After its merger with St. Louis-based Bryan Cave, about 18 of the partners from Denver's revered Holme Roberts & Owen are now listed as counsel on the firm's attorney roster, the Denver Business Journal reports. But only a "handful" of these changes among the more than 80 partners who came from Holme Roberts reflect anything other than a recognition of a fait accompli prior to the merger, according to Randy Miller. He serves as managing partner of Bryan Cave HRO's offices in Colorado. Partners who became of counsel "are people who have been practicing for 40 or 50 years” and…

There's bad news for those who may have stored personal and professional materials via the Megaupload.com website recently raided and shut down by the feds as they pursued a criminal online piracy case. Even if material was stored there in full compliance with copyright law, users of the site may not be able to get it back, CNN reports. Now that federal prosecutors are done reviewing Megaupload's files, "It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012," said U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride in a letter…

A divorce court erred in failing to recognize that husband’s acquisition of half the stock of a family pesticide business owned by husband, his brother and their mother, was a gift from the corporation, and the Court of Appeals reverses in part and remands the case for further proceedings. A gift, used here in its ordinary [...]

A defendant who was declared a habitual offender in 1993 cannot overturn his 2010 convictions for driving as an HO with a claim that he can’t be convicted under the current version of Va. Code § 46.2-357 because his driver’s license was not actually “revoked” within the meaning of the Code; the Court of Appeals [...]

On appeal of jury trial convictions for second-degree murder and use of a firearm, the Court of Appeals orders a new trial for trial court error in admitting improper impeachment evidence that defendant purchased the firearm illegally; the error could have influenced the jury’s assessment of defendant’s credibility, critical to his defense. One April evening in [...]

Although the commonwealth concedes error in defendant’s conviction for use of a firearm to commit burglary, the Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s jury trial convictions for that offense and burglary; defendant failed to preserve his sufficiency of evidence objection and the ends of justice exception of Rule 5A:18 does not apply when two victims saw [...]

Upholding a city ordinance prohibiting early morning trespassing under the Dillon Rule, the Court of Appeals affirms defendant’s conviction as supported by the evidence; defendant’s constitutional challenges are barred for lack of standing and failure assert an as-applied challenge below. Early about 1:00 a.m. one December morning, a police officer responded to a call of people [...]

The Court of Appeals affirms termination of mother’s parental rights to her two children, ages seven and one-half and six, who are thriving after more than three years in foster care; clear and convincing evidence supports the trial court determination that the children’s best interests are served by terminating mother’s rights. Mother and her husband have [...]

The Court of Appeals reverses and remands a majority decision of the commission denying benefits to a correctional officer injured stepping down from a raised chair; the commission applied an inapposite analysis comparing the raised chair to stairs when another case supports that the injury arose out of employment under the unique circumstances of this [...]

The Court of Appeals affirms a trial court’s divorce decree awarding wife spousal support, equitable distribution of $19,927.50 and the former marital residence; each award is supported by the law and evidence and husband must pay wife’s  attorney’s fees for presenting numerous unsupported questions. Husband and wife separated after seven years of marriage and no children.  [...]