Posts on ‘August 21st, 2009’

The general counsel of LoJack Corp. has beaten a contempt judgment, but
he still must kick in additional alimony to his ex-wife for money he
made in company stock. In a matter of first impression, the Appeals
Court of Massachusetts found on Tuesday that Thomas A. Wooters, top
in-house counsel for the anti-auto theft company, ran afoul of a divorce
judgment when he failed to pay his ex-wife’s portion of the $1.2 million
that he made from exercising his stock options.

Service levels in technology services contracts define minimum standards for outsourced work. Developing levels that satisfy customer objectives and that are attainable by the vendor are key to a successful relationship, says Equifax outsourcing transaction counsel W. Carter Santos.

Last November, a small portion of the extensive collection of the late
Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s papers became public at the Hoover
Institution Archives at Stanford University. Without fanfare, the
archives recently allowed public access to a second batch, including a
compilation of Rehnquist’s correspondence with justices and others as
recently as 2005, the year he died in office. The material offers a
glimpse of the inner workings of the Court.

Attorney Robert Simels was convicted Thursday of 12 felony counts — including bribery of a witness, attempted witness tampering and conspiracy to commit witness tampering — stemming from his efforts to prevent potential witnesses from testifying against his client, a Guyanese drug smuggler. Simels was acquitted of only the least serious charge against him, making a false statement to a corrections officer in order to visit an inmate. Simels’ former associate, Arienne Irving, was convicted of five of 11 counts.

Mary Bucksbaum Scanlan, the daughter of the founding family of General Growth Properties, is suing Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg, alleging the firm created a bewildering mix of investment vehicles through which they mismanaged her trust fund — costing her at least $300 million. In all, Scanlan claims she has lost $1.7 billion from trusts that once held $2.5 billion. But the $300 million used to pay a Citigroup loan is at the center of the suit.

A former UBS bank executive and a Swiss attorney were indicted Thursday on a fraud conspiracy charge for allegedly helping affluent Americans evade taxes by concealing their wealth in bank accounts named for untraceable foreign shell companies. The indictment tied Hansruedi Schumacher, who was UBS’ regional market manager for its North American operation, and Matthias Rickenbach, a lawyer based in Zurich with Rickenbach & Partner, to four Americans with UBS accounts.

On a bicycle fueled by “burger power” and boundless energy, attorney Jim Hoover recently completed the journey of a lifetime: The 75-year-old walked, ran and rode a bike across America in 60 days starting at Tybee Island, Ga., and ending at California’s Santa Monica Pier. Hoover, who is of counsel at Ford & Harrison, says of the trip along Route 66: “It was life in slow motion. And I feel more tolerant toward people now. Whatever your thing in life — it’s OK as long as you’re not treading on my feet.”

Making a living as a solo can be lonely, so attorneys who are going to do it ought to have a large support network. Still, there will be times when the solitary nature of the solo’s calling will settle in like a thick fog, writes solo Paul Schorn. In those moments, inspiration and energy can come from fictional accounts of that brave (if half-mad) loner tilting at windmills in the interest of justice. Schorn discusses three inspirational Hollywood characters and some lessons they hold for the solo.