Quick Hits (6/15/05)

When a lawyer communicates directly with the employee of an opposing party in litigation, and knows that the opposing party is represented by counsel, sparks fly.  There are some somewhat complicated rules about which opposing party employees you can or can't talk to, and what you can and can't talk about.  But you cannot set up that employee as your ongoing, continuing spy, or manipulate your "mole" to obtain privileged and confidential information from the opponent, says this court.  And who would disagree with that holding?  It's one of those stories that prompts the eternal question, "what were they thinking?"    . . . .    A client has sued his former law firm, alleging that his own lawyer had an affair with the client's wife.  The article examines corporate America's growing intolerance of extra-marital affairs by executives, and the way that personal behavior is increasingly being treated as a business ethics issue.    . . . .    Human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson was murdered in 1999 with a car bomb.  Eversheds, a leading London firm, has been named as counsel to an investigation into the event.  Eversheds had been counsel to the Bloody Sunday inquiry.    . . . .    A survey of UK law firms reveals that many firms will admit non-lawyers to partnership, but few will seek outside investors and even fewer will opt for public ownership.  Those changes were made possibly by the Clementi reforms.    . . . .    Microsoft has donated $1 million to the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at Boalt Hall, where the new Dean has been seeking more private funding.