A former partner at Latham & Watkins pleaded guilty Friday to defrauding both clients and his own firm by charging them more than $300,000 in personal or false expenses. In announcing the guilty plea of Samuel A. Fishman, a mergers and acquisition specialist in Latham’s New York office from 1993 to 2005, prosecutors noted that the firm had reimbursed its clients hundreds of thousands of dollars that had been fraudulently charged.
He may be a conservative now, but Steven Bradbury has liberal roots. The acting chief of the DOJ’s influential Office of Legal Counsel campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and volunteered for Democrat Gary Hart’s presidential primary campaign in ‘84. Reviled by Democrats for his legal work on interrogation techniques and warrantless wiretapping, Bradbury burnished his conservative credentials as a law clerk. Friends and former colleagues say he is an honest lawyer who’s been vilified for unpopular positions.
Howrey has recruited a New York litigation partner from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Gregory G. Ballard has focused primarily on securities litigation but he also has handled a number of complex commercial cases. Washington, D.C.-based Howrey opened its 20-lawyer New York office in 2006.
February fundraising reports from the presidential candidates show that lobbyists are still donating big bucks to their campaigns. Sen. Hillary Clinton easily kept her status as the candidate who has received the most from lobbyists during the 2008 election cycle, according to data posted by the Center for Responsive Politics. However, Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, enjoyed the larger leap in dollar amounts.
The New Jersey Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether a Smith Barney incentive-compensation plan that penalizes participants who leave the company before they’re vested violates the public policy of state wage-and-hour law. A trial judge ruled in favor of two brokers who had resigned within their vesting periods, but a divided state appeals court reversed last year, finding that Smith Barney’s plan had passed muster in other states.
Binding arbitration agreements between doctors and patients — in which patients waive their right to a jury trial — are becoming more common, a trend that could put patients at a disadvantage if medical malpractice disputes surface, attorneys warn. A growing number of physicians, nursing homes and health care institutions are asking consumers to sign these agreements before offering services, says Stuart Ratzan of Miami’s Ratzan & Rubio.
The long-awaited decision handed down Thursday in notorious cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal’s federal appeal weighed in at 118 pages but changed nothing as the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that upheld Abu-Jamal’s conviction but overturned his death sentence because of potentially confusing jury instructions. But a dissenting judge said he would also have ordered new hearings on whether Abu-Jamal can prove that prosecutors improperly struck blacks from the jury.
Last year’s decision by a Pennsylvania federal district court in a case involving the online virtual world, , reflects the growth of litigation over virtual world property. As participation in virtual worlds increases, lawsuits will likely grow in number.
After testing out the benefits of client interviews through a consulting firm, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll has hired former reporter Debra Nussbaum as a full-time client interviewer. The idea of bringing on a client relations manager is a hot topic that many of the country’s largest law firms are just now testing out. One consultant says the use of these positions could really bolster the number of times clients refer the firm and could, ultimately, reduce or eliminate the need for law firm marketing.
Punitive damages cannot be awarded as a general deterrent but only to deter and punish the defendant who committed the wrong, the New Jersey Supreme Court held on Thursday. The justices also said jurors weighing punitives should consider the defendant’s financial condition not only at the time of the verdict but also at the time of the wrongdoing, even if the defendant is now defunct and without assets.