For close to two years, counsel for Bank of America at Cleary Gottlieb and Wachtell Lipton have been struggling--and largely failing--to tame consolidated securities, ERISA, and derivative litigation over BofA's 2008 merger with Merrill Lynch. Will Brad Karp, Ted Wells, and their partners at Paul Weiss fare any better?

The waning days of September brought the end to a slew of big patent cases involving R.J. Reynolds, Freddie Mac, LG, and others, with Verizon alone agreeing to pay more than $500 million to put two separate infringement suits to rest.

Remember when Dickie Scruggs was accused of using a Mississippi lawyer named Ed Peters to exert improper influence on a state court judge named Bobby DeLaughter? Well, it turns out Scruggs wasn't the only one who had that brilliant idea.

Proskauer Rose has been retained by Major League Baseball to fight the scandal-soaked suit filed Friday by embattled New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and his lawyers from Reed Smith, Gordon & Rees, and New York's Tacopina Seigel & Turano.

No word yet on affirmative action, voting rights, or same-sex marriage, but the justices did resolve three of the outstanding 26 cases to be decided, ruling on issues as diverse as arbitration, sentencing, and even raisins.

Greenberg Traurig and Quarles & Brady have agreed to fork over a combined $87.5 million to resolve claims that they failed to put the brakes on a $900 million Ponzi scheme carried out by two mortgage-industry clients.