Settlement

It's never too late go back to the beginning and meet face to face without outside counsel on hand.

We get paid to fight for people, but often the litigants should settle -- but only on terms they can live with (if not love).

In the world of health IT, there have already been a plethora of HIPAA settlements.

Even when legal defenses exist, sometimes a client should accept the validity of the other side’s position.

The suit would have offered an interesting inside look at one firm's billing and bonus practices.

IKEA -- purveyors of Scandinavian conformity -- announced a major settlement in a products liability case.

* The political anger against big banking in general and Wells Fargo, specifically, could hurt their forced arbitration efforts. [Cowboys On The Commons]

* Warner Brothers’s settlement over paying — and not disclosing that fact — influencers to subtly promote its video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. [The Fashion Law]

* The California Bar is considering a ban on client-attorney sex. [Law and More]

* Rumor has it Steve Bannon is totally fine with suppressing black voter turnout. [Huffington Post]

* Yes, the electoral college sucks, but they are still going to elect Donald Trump. [Slate]

Welcome to the in-house life.

What folks need to know when they give settlement authority, according to in-house columnist Mark Herrmann.

With a $20 million payout on the horizon, the firm must be very glad to be done with this lawsuit.

* The National Association for Law Placement released slightly improved jobs numbers for the law school class of 2014, so yay? [National Law Journal]

* The battle royale that pits local musicians versus Biglaw heavyweight Skadden continues to rage on. [Washington Post]

* Guess what? Prosecutors don’t like the Second Circuit’s higher threshold for insider trading cases and now they’d like the Supreme Court to do something about it. [Wall Street Journal]

* A group of merchants including Amazon, Wal-Mart and Starbucks want the $7 billion settlement negotiated over interchange fees with Visa, Mastercard and American Express in an antitrust case vacated due to attorney Gary Friedman’s alleged misconduct. [Law360]

* Don’t cha love it when media scandals become real life litigation? All your deflategate legal questions answered. [Stradley Law]

What is behind the $25 million settlement PayPal entered into with the Consumer Financial Protection Board?

* Lance Armstrong is feuding, again, with former teammate Floyd Landis — this time over discovery [National Law Journal]

* Remember July 2014 when we all learned that ExamSoft — the bar examination software — totally crapped out on test takers? Yeah, they just reached a $2.1 million settlement.  #NeverForgetBarghazi [Law360]

* Rejoice haters of measles and other preventable diseases! California is moving to end “personal belief exemptions” for mandatory vaccines. [NPR]

* In oral arguments for an appeal of the conviction of Jesse Litvak, a bond trader convicted of securities fraud involving government bailout funds, the Second Circuit was skeptical over the fairness of the trial. [New York Law Journal]

* The FDA finally arrives in the year 2015; plans to ease restrictions on gay blood donors. [Jurist]

*  Senate Judiciary Committee recommends prosecutor Robert Capers the next U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, filling Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s vacancy. [Wall Street Journal]

* An analysis of who the winners will be under Google’s new plan to buy up patents before the trolls. [JD Supra]

* Are you tired of hearing about Tom Brady’s balls? No? Good. Here’s a great profile of the Paul Weiss litigator that authored the report on deflategate. [New York Times]

* Good news for all the Pandora listeners out there. The Second Circuit affirmed Pandora’s access to the ASCAP music catalogue. [New York Law Journal]

* As if the “Jena Six” haven’t been through enough, now one of its members is heading to law school. [American Lawyer]

* Brewery scores big First Amendment victory. Let’s all celebrate with a nice cold bottle of “Raging Bitch” beer. [Corporate Counsel]

* The federal government paid $45 million to Northrop Grumman Systems to settle claims it misappropriated trade secrets related to their satellite program. [National Law Journal]

* The debate over the minimum wage rages on in Ninth Circuit case on the constitutionality of Los Angeles’ Living Wage law. [Law360]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced on December 8, 2014 that a community behavioral health organization agreed to pay $150,000 and adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential violations related to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reached a $16 million deal with a Utah bank recently, settling charges that the financial institution engaged in unfair and deceptive acts and practices. Merrick Bank violated Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act in the marketing and servicing of its credit card add-on products, the regulator alleged. From 2008 to 2013, the bank touted its “PAYS Plan” as a payment protection card add-on product that provided a benefit payment toward a customer’s monthly credit card payment when triggered by life events such as involuntary unemployment, disability or hospitalization.

What do the parties have to say about the settlement in Professor Raymond Ku's lawsuit against Larry Mitchell, former dean of Case Western Law?

Muscle Milk + Pro Se Litigant = Hilarity.

Facebook girl doesn't know what 'confidentiality' means.

How can litigators use mediation as an opportunity to strengthen the attorney-client relationship?