ABA Journal Top Stories

Exploding Text-Harrassment Cases Create Pitfalls for Defense Attorneys

2009-11-06T17:43:50-06:00

As supervisors increasingly make objectionable comments to employees via text messages, resulting harassment cases over after-hours comments no longer are based simply on "he said, she said" evidence. But this seeming bonanza of proof for plaintiffs lawyers is surrounded by potential pitfalls for defense attorneys, according to a Texas Lawyer article reprinted in Corporate Counsel. It may be a violation of an employee's privacy or statutory rights for in-house counsel to access text messages without the worker's express consent, even if the employer pays for the BlackBerry, cell phone or PDA device from which they were sent, the legal publication…

Rothstein Firm Is Running on Fumes, Newspaper Says

2009-11-06T16:07:19-06:00

Despite an effort by partner and president Stuart Rosenfeldt to create a new law firm out of the apparent ashes of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, the well-known Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law firm is running on fumes. After stunning revelations of alleged misconduct by a top partner, the departure of some other lawyers, a federal raid and a firm-requested receivership within the last week, the firm now has $300,000 in available funds, reports the Sun-Sentinel. And $200,000 of that amount is from a contribution to the state Democratic Party returned to the law firm this week after a possible Ponzi scheme by…

Legal Sector Lost 5,800 Jobs Last Month, Labor Bureau Says

2009-11-06T15:05:44-06:00

As the nation's unemployment rate topped 10 percent last month, lawyers were not spared. The legal sector lost 5,800 jobs, according to seasonally adjusted statistics in a just-released report (PDF) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. When not seasonally adjusted, the figures show a gain of 1,500 jobs, but that is probably attributable to the elimination of summer associates from law firm payrolls, reports the Am Law Daily. After slowing down for a few months over the summer, it appears that the pace of law firm layoffs is now picking up a bit, the legal blog notes. Among the…

Two Law Firms Housed in Orlando Building Where Shooter Left One Dead

2009-11-06T13:27:55-06:00

At least two law firms are housed in an Orlando, Fla., office building that was the site of a shooting today that left at least one person dead and five others injured. Police say the suspect, Jason Rodriguez, is a former engineer who worked for a transportation consulting firm in the high-rise building known as Legions Place, according to the Orlando Sentinel and USA Today. He surrendered at his mother's home. Earlier reports said two people were killed and six were wounded in the shootings. A spokesman for Rodriguez’s former employer, Reynolds, Smith & Hill, confirmed that the shootings took…

‘Star Associate’ Alleges Breakdown Over Work Conditions, Sues Sedgwick & Partner

2009-11-06T13:20:53-06:00

A former associate in the New York office of Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold has filed a disability discrimination suit against the firm and an a partner he alleges was abusive, contending that he was driven to a breakdown with overwork and mistreatment and then abruptly fired when he had recovered and was ready to return to work. Above the Law provides a link to the complaint (PDF) filed by Alan Levy filed in New York Supreme Court late last month. It contends that Levy had for years been the "star associate" of the New York office and was the…

Did Top Texas Judge’s Testimony Open Door to Wrongful Death Suit?

2009-11-06T12:10:11-06:00

Contending that a top Texas appellate judge misled a federal appeals court that dismissed a wrongful death claim by the wife and daughter of a executed inmate, a civil rights group has asked a federal judge to reopen the case . It concerns a controversial refusal by Texas Court of Appeals Judge Sharon Keller to keep the court open long enough on Sept. 25, 2007 for lawyers to make a last-minute appeal on behalf of Michael Richard, based on a then-recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He was executed later that same evening. The federal wrongful death suit was dismissed after…

Why Abandoning Lockstep Can Lead to Disgruntled Associates

2009-11-06T10:27:58-06:00

Abandoning lockstep promotions and salary hikes for associates can hurt morale if the system is perceived as unfair, according to a consultant who is an organizational psychologist. Writing for the New York Law Journal, Larry Richard of the legal consulting firm Hildebrandt warns about the dangers of moving to a competency-based rewards system that bases promotions and pay hikes on mastering defined competencies. Richard cites research that shows a perceived lack of equity is the No. 1 reason why workers lose motivation. “For a ‘levels’ system to work,” he writes, “a firm needs both well-functioning infrastructure systems and a widely…

Mass. Appeals Court Lawyer Reportedly Offered to Write Term Paper for $300

2009-11-06T09:48:46-06:00

An undercover journalist researching the “shadowy underworld” of ghostwritten term papers says a senior staff attorney with the Massachusetts Appeals Court offered to write a term paper on physician-assisted suicide for $300. The lawyer, Damian Bonazzolli, was one of 62 people who offered a price quote to the undercover journalist, who sent queries about a 20-page term paper to businesses and individuals advertising on Craiglist. The journalist, Colman Herman, got quotes ranging from $90 to $1,200, he wrote in an article in CommonWealth. Legal Blog Watch noted the story. As part of his pitch for business, Bonazzolli sent along his…

Southern New England Law Dean Prepares for Battle over Merger Plan

2009-11-06T08:41:41-06:00

Southern New England law school dean Robert Ward is preparing for battle over his school’s plan to merge with the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and become the state’s first public law school. Ward defended his school during a tour of the campus with a Boston Globe reporter. Ward says the idea is to gain ABA accreditation for his school while keeping tuition low. Tuition and fees at the school would be increased only slightly to $23,500, about half the cost of the Suffolk University and New England law schools. Southern New England would donate its campus and assets to…

Woman Lawyer Who Hid Gender in 1930s Law Job Applications Dies at 99

2009-11-06T08:16:15-06:00

A woman lawyer who used initials in 1930s job applications to hide her gender has died at the age of 99. Anne Sullivan, formerly Anne Chawk, was licensed in 1934 and signed her job applications "A.M. Chawk" so they wouldn’t be tossed out, the Chicago Tribune reports. She volunteered in probate court for a year before landing a law firm job where she met her husband, John Sullivan. In 1948, the couple formed their own firm. They had eight children. A Chicago Tribune story from the 1960s said Anne Sullivan was someone who "concocts a cake or legal brief with…

Nadel Receiver Leaves Fowler White Boggs Along With at Least 9 Others

2009-11-06T07:59:44-06:00

The court-appointed receiver trying to recover money for investors with alleged Ponzi schemer Arthur Nadel is forming a new law firm. The receiver, Burton Wiand, is a partner at Fowler White Boggs in Tampa. He is leaving the law firm with at least nine other lawyers to form Wiand Guerra King, the Tampa Tribune reports. Last year Fowler White Boggs lost about 60 lawyers who joined partner Bob Banker when he left to form his own law firm, according to the story. Fowler White CEO Rhea Law told the Tampa Tribune that the split is amicable and Wiand wanted to…

Troutman Sanders: Confident Its Accused Real Estate Chief Will Return to Work

2009-11-06T07:13:12-06:00

The Troutman Sanders law firm has released a statement expressing confidence that a kickbacks case involving the chair of its real estate practice will be successfully resolved. Troutman Sanders partner Leonard Grunstein is accused of helping a client who bought a nursing home company obtain $50 million in kickbacks from a pharmaceutical vendor supplying patients with medications. Grunstein was a lawyer at the now-defunct law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist at the time of the alleged wrongdoing, and was also a principal in the nursing home company, prosecutors say. Troutman Sanders hired Grunstein in 2005 when it acquired a group of…

Revised N.J. Ethics Rule Allows Lawyers to Tout Super Lawyers Designation

2009-11-06T06:49:57-06:00

The New Jersey Supreme Court has changed the ethics rules to allow lawyers to tout their designation as among the "Super Lawyers" and "Best Lawyers in America." The rule change, enacted Wednesday, carries some restrictions, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. Any ad that mentions such a designation must include the name of the ratings service. And it should include a disclaimer reading: "No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court." A comment to the ethics rule has more information on when the ads could be misleading, according to the story. The comment says lawyers shouldn’t…

Bizarre Beatles Song-Selling Defense: Techies Created—and Can Copyright—New Tunes

2009-11-05T16:19:28-06:00

The music of the Beatles isn't legally available on the Internet. However, a little-known company is not only offering the back catalog of the famous 1960s rock 'n' roll group online but is trying to copyright it, based on what Ars Technica's Law & Disorder blog characterizes as a "entertainingly weird" legal theory. The theory is explained in the federal copyright action that almost immediately resulted. It was filed Tuesday in the Middle District of California with other music company plaintiffs by EMI Christian Music Group Inc., the company that controls the sale of Beatles music on CDs. BlueBeat and…

Police Pose as Clients, Charge Disbarred Lawyer in Office Sting

2009-11-05T14:47:38-06:00

After what reportedly could be as much as a decade or more of alleged unauthorized practice in Nevada on the part of disbarred attorney Charles Radosevich, authorities have apparently mounted a full-scale campaign against him. Two Las Vegas police detectives went to the Radosevich's office posing as potential clients on Tuesday and issued two misdemeanor citations to the 62-year-old for practicing law without a license, reports the Las Vegas Sun. He allegedly accepted $200 from the detectives in exchange for agreeing to provide legal services. The citations follow news that Radosevich was charged with felony theft last week for allegedly…

Iconic N.Y. Lawyer Settles Pension Probe; ‘Worked’ Over 1,200 Days in a Year

2009-11-05T13:50:30-06:00

A Long Island, N.Y., private practitioner whose claims in government legal bills to have worked more than 1,200 days in a single year led to a massive probe of state pensions being paid to attorneys has agreed to give up his own benefits. Lawrence Reich, 69, will no longer receive the $62,000 annual pension or lifetime health coverage he was awarded as a result of being simultaneously reported as a full-time employee of five school districts, reports Newsday (sub. req.). Reich also will pay over $240,000 to the state attorney general's office. "This lawyer epitomized the systemic waste and abuse…

After Difficult Year, Latham & Watkins Announces 23 New Partners

2009-11-05T11:24:53-06:00

Latham & Watkins has promoted 23 associates to partner, about 25 percent fewer than last year. Still, the number outpaces promotions at a few other law firms that have announced new partners. Eric Bernthal, managing partner of Latham's Washington, D.C., office, told The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times that the promotions are a show of confidence. "These promotions show that we are prepared to vote on talents, not on short term economics," Bernthal told the BLT. The firm promoted 23 associates to partner and 13 to of counsel. The move follows a difficult year for Latham. In 2008, the…

Ropes & Gray Associate Arrested in Galleon Probe

2009-11-05T09:39:29-06:00

A Ropes & Gray associate is one of 14 people charged Thursday in an investigation into insider trading involving the Galleon Group hedge fund. Associate Arthur Cutillo is accused of stealing inside information from Ropes & Gray and leaking it to Jason Goldfarb, who was also arrested Thursday, Bloomberg reports. A copy of the complaint (PDF) posted on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog identifies Goldfarb as a New York lawyer. The complaint says Goldfarb turned over the insider information to Zvi Goffer, who allegedly ran an insider trading network at Galleon and other funds where he was employed. Later…

Associate Pay May Need to Return to 1998 Levels, Consultant Says

2009-11-05T09:10:49-06:00

In 1998, law firms in Atlanta paid new associates about $72,000 a year. That may be more to the liking of Altman Weil legal consultant James Cotterman, who told participants in an Oct. 27 webinar for law firm clients that associate pay cuts didn’t go low enough, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. Associate pay at large law firms dropped from $160,000 to $145,000, but that was only "about half of what was needed," Cotterman said, according to the Daily Report account. "They probably should have set pay back a decade, to 1998. That's what I was expecting," he…

Ex-Chief Justice of New Mexico Dies While Giving Speech to Law Students

2009-11-05T08:25:42-06:00

Former New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Gene Franchini collapsed and died Wednesday while giving a speech to first-year students at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Students tried to perform CPR but were unable to revive Franchini, KOB.com reports. The audience of about 100 people included students, faculty and Franchini’s wife, the story says. Franchini was a judge for 18 years, including 12 years on the supreme court, according to a story published last year in the New Mexico Business Weekly. He was chief justice from 1997 to 1999. Franchini was delivering his annual speech on ethics…

Congressman Wants to Know Why Bank of America Hired GC with Inactive License

2009-11-05T08:05:11-06:00

A congressman investigating Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch wants to know why the bank ousted its general counsel last December and hired a replacement with an inactive license. "This is another fact that leads me to believe there could be something rotten in the cotton," U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., told the New York Post. The new general counsel, Brian Moynihan, had an inactive license for the first eight days after he was hired, according to stories in the Post, the Boston Globe and Corporate Counsel. Moynihan has been a bank executive, rather than a legal department lawyer,…

Lawsuits Claim Texas Dog Scent Lineups Identified the Wrong People

2009-11-05T06:53:04-06:00

Three men identified as suspects in Texas dog-scent lineups have filed a lawsuit saying the technique sent them to jail for crimes they didn’t commit. The technique uses dogs to pick suspects out of a lineup based on a link between their smell and crime-scene evidence. Scent lineups have been used in several states, including Alaska, Florida, New York and Texas, the New York Times reports. Critics say the technique can go awry because of cross-contamination or dogs responding to unconscious signals by handlers or detectives. Lawyer Jeff Blackburn, general counsel for the Innocence Project of Texas, represents the three…

Authorities Reel Over Parolees’ Stunning Alleged Crimes in 2 States

2009-11-04T19:24:56-06:00

As a report released today harshly criticized those in charge of monitoring the California parole of convicted sex offender and alleged child-kidnapper Phillip Garrido, who is accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old and keeping her at his home for nearly 20 years, observers are also asking questions about a stunning Ohio case. How, they wonder, could a convicted sex offender escape parole authorities' scrutiny long enough to allegedly murder multiple women and conceal their bodies in his home there? At last count, authorities report that they have found remains of 11 people in the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell and plan…

Top Pa. Court Axes $3.5M Libel Verdict Due to ‘Judicial Impropriety’

2009-11-04T18:38:18-06:00

Because of questionable conduct of the Luzerne County judges who oversaw the case, a Pennsylvania newspaper must get a new trial in a defamation lawsuit that resulted in a $3.5 million bench verdict in 2006, the state's top court ruled today. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not find that lawyers for the Citizens' Voice were correct in their contention that reputed Bufalino crime family head and convicted felon William D'Elia may have intervened with the then-president judge of Luzerne County to get a winning ruling from another judge for a plaintiff businessman. But the court did find that the "pervasive…

Law Prof Drops Privacy Suit Against Above the Law; Blog Offers Prof Guest Spot

2009-11-04T16:20:34-06:00

A law professor at the University of Miami has seemingly changed his mind about the federal invasion of privacy suit he filed only last week against the publisher of Above the Law over a 2007 post on the self-described tabloid law blog. Plaintiff Donald Marvin Jones today voluntarily dismissed the Southern District of Florida action in a one-sentence filing to which the Wall Street Journal Law Blog provides a link. As detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Jones asserted privacy claims against ATL's characterization of a 2007 arrest that did not result in any prosecution and, according to the law…