New York Paralegal Blog

(USDOJ) WASHINGTON – Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (Siemens AG), a German corporation, and three of its subsidiaries today pleaded guilty to violations of and charges related to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced. At a hearing before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in the District of Columbia, Siemens AG pleaded guilty to a two-count information charging criminal violations of the FCPA’s internal controls and books and records provisions. Siemens S.A.- Argentina (Siemens Argentina) pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging conspiracy to violate the books and records provisions of the FCPA. Siemens Bangladesh Limited (Siemens Bangladesh) and Siemens S.A. - Venezuela (Siemens Venezuela), each pleaded guilty to separate one-count informations charging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery and books and records provisions of the FCPA. As part of the plea agreements, Siemens AG agreed to pay...

"Citigroup's announcement today that it will cut an additional 50,000 jobs is a sad and disturbing development for the company. As Citigroup suffers, so too do investors, employees, and taxpayers. At the very least, Citigroup should follow Goldman Sachs' lead and announce quickly that top executives will not be receiving bonuses this year. Citigroup's stated intention to wait until the new year to make its bonus decisions is a mistake. After four consecutive quarterly losses, it seems only fair that top executives should shoulder their fair share of these difficult economic times. It would send exactly the wrong message for Citigroup's top brass to collect bonuses while investors, taxpayers, and now Citigroup's own employees suffer." "Citigroup is, of course, not the only company in this situation. Other companies like AIG, who have received billions in rescue financing from taxpayers, also need to take a hard look in the mirror when determining the r...

WASHINGTON— Federal contractors and subcontractors will be required to begin using the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ E-Verify system starting Jan. 15, 2009, to verify their employees’ eligibility to legally work in the United States. In a final rule scheduled to publish tomorrow in the Federal Register, the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council and the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council amended the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to reflect this change. The new rule implements Executive Order 12989, as amended by President George W. Bush on June 6, 2008, directing federal agencies to require that federal contractors agree to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their employees. The amended Executive Order reinforces the policy, first announced in 1996, that the federal government does business with companies that have a legal workforce. This new rule requires federal contractors to agree, through language inserted into their federal contracts, to...

WASHINGTON - For the first time in more than 30 years, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today issued long-anticipated mortgage reforms that will help consumers to shop for the lowest cost mortgage and avoid costly and potentially harmful loan offers. HUD will require, for the first time ever, that lenders and mortgage brokers provide consumers with a standard Good Faith Estimate (GFE) that clearly discloses key loan terms and closing costs. HUD estimates its new regulation will save consumers nearly $700 at the closing table. In announcing HUD's final changes to the regulatory requirements of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), HUD Secretary Steve Preston said that changes in the housing market and increases in home foreclosures demands action. (Read Preston's remarks) .

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Chicago to block the proposed acquisition by JBS S.A., currently the third-largest U.S. beef packer, of National Beef Packing Company LLC, the fourth-largest U.S. beef packer. The Department said that the proposed deal would combine two of the top four U.S. beef packers resulting in lower prices paid to cattle suppliers and higher beef prices for consumers. The Attorneys General of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming are joining the Department’s lawsuit. JBS, headquartered in Brazil, is in the process of acquiring Smithfield Beef Group Inc. from Smithfield Foods Inc. The Department is not challenging JBS’s acquisition of Smithfield Beef Group Inc. In 2007, JBS purchased Colorado-based Swift Foods Company. Beef packers purchase annually $30 billion in fed cattle from feedlots, slaughter them, and pr...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced that the Supreme Court has denied a petition for review by Federal Express Corporation (FedEx) of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upholding a $100,000 punitive damages award in an EEOC lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) on behalf of a deaf package handler. On March 2, 2006, a federal jury in Baltimore found in favor of the EEOC in its lawsuit against FedEx for violating the ADA. The EEOC had charged the Memphis, Tenn.-based global shipping giant with failing to provide reasonable accommodations to Ronald Lockhart, a profoundly deaf employee who worked as a package handler at the company's Baltimore Ramp, which is located at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The EEOC’s suit charged FedEx with violating the ADA by failing to provide Lockhart with American Sign Language interpreters and notes for mandatory employee meetings and trainings,...

Four debt-negotiation companies have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated federal law by falsely claiming they could reduce consumers’ debt by up to 60 percent, leading many people into financial ruin and bankruptcy. The proposed settlements bar them from engaging in further violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The settling defendants were among three individuals and seven companies charged by the FTC with deceptive and unfair practices in violation of the FTC Act (see press releases dated September 21, 2006 and December 5, 2006 ). All of the defendants in the nationwide operation were charged with misrepresenting how much they could reduce consumers’ debt, and not adequately disclosing the likelihood that consumers would be sued if they took the defendants’ advice and stopped paying creditors. The FTC also charged the defendants with not disclosing that consumers’ account balances would grow from interest, interest rate increases, late fees,...

Senior officials of the United State Patent and Trademark Office will be available live on-line on Thursday, September 18, from 2 to 3 PM (EST). They will be answering questions and offering tips for independent inventors. Instructions for taking part in the on-line chat will be posted on the home page of the USPTO web site at 10 AM (EST) next Thursday. Inventors can begin logging on for the chat at 1:30 PM. The independent inventor on-line chat is part of the USPTO's continuing efforts to promote and protect America's independent inventors. This effort includes educating inventor-entrepreneurs about the risks of working with invention development companies. More...

WASHINGTON - A Las Vegas federal jury convicted Michael Haynes of one count of conspiracy to commit tax evasion through a scheme involving the fraudulent sale of One Voice Technologies Inc. stock, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Justice Department announced today. The jury, following a one-week trial before Chief U.S. District Judge Roger L. Hunt, deliberated for about two hours before finding Haynes guilty of conspiring to commit tax evasion totaling $684,242. Co-defendant David Jett pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in March 2008 and testified against Haynes during the trial. According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, Haynes and Jett orchestrated the fraudulent sale of $7 million in One Voice stock. Haynes and Jett used at least ten stock certificates to generate the $7 million in gross proceeds; all of these stock certificates were in different nominee names. As part of the scheme, new stock certificates in the name of One Voice were issued to at l...

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice announced today that it has settled its employment lawsuit on behalf of Tracey Marshall, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve, against the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, Fla.The Department’s complaint, filed last October in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, alleged that the Clerk’s Office violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). The Clerk’s Office failed to reemploy Marshall in her prior position as supervisor of the Clerk’s Court Clerk II Section of the Circuit Criminal Division when she return from active duty in October 2005. In addition, it is alleged that the Clerk’s Office retaliated against Marshall after she took action under USERRA, by transferring her from the Clerk’s Circuit Criminal Division to the Clerks Traffic Department, which offered a lower pay rate. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, the Clerk’s Office will reinstate Marshall to Manager of the Court Cl...

(BLS) - Earnings of paralegals and legal assistants vary greatly. Salaries depend on education, training, experience, the type and size of employer, and the geographic location of the job. In general, paralegals who work for large law firms or in large metropolitan areas earn more than those who work for smaller firms or in less populated regions. In May 2006, full-time wage-and-salary paralegals and legal assistants had median annual earnings, including bonuses, of $43,040. The middle 50 percent earned between $33,920 and $54,690. The top 10 percent earned more than $67,540, and the bottom 10 percent earned less than $27,450. Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of paralegals were: Federal Government $56,080 Management of companies and enterprises 52,220 Local government 42,170 Legal services 41,460 State government 38,020 In addition to earning a salary, many paralegals receive bonuses, in part, to compensate them for sometimes having to work l...

SAN FRANCISCO—August 20, 2008 -- CT Summation, the premier provider of litigation support and e-discovery solutions (EDD), today announced that it will distribute its award-winning litigation and case management software through CDW Corporation in the U.S. CDW, a leading provider of technology products and services to businesses, governments, healthcare and educational institutions, will market and sell CT Summation iBlaze, WebBlaze and Discovery Cracker. This partnership will expand CDW's document workflow offering to legal professionals in small and mid-sized firms and corporations, and will increase the accessibility of CT Summation's litigation support and EDD product suite throughout the US. CT Summation is the first litigation support technology that CDW has included in its product portfolio. In addition to marketing and distributing the CT Summation product suite—which covers legal case management from EDD processing to review and analysis through to case production—CDW ...

NEW YORK, NY (August 15, 2008) - Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced another agreement to provide liquidity to consumers who purchased auction rate securities. Under the latest agreement, Wachovia Securities, LLC and Wachovia Capital Markets, LLC (collectively, “Wachovia”) will return over $8.5 billion to investors across New York State and the nation. The agreement settles allegations that Wachovia made misrepresentations in its marketing and sales of auction rate securities. Wachovia marketed and sold auction rate securities as safe, cash-equivalent products, when in fact they faced increasing liquidity risk. Within the past eight days, Cuomo has signed agreements restoring nearly $35 billion of liquidity to thousands of investors nationwide. Under Cuomo’s settlement, Wachovia has agreed to buy back, no later than November 28, 2008, all illiquid auction rate securities from all Wachovia retail customers, charities, and small businesses. Wachovia will also pay damages to ...

Washington, D.C. - The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USTPO) will begin a two-year pilot Law School Clinical Certification Program this Fall semester allowing law students to practice intellectual property law before the agency under the strict guidance of a law school clinical faculty supervisor. Six law schools have been selected to participate in the pilot, including American University, Washington College of Law; University of Connecticut School of Law; The John Marshall Law School; University of Maine School of Law; Vanderbilt Law School; and William Mitchell College of Law. "Congratulations to each of the selected schools," said Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Jon Dudas. "We look forward to providing a real-world experience for the students so they will be well prepared to tackle the complexities of intellectual property law that are so important in today’s economy." See, USPT...