So far, so good, say attorneys involved in the $4.85 billion deal. More than 28,000 of the estimated 60,800 claimants have submitted registration information so far, according to Andy Birchfield, a partner with Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Mile. He’s one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys who negotiated the settlement and he believes the rest will do so by Jan. 15, The Wall Street Journal writes. “We’re very encouraged,” says Merck counsel Theodore Mayer tells the paper.

But a more crucial deadline comes Feb. 29, when the estimated 45,000 plaintiffs with heart-attack and stroke cases that qualify for the settlement must enroll. To validate the pact, at least 85 percent of those must enroll, and Birchfield says a strong turnout next week would indicate that threshold will be met.

However, law firms representing thousands of plaintiffs have filed court papers contesting the clause that would require lawyers participating in the settlement to recommend it to all clients who qualify, the Journal notes. They say it violates professional-ethics codes that require lawyers to give every client their “independent professional judgment.” One of these motions is scheduled for a hearing in federal court in New Orleans on Jan. 18.

“The settlement’s so loaded with land mines in the attorney-client relationship,” Ann Oldfather, principal at the Oldfather Law Firm in Louisville, who is among the group of Kentucky lawyers with 200 cases who are challenging the provision, tells the paper. “It’s designed to put the pressure on me to look at my pocketbook as the primary concern. It’s extremely offensive to those of us who care about doing our job.”

For those curious to learn more about the settlement - and hear starkly contrasting views about the legal ramifications - you can watch this panel discussion that took place earlier this week. The panel members include Andy Birchfield; Ted Frank (who co-authors the Overlawyered blog) and John Calfee of the American Enterprise Institute; George Cohen of the University of Virginia Law School; Richard Negareda of Vanderbilt University Law School and Mark Hermann of Jones Day, who also co-authors the Drug and Device Law blog.