Posts on ‘January 8th, 2009’

Jonathan M. Landers, an expert in bankruptcy and insolvency law who has been representing Citibank in matters involving defunct law firms Heller Ehrman and Thelen, has joined Milberg as a partner and will head the firm’s new bankruptcy practice. Landers, who was a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said the opportunity to build a bankruptcy practice at Milberg “came out of the blue,” adding, “This is an entrepreneurial thing, and I think I have an entrepreneurial streak.”

A New York surgeon embroiled in a nearly four-year divorce proceeding wants his estranged wife to return the kidney he donated to her, although he says he’ll settle for $1.5 million in compensation. Richard Batista accuses his wife of starting an extramarital affair some months after the 2001 kidney transplant. Matrimonial lawyers expressed skepticism that Batista would succeed in his demands.

The Justice Department is appealing a judge’s dismissal of a key conspiracy charge against prominent Miami attorney Ben Kuehne, who is accused of illegal dealings with a Colombian drug kingpin. Defense lawyers around the country are closely watching the case. Kuehne is a well-known defense lawyer who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Florida recount battle.

The praise coming from Harvard Law School colleagues of Dean Elena Kagan, who was named this week to be the next solicitor general, is effusive — and, it turns out, long-standing. Files at the Library of Congress include Kagan’s 1986 application to be Justice Thurgood Marshall’s law clerk, along with recommendations from five Harvard Law professors. Included also is her law school transcript, which indicates, interestingly, that Kagan got something of a low start in her first semester 1L courses.

A fee dispute between defense attorneys stemming from the 2004 conviction of investment manager Nathan Chapman Jr. went to trial on Monday in Baltimore. The suit pits Blank Rome and former litigation partner William Martin against a local lawyer who claims he’s owed more than $200,000 in fees for serving as behind-the-scenes co-counsel to Chapman during the latter’s trial. At issue is the extent of the relationship between Blank Rome, Martin, Chapman and plaintiff Nathaniel Jones of Jones & Associates.

It wasn’t a good sign for attorney Stuart Somach when California Supreme Court Justice Joyce Kennard told him during oral arguments that he didn’t have a single case to support his position — except for one ruling that she seemed ready to void. Somach was arguing that staff attorneys for administrative law agencies shouldn’t simultaneously serve as prosecutors in one matter while acting as advisers to the same agency in an unrelated case. The court’s decision could affect attorneys within all state agencies.

U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent, who faces trial on Jan. 26 in Houston on three federal criminal charges, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to three additional charges just hours after they were lodged against him in a superseding indictment. After Kent pleaded not guilty before 5th Circuit Judge Edward Prado, prosecutors from the DOJ asked the judge to consider two issues at sidebar. Kent’s defense attorney objected, but Prado overruled him and had the courtroom cleared for the 55-minute hearing.

A federal appellate court has established a “high hurdle” for bankruptcy clients who seek to alter court-approved fees for professionals who have worked on a contingency basis. In a case involving the rare instance of attorney fees, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a case of first impression that clients seeking a reduction in contingent fees must show that the fees were “improvident in light of developments not capable of being anticipated.”

The generation that lived through the Great Depression might now have an advantage when it comes to managing a budget for a corporate law department — or anything else, for that matter — according to Susan Hackett, general counsel and senior vice president for the Association of Corporate Counsel. The GCs’ GC offers a few frugality tips for consideration. At the top of the list: Don’t ask outside counsel for a discounted rate or a freeze on fees.

At LegalTech New York, Ted Banks, former chief counsel for global compliance at Kraft Foods, will be on a panel called “What I Hate About Technology, and What I Expect My Outside Counsel, Co-Counsel, Vendors & Employees to Do About It.” Banks lets the steam out with his pet peeves.