Wake Up Call: Ex-Big Law IT Engineer Convicted of Hacking

• A former Locke Lord information technology engineer was convicted in a Texas federal court on criminal charges ofhacking the firm’s internal computer network after he stopped working for the firm four years ago. Anastasio Laoutaris issued “instructions and commands” that caused serious damage to Locke Lord’s network, deleting or disabling hundreds of user accounts, desktop and laptop accounts, and email accounts, according to a statement released by prosecutors. (American Lawyer)

• A new study suggests that Am Law 200 law firms are investing heavily in competitive intelligence and market research. The report by LAC Group, which provides library-as-a-service and library outsourcing, is called “Teamwork on the Legal Frontline: The Strategic New Roles of Marketing and the Library in Big Law,” it found 42 percent of the firms in its sample are spending between between $5 million to $10 million on staff, resources and technology. (Legaltech News)

• The U.S. Supreme Court is looking at cases that could affect the future of affirmative action, union’s agency shop fees, and the counting of one person, one vote in redistricting and “ the Roberts Court’s conservative majority may return to dominate major rulings " this term. (Legal Times/National Law Journal)

• A crop of U.S.-based firms are angling for a larger slice of Germany’s legal market with their interest driven by a surge in deals work, a slew of regulatory changes, particularly in the energy area, the country’s growing importance in intellectual property litigation, and its reputation as a haven for venture capital-backed startups. Greenberg Traurig, Jones Day and Latham & Watkins are a few of the firms moving in . The four long-dominant Magic Circle firms: Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters are still far ahead in head count, but the gap is closing. (American Lawyer)

Legal Market

• EMC Corporation’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel Paul Dacier has a take no prisoners approach to patent trolls. In a Q and A, Dacier said his legal department takes all such cases to trial. (Big Law Business)

• According to the Bloomberg League Tables, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP topped the charts when ranked by volume by advising issuers globally on 5.36 percent of $389.8 trillion of equity offerings. But when ranked by deal count rather than volume, Latham & Watkins leads the list with 67 deals out of a total of 1,634 in which law firms were given credit. (Big Law Business)

• DLA Piper plans to double its lawyers in Philadelphia to around 100 within a few years, building on its litigation and intellectual-property practices, according to the office managing partner Carl Buchholz. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Volkswagen faces more than 190 class action lawsuits filed in federal courts in at least 37 U.S. states. A panel of judges in New Orleans will decide at a Dec. 3 hearing, which jurisdictions -- by their judges’ skills and experience with complex litigation, as well as their convenience for lawyers and witnesses -- should consolidate the cases. Seven jurisdictions have been proposed already: two in California, as well as courts in New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, Michigan and Ohio. (Big Law Business/Bloomberg)

• The whole of the Chinese legal profession is concerned about its position, with the majority of lawyers frightened of being forced to have ‘chats’ with the authorities, according to a lawyer and former judge who is now in the US. (Global Legal Post)

• Fasken Martineau is in the midst of an internal consultation that could see it cut 70 positions from its London office to “refocus” its operation in the UK. (The Lawyer)

Laterals

• Fasken Martineau will close its 12-lawyer and four-partner Paris office in November. (The Lawyer)

• NetApp’s chief intellectual property counsel Doug Luftman is leaving to join the Fremont-based IP management software developer Lecorpio LLC as general counsel and chief innovation officer on Monday. (The Recorder)

• RPC has hired Worldpay corporate general counsel Matthew Griffith as a partner in its corporate insurance and financial services team. (The Lawyer)

• Dentons has opened its first office in Italy with the hire of 21 lawyers and three partners from DLA Piper. The Milan office will open with seven partners including former DLA Piper managing partner for Europe and Africa Federico Sutti. Of the seven partners three have left directly from DLA Piper, two have been made up and two have joined from boutique employment firm HELP. (The Lawyer)

Technology

• “State of the art perimeter defenses and employee training programs are virtually useless” against an inside threat , write BakerHostetler’s Judy Selby and K2’s Austin Berglas. They advocate taking steps to identify breaches proactively and reviewing credential management to monitor insiders’ access to critical information. (Big Law Business)

• Technology is not yet ready for lawyers being able to draft a traditional contract, and then with a press of a button, have the ability to convert it to a smart contract in a form ready for life on the blockchain, writeHolland & Knight’s Joe Dewey and Shawn Amuial . (Big Law Business)

Dewey trial

• The jury in the criminal case involving three former Dewey & LeBoeuf leaders left Friday without a verdict or a single question from the jury, with the exception of a request for more Post-It notes.(American Lawyer)

Miscellaneous

• Former Fox Rothschild Herbert Sudfeld Jr. is set to stand trial on federal insider trading charges on Feb. 2. Sudfeld was indicted July 16 on charges of securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. He worked at Fox Rothschild during the firm’s handling of the 2012 Harleysville-Nationwide insurance merger and allegedly bought and sold Harleysville stock knowing that the merger was imminent, making profits of $75,500, according to the grand jury indictment. (Legal Intelligencer)