It's never easy for Nortel. Just when you thought it had made a positive and uncontroversial move by hiring Mike Zafirovski as CEO, it runs into a huge snag: a lawsuit filed by Motorola Inc., which contends its ex-president and COO is breaching several agreements. Motorola wants to stop Zafirovski from working at Nortel for two years just to make sure he doesn't reveal any of Motorola's technology secrets. Of course, this could be nothing more than a  nuisance suit to embarrass Nortel but, nevertheless, it is the last thing the telecom equipment maker needed as it struggles to regain its credibility. Now, if I was a betting man, I suspect this "problem" will be resolved fairly soon after Zafirovski, Motorola and Nortel come to some kind of agreement. It seems strange an agreement wouldn't have been reached before Zafirovski took the job. And it seems somewhat odd, if not unfair, Motorola wouldn't let Zafirovski take on his next assignment given he stuck around for a year after losing the the battle to become Motorola's CEO to Ed Zander. As well, Zafirovski left Motorola in January so it's nearly two years since his future - or lack thereof - was cast in stone. Given Nortel CEO Bill Owens - I assume he's still CEO until Zafirovski comes on board? - was clearly not happy about being pushed into "retirement", I wonder if the ex-U.S. Admiral is taking some perverse pleasure in Nortel's latest legal woes. While Owens had his shortcomings, he was squeaky clean! If you look at Nortel shares today, the lack of movement suggests investors are never surprised at any new developments in "As the Nortel Turns".