California Punitives by Horvitz & Levy
  • “Last Term’s High Court Rulings Mostly Pro-Corporation”

    Law.com features this story by Adam H. Charnes and James J. Heffernan, Jr. of Kilpatrick Stockton, taking the position that the Supreme Court’s latest term was predominately pro-business. The primary example cited in the story is the punitive damages decision in Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker.

    The authors’ view conflicts with that of Patricia Ann Millett, a former attorney in the Solicitor General’s office who co-chairs Akin Gump’s Supreme Court practice. In this story, Millett stated that the Court’s last term involved 24 cases involving business concerns, and in those decisions, the Court split almost evenly, ruling in ways that could be described as pro-business in thirteen of the cases, and ruling against business interests in eleven cases.