Richard Holdrup is joining international law firm Dorsey & Whitney as its new chief financial officer, according to a company news release. Holdrup was most recently the CFO at a law firm based in San Francisco.

The 3M Co. is suing one of its former law firms for switching sides – to aid in a suit against 3M that claims the company damaged the environment. The company is citing "betrayal" motivated by "greed" of the national firm Covington & Burling LLP, which is now helping the Minnesota attorney general in a suit against 3M.

The law firm handling a Minnesota suit against 3M has been ordered off the case because of a conflict of interest. The firm has previously represented 3M. The judge's ruling is a blow to the state's case involving chemicals formerly made by 3M that turned up in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.

A legislative commission voted to hire a private law firm to defend the voter ID question lawmakers put on this fall's ballot. Next month the Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments in a lawsuit that claims the ballot question does not accurately describe the Constitutional amendment that would require an ID to vote.

Legal giant Dorsey & Whitney has laid off 20 employees, including 12 positions at the downtown Minneapolis headquarters. The Star Tribune reports no lawyers were cut from the firm. The newspaper notes the remaining layoffs were at offices in California, Hong Kong, New York, Salt Lake City and Seattle.