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.

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.

Pressed for years by a Minneapolis law firm, Visa, MasterCard and 13 of the country's biggest banks have agreed to pay $7.25 billion to settle accusations by retailers that they engaged in price-fixing on credit card transaction fees. The settlement could be the largest antitrust class-action settlement in U.S. history. Lead counsel for the class plaintiffs is K. Craig Wildfang, an antitrust lawyer in Minneapolis with Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi.

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.