker & McKenzie, and Al Togut, founding partner at Togut, Segal & Segal, talk with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about why Dewey’s case went so smoothly compared to others, the prospects for other large law firm failures and how managing partners can keep their firms out of bankruptcy. Both Togut and Samet agree that creating a culture of transparency goes a long way to avoiding a law firm failure. “Except for a select group of people at the very top, the rest of the people at the firm have no idea, none, of what’s going on,” Togut says.

May 22 (Bloomberg) — AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc. and Ahern Rentals Inc. are prime examples of the frothy market where junk-bond investors are fearless in the face of risk, as Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia and Bloomberg News bankruptcy columnist Bill Rochelle discuss on their video. Rochelle says that more “covenant-lite” junk debts has been sold so far this year than in all of 2012 combined.

After a dearth of new filings, three hit the books in the space of 24 hours in the printing, construction, and health care industries.

For her thankless job in riding herd over the country’s major asbestos bankruptcies, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith K. Fitzgerald is the “Judge of the Week” following her mammoth opinion pinning down the present and future liability encumbering Specialty Products Holding Corp. and Bondex International Inc., subsidiaries of Rust-Oleum maker RPM International Inc.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia handed down the “Opinion of the Week” in a complex case at the intersection of bankruptcy and tax law. Arising from the completed reorganization of Majestic Star Casino LLC, the circuit court differed with lower courts and ruled that status as a subchapter S corporation isn’t an asset of the company in bankruptcy. The opinion by Circuit Judge Kent A. Jordan contained an important pronouncement in saying that there’s not a property interest for bankruptcy purposes simply because a set of facts tend to create value.

Jordan also ruled that whether a tax attribute constitutes “property” is a question of federal, not state law.

May 22 (Bloomberg) — Rachana “Ruchi” Bhowmik, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Cabinet Secretary at The White House, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Spencer Mazyck about her transition from practicing law to working for the President of the United States.

(Source: Bloomberg)

May 21 (Bloomberg) — Joan Lukey, partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Spencer Mazyck about her successful representation of best-selling crime writer Patricia Cornwell in a highly-publicized lawsuit accusing the author’s accounting and business management firm Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP of mismanaging her finances.

(Source: Bloomberg)

May 17 (Bloomberg Law) — Robert Walker, attorney at Wiley Rein LLP, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia about the legal and ethical implications of law firms selling political intelligence. Last month, the SEC issued subpoenas to Greenberg Traurig as part of their investigation into the law firm’s political intelligence practice. Although the firm has denied wrongdoing, Greenberg Traurig has recently stated that it will no longer work in the political intelligence space.

May 16 (Bloomberg Law) — Trevor Faure, Global Leader of Legal Services for Ernst & Young, tells Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia that the needs of general counsels at large corporations have changed in recent years and that most law firms need to change the way they approach business development. Faure says that while building personal relationships and augmenting a law firm’s reputation are still part of getting new business, they are becoming less important factors. Faure feels that law firms need to deliver more focused and prescient communications that inform corporations of the legal challenges they will be facing in the future. “[A law firm's] technical expertise on your subject matter…is of equal importance to [its] knowledge of the client,” he says.

May 15 (Bloomberg Law) — Trustees of all types are sleeping easier, knowing that their liabilities for theft by a co-trustee is a debt that can be wiped out in bankruptcy as a result of a unanimous Supreme Court decision discussed by Bloomberg Law’s Lee Pacchia and Bloomberg News bankruptcy columnist Bill Rochelle on their video. The week’s most important decision in the lower courts came from Cecelia Morris, the Chief Bankruptcy Judge in southern New York, who ruled that parties in a lawsuit can’t make settlements secret by saying, “no seal, no deal.” Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur in Houston may have ended a bankruptcy trustee’s career by removing him from a case where he charged a bankrupt estate $3,500 for a long weekend in New Orleans in connection with an argument in the Court of Appeals. The last item on the video is a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond on an issue that may eventually find its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Richmond court found a loophole where an individual can file Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 petitions one after another, in the process stripping off lower-ranking home mortgages that can’t be shed in Chapter 7 alone.

May 20 (Bloomberg) — While the Supreme Court has three female justices, a Hispanic and an African-American, the lawyers appearing before it are almost all white males.

According to the Associated Press, during the roughly 75 hours of oral arguments this term, an African-American lawyer spoke one time, for just 11 minutes. Four Hispanic lawyers spoke for less than 2 hours, while female lawyers accounted for just 17 percent of the arguments.

And women who do appear tend to have lower paying jobs as public interest lawyers, government lawyers, or public defenders. Ten men from law firms have argued two or more cases this term. Arnold & Porter’s Lisa Blatt is the only woman to do the same.

The Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General is a leading pipeline to the big law firms that handle High Court cases. While men hold the top supervisory positions there, six women from the office did argue before the Court this term.

Blatt says that gives her confidence the gender imbalance will eventually be cured.

For More: Justices More Diverse Than Lawyers Before Court

May 15 (Bloomberg) — Shonali Bhowmik, leader of the indie rock band Tigers and Monkeys, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Spencer Mazyck about her transition from Emory Law School to a career in music. The singer, songwriter and guitar player is also a co-producer of the hit show Variety Shac at UCB Theater.

(Source: Bloomberg)

May 14 (Bloomberg) — Eric Lasker, partner at Hollingsworth LLP, talks with Bloomberg Law’s Spencer Mazyck about successfully defending DynCorp International Inc. in U.S. federal court litigation with several thousand Ecuadorian citizens over claims of widespread environmental damages and alleged exposure to toxins through an aerial herbicide spraying operation and anti-narcotics effort known as “Plan Colombia.”

Lasker, in this Rainmakers episode, also discusses the differences in strategy between DynCorp’s case and Chevron Corp.’s environmental suit over oil pollution in the Amazon rainforest wherein the oil company was ordered to pay as much as $19.2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages for the alleged dumping by Texaco.

(Source: Bloomberg)