David J. Dykeman, a shareholder and patent attorney in the Boston office of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, has been named a recipient of an "Rx for Excellence" Award from Massachusetts Medical Law Report for his contributions to the health care field.

Massachusetts Medical Law Report, published by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, features legal and risk management news for the medical community. The paper`s second annual Rx for Excellence Awards will honor 45 physicians, risk managers, health care attorneys and other professionals for best practices in promoting safety, quality and risk management in health care. Dykeman will be honored as a "Hero from the Field" at an awards ceremony and breakfast at the Westin Copley Place on October 29 from 7:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.

"I am humbled to be among the impressive list of winners of the Rx for Excellence Award, recognizing the best practices in health care," said Dykeman. "The most exciting part of being a patent attorney working with health care companies is bringing medical innovations to market to improve patient care."

"The honorees represent the very best of the unparalleled medical community in Massachusetts," said Reni Gertner, editor of Massachusetts Medical Law Report. "David Dykeman's expertise in protecting the innovations of medical companies is an excellent addition to the elite group of winners."

Dykeman is a registered patent attorney with more than 13 years of experience in patent and intellectual property law. His practice focuses on securing worldwide intellectual property protection and providing advice on related business strategy for high-tech clients. He has particular experience in medical devices, nanotechnology, information technology and life sciences. Dykeman serves on the board of directors for the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC). He is also a contributing editor of the Journal of BioLaw & Business, a member of the Research, Innovation & Commercialization Task Force of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative, and a frequent conference speaker and published author on intellectual property law.

To read the Massachusetts Medical Law Report Special Section about the 2009 Rx for Excellence Award winners, please visit http://mamedicallaw.com/wp-files/mmlr_rx09.pdf.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP is an international, full-service law firm with approximately 1750 attorneys serving clients from more than 30 offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. In the U.S., the firm has more offices than any other among the Top 20 on The National Law Journal's 2008 NLJ 250. In the U.K., the firm operates as Greenberg Traurig Maher LLP. Additionally, Greenberg Traurig has strategic alliances with the following independent law firms: Studio Santa Maria in Milan and Rome, TA Lawyers GKJ in Tokyo, and Weber Law Office in Zürich. The firm was Chambers and Partners' USA Law Firm of the Year in 2007 and among the Top 3 in the International Law Firm of the Year at the 2009 The Lawyer Awards. For additional information, please visit www.gtlaw.com.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had cancer surgery earlier this year, was kept at a hospital overnight after she became drowsy and fell from her seat aboard an airplane. Court officials blamed a reaction to medicine.

Ginsburg was taken to Washington Hospital Center around 11:15 p.m. Wednesday by paramedics and released Thursday morning, court officials said.

Ginsburg, along with Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia, was heading to London to take part in ceremonies marking the opening of Britain's new Supreme Court.

"Prior to the plane taking off, the justice experienced extreme drowsiness causing her to fall from her seat," a court statement said. "Paramedics were called and the justice was taken to the Washington Hospital Center as a precaution."

The statement said doctors attributed her symptoms to a reaction caused by the combination of a prescription sleeping aid and an over-the-counter cold medicine.

Ginsburg was still in Washington Thursday morning, court officials said. It was not clear whether she would still attempt to make the London trip.

Craig Johnson, the visionary Silicon Valley lawyer who founded Venture Law Group and more recently Virtual Law Partners, died Saturday after suffering a stroke. He was 62 and had just returned from a European honeymoon with his wife and law partner Roseann Rotandaro. The two had married on Aug. 15.

Johnson was perhaps the quintessential Silicon Valley startup lawyer. He had an unbridled enthusiasm for new ideas. Just like his entrepreneurial clients, he pushed the boundaries of traditional business models in law practice. And he was always onto the next big thing.

"He was constantly innovating, constantly thinking of new ideas and new systems dealing with startup law," said Larry Sonsini, chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. "Every time I saw him he was working on something new -- it was very much an 'on the back of the napkin' type of thing."

Johnson inspired a loyal following of lawyers and clients at Wilson Sonsini, where he started his career in 1975. But when he set out to found Venture Law Group in 1993, there was great skepticism that a law firm focused only on corporate startup work would succeed. The firm exploded with the tech boom, growing rapidly to more than 100 lawyers, and raking in millions with its investments in clients like Yahoo and Hotmail.

"Craig was a pioneer in Silicon Valley, and his vision helped drive the growth of the technology industry," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo, in an e-mail.

Venture Law Group stumbled when the bubble burst and was acquired by Heller Ehrman in 2003. After a few years outside the practice of law as a venture capitalist, Johnson again had a new idea: a virtual law firm on a grand scale. Last year, he launched Virtual Law Partners. His idea again met with skepticism, but in just a year, the firm has grown to 40 lawyers. And it has been hailed as the law firm of the future.

"He may have been a lawyer, but he was an entrepreneur at heart," said John Dean, a close friend and venture capitalist at Startup Capital Ventures.

Dean was one of the first people to find Johnson after he suffered a stroke last Tuesday morning at the office they share in Palo Alto, Calif. He was rushed to Stanford University Hospital, and was surrounded by his family until his death on Saturday.

As news spread Monday, Johnson's former colleagues reached out to each other over e-mail and in the hallways of law firms, like Cooley Godward Kronish and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe where many Venture Law Group lawyers now work.

"He was kind to everyone and he knew everybody's name and knew their families and their history and he really went out of his way," said Don Keller, a former VLG lawyer now at Orrick. "Everyone that knew him felt they had a special friend in Craig."

Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Edward McCabe, the former chief administrative judge in the county, is retiring Tuesday.

The 76-year-old judge is joining the Uniondale law firm of Sahn Ward & Baker as of counsel starting Wednesday. A breakfast is being held at the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola Tuesday morning to honor the outgoing justice.

New York state law requires judges to retire at the age of 70, but they are allowed to apply for three two-year extensions. McCabe’s final extension is due to expire at the end of the year, but he said he preferred to leave earlier.

“There is life after this,” McCabe said in his near-empty office on Monday afternoon. “I am a very, very lucky person.”

McCabe has been a judge in Nassau for the past 23 years. Prior to that, McCabe served as town attorney for North Hempstead, Nassau County Attorney and an assistant District Attorney in Nassau County.

Former Sen. Mel Martinez did not stay out of work long. Following his resignation from the Senate, Martinez’s next job has him working as a consultant for a law firm with offices in Tampa and Washington, D.C.

According to the publication Legal Times, the former Republican senator will likely become a partner with DLA Piper beginning Oct. 1.

DLA Piper’s law firm said the company has 3,500 lawyers in 29 countries throughout the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The company specializes in legal advice and business consulting.

The former senator would not be allowed to lobby for two years, but can still provide insight.

Martinez announced his resignation in August, though he had more than a year left on his first term. He said he was leaving to spend more time with his family.

Dave Frohnmayer, retired president of the University of Oregon, has become "of counsel" to the law firm of Harrang Long Gary Rudnick, which has offices in Salem, Eugene and Portland.

In his role "of counsel," the 69-year-old Frohnmayer will take on special assignments but will not be a partner.

A former legislator, Frohnmayer retired June 30 after 15 years as university president, and had also been a professor and dean of the law school.

Frohnmayer is on a sabbatical from the university, but will continue to teach a freshman honors course in leadership.

A prominent lawyer trained at Harvard and Yale universities who admitted defrauding hedge funds of more than $400 million should be sentenced to 145 years in prison, prosecutors told a judge Wednesday.

Prosecutors cited the privileged education and his comfortable upbringing as they urged the maximum sentence for 59-year-old Marc Dreier. His lawyer, Gerald Shargel, said a sentence of between 10 and 12 1/2 years in prison was appropriate.

"Dreier could have pursued a rewarding and productive life as a lawyer, serving clients and the law, with compensation in the top few percent of the general population," prosecutors said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

"Instead, Dreier decided to seek vast personal riches and prestige through a life of fraud and through dishonor to his profession," they wrote.

In a letter to the judge dated Tuesday and filed with the court Wednesday, Dreier said he suffers "every day from the shame and self-loathing and regret with which I will always have to live."

He said his crimes were inexcusable.

"I expect and deserve a significant prison sentence," he wrote. He said he asked his lawyers to file his letter in the public record "in the hope that it may do some good as a warning to others not to follow in my path."

He said he has lost all his friends, his law firm, his law license and all he ever owned, along with causing unimaginable suffering to his family, including his 19-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter.

"I will always be remembered as a thief," Dreier wrote. "I have lost my past and my future. I have lost everything a man can lose. And now I will lose my freedom as well, and rightly so."