Posts on ‘August 20th, 2009’

In today’s uncertain economic times, as foreign governments implement varying bailout strategies for previously private enterprises, the number of “foreign officials” for Foreign Corrupt Practices Act purposes has the potential to dramatically increase, say attorneys Stephanie J. Meltzer and Christopher E. Tierney. This is particularly true given that the percentage of foreign government ownership or amount of control needed to deem employees “foreign officials” for FCPA purposes remains an open question.

The Hippocratic oath in medicine begins with the admonition “first, do no harm.” This simple directive also fully applies to the practice of law, says Jones Day partner Steven C. Bennett. Junior lawyers, however, often overlook the potential consequences of their behavior, assuming that someone else more senior will help them before or after a problem occurs. Bennett catalogues some of the most common ways that a junior lawyer can mess up a matter, and offers some basic cures for each potential pitfall.

Georgia defense lawyers and a journalists’ rights group are backing a convicted drug defendant who has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a Georgia high court decision upholding the closure of jury selection to the public. The Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers claims U.S. courts have “chipped away” at the public’s right to observe jury selection in criminal trials, despite U.S. Supreme Court rulings affirming that right.

Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli is fighting to keep the public out of a pending hearing before the 9th Circuit in which he is seeking to reinstate a plea deal that he reached last year with prosecutors in a criminal backdating case. Briefs filed by Samueli and federal prosecutors appealing a district court judge’s rejection of the deal have been sealed, and Samueli argues in a motion that the hearing should be closed to the public as well because much of the same information would be brought up during the hearing.

In one of the rare pharmaceutical fraud cases to hit a jury, an up-and-coming federal prosecutor squared off Tuesday against a hardened defense veteran. The government says former Intermune CEO W. Scott Harkonen made false statements about the company’s star drug, but his defense lawyer sees jealous bureaucrats at work. Harkonen was indicted last year on two counts: wire fraud and felony misbranding of a drug.

The hearing on whether Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller committed misconduct has involved a lot of finger-pointing and not all of it at Keller. According to a special counsel with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the judge willfully circumvented the CCA’s execution-day procedures the day the state executed convicted killer Michael Richard. But Keller’s lead attorney has sought to lay the blame on the Texas Defender Service lawyers who represented Richard in his final pleadings.