Law-related stories are proliferating over at our big sibling site, DealBreaker. Here are three from yesterday afternoon alone:

1. Goldman Sachs Acquitted of All Charges. It's good to be Goldman:

"In an effort to uphold the rule that the Masters of the Universe can pretty much get away with anything simply because they’re the Masters of the Universe (see, also: Jobs, backdating), a federal judge has ruled that Goldman cannot be included in a lawsuit by Fannie Mae shareholders."

2. Dow Jones Insider Trading Watch: Two Charges, Dow Jones Director Scutinized. Hmm, this sounds a wee bit fishy to us:

"[T]he SEC filed a lawsuit against a Hong Kong couple, Kan King Wong and Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung, accusing them of insider trading. The couple had purchased $15 million of Dow Jones shares prior to the May 1st announcement."

They liquidated the position after News Corp.'s unsolicited offer to boy Dow Jones, for a tidy profit of $8.2 million. More details here.

3. In the Future of a Defamation Lawsuit, Dimon Is the Law. Here's a teaser, concerning the lawsuits that are flying between Dow Chemical and a former executive and board member: "It’s the legal equivalent of a John Woo action scene."

You can check out the full post here.

Via our financially-minded big sibling, Dealbreaker, we just learned about an interesting (and bizarre) insider trading case. It's about a family that set up its own hedge fund in order to trade on insider information.

And as it turns out, a friend of ours appears to be involved. From today's CCH Wall Street:

The SEC has charged an entire family and two associates with conducting an insider trading scheme that illegally created more than $3.7 million in profits.

The Commission has charged Zvi Rosenthal of Tenafly, New Jersey, and former Vice President of Israeli-based Taro Pharmaceuticals with providing nonpublic information regarding pending FDA drug approvals and earnings statements to his sons.

The SEC has also charged the sons, Amir Rosenthal, 29, and Ayal Rosenthal, 26, both of New York, New York, and Oren Rosenthal, 31, of Los Angeles, California. It has also charged Amir Rosenthal with providing the nonpublic information to his father-in-law, Bahram Delshad, his work supervisor, Young Kim, and his best friend, David Heyman.

All of the defendants allegedly used the tip-offs to illegally trade ahead of eight Taro earnings announcements and five FDA drug approval announcements from at least 2001 through 2005, the SEC charged.

As noted by Best In Class, several of the defendants are Biglaw lawyers. Amir Rosenthal was an associate at Thacher Proffitt & Wood, where he worked in the Structured Finance Group under co-defendant Young Kim.

We don't know Young Kim or Amir Rosenthal. But we do know Oren Rosenthal, who we can say from personal knowledge is a very nice, smart, and attractive fellow. He struck us as a truly decent person. We were shocked to see his name in the SEC press release.

(We met Oren when he was an associate in the New York office of O'Melveny & Myers; he subsequently relocated to the firm's Los Angeles office. Oren's bio has disappeared from the OMM website, but you can see it here via Google Cache. One irony is that Oren specialized in white collar criminal defense.)

In addition to the SEC proceedings, criminal cases have been brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Four of the seven SEC defendants were charged criminally, and those defendants -- Zvi Rosenthal, his sons Ayal and Amir (the former TPW associate), and David Heyman -- have pleaded guilty.

Random factoid: Amir Rosenthal is represented in the criminal proceedings by Paul Shechtman. Schechtman is a name partner at Stillman, Friedman & Shechtman -- Charles Stillman's firm, now representing Sullivan & Cromwell in the Brokeback Lawfirm matter.

Insider Trading: It's A Family Affair! [DealBreaker]
The "Family Business" Built on Insider Trading [Best in Class / Garden City Group]
The Family That Trades on Inside Information Together Goes to Jail Together [White Collar Crime Prof Blog]
SEC Charges Family with Insider Trading Scheme [CCH Wall Street]
Former Thacher Proffitt Associate Admits Role in Insider Trading Scheme [New York Law Journal]
SEC Charges Family-Run Hedge Fund With a $3.7 Million Insider Trading Scheme [SEC.gov]

"No," Daddy tried to explain, "it's not THAT kind of blackberry…"

Photograph provided courtesy of a former Wachtell Lipton colleague of ours, Scott L. Black (whom we identify here with his permission; our default rule is anonymity for tipsters). Meet the absolutely adorable Shoshana Black, daughter of Scott and Marnie Black, a high-powered exec at MTV.

You may recall Scott Black from this recent Fortune magazine piece on the David Pajcin / Gene Plotkin insider trading scandal, which we highlighted in a previous post. Black, senior trial counsel at the SEC, nailed Pajcin in deposition questioning. Pajcin pleaded guilty to criminal charges and is now assisting the government with its investigation.

Partners in Crime: I-bankers, Insider Trades, Moles, Strippers... [Fortune]

Earlier: Non-Sequiturs: 09.22.06

* "Bless him Father, for he has sinned": Msgr. John Woolsey made some unauthorized withdrawals from his church's collection plate, which he blew on golf vacations and Rolex watches. (Monsignor: A Rolex is so unoriginal. Why not, say, a nice Patek Philippe?) [Judicial Reports]

* Newly confirmed Tenth Circuit judge Neil M. Gorsuch -- a member of the Elect, former partner at the super-elite Kellogg Huber firm, and former Principal Deputy to the Associate Attorney General -- has a new book out. It's entitled The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia. We have no idea what it says; but it was probably smart of him to get confirmed before it was published. [How Appealing]

* Planning a trip to Ireland? Law professor William Birdthistle has some recommendations for you. [Forbes]

* Gov. Jon Corzine's picks for the New Jersey Supreme Court have cool names: James Zazzali, nominated to be the next Chief Justice, and Helen Hoens, nominated to fill Zazzali's vacated seat. We support Judge Hoens's nomination, 'cause we're suckers for alliteration. And assonance, too. [New York Times]

* This is a long and juicy article; we'll probably blog more about it later. For now, some key terms to whet your appetite: insider trading, ballroom dancing, trips to Cuba, BMWs, strippers. Oh, and a forklift operator. Don't forget the forklift operator. [Fortune via WSJ Law Blog]