Twenty-days goes by fast when you are under investigation, your law practice is dwindling and you must respond to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by your former employees. But a federal judge was not sympathetic to a request by the attorney for David. J. Stern who wanted more time to respond to the former employees’ lawsuit. Stern was given 20 days to respond to a lawsuit filed by former employees on Dec. 2. The workers accused their former boss of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act by failing to give them 60-days notice of mass layoffs that began in September. But on December 16 – six days before the Dec. 22 deadline – Jeffrey Tew, Stern’s attorney, filed court papers asking the judge to extend the deadline to Jan. 24, 2011.