Posts on ‘November 24th, 2009’

DLA Piper scored a big hire last week when it picked up former Sen. Tom Daschle. The one-time majority leader was the Obama administration’s first choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services before his nomination was derailed by questions about back taxes. Daschle will be jumping from Alston & Bird’s Washington office — his professional home since he lost his 2004 re-election bid. In a new interview, he offered details about DLA Piper’s allure and how the deal came together.

Jennifer Snyder had already secured a full-blown acting career by the time she reached age 9. So how did she end up practicing labor and employment and entertainment law at Dilworth Paxson? Heeding gentle encouragement from her parents and deciding that a law degree could eventually assist her in show business, Snyder attended Villanova University School of Law. And after focusing on law for a few years, Snyder added performing back into her repertoire, which included creating a mother-daughter cabaret act.

A Canadian woman on sick leave for depression said Monday she would fight an insurance company’s decision to cut her benefits after her agent found photos on Facebook of her vacationing, at a bar and at a party. Nathalie Blanchard’s insurance provider, Manulife, told her the photos were evidence she was no longer depressed. Blanchard’s lawyer said Blanchard was wrongfully dismissed from her benefits, and that she had been advised by her doctor to go on vacation.

“These Judges deserve to be killed,” declared Harold “Hal” Turner on his Web site in June, attacking three 7th Circuit judges who had upheld Chicago-area bans on handguns. On Dec. 1, Turner is due to go to trial in a federal case that will turn on whether his Web postings are protected as an exercise of free speech or constitute a “true threat” that posed imminent danger to the targets. Also part of the mix: Turner’s claim that he learned how to stay within the legal bounds of provocative speech as an FBI informant.

Trustee Irving Picard and a team of lawyers have asked a bankruptcy judge for $22 million in interim counsel fees in connection with the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff’s investment firm. Baker & Hostetler and Picard, respectively, requested some $21.3 million and $836,000 in fees for May 1 through Sept. 30, a 10 percent discount off their customary rates. The application comes 3 1/2 months after a judge approved about $15 million in interim counsel fees for Picard and his attorneys.

A federal judge has approved CIT Group’s motion to hire Sullivan & Cromwell as special counsel for the duration of its bankruptcy case. The brief pegs S&C as essential to CIT’s existence, claiming the firm’s “advice is critical to preserving the going concern value” of CIT, and that “it is imperative that [CIT] continue to have access to Sullivan & Cromwell’s expertise.” Partners will bill between $850 and $950 an hour, though there is an exception for firm Chairman Rodge Cohen, who will bill $965 an hour.

Friday was an eventful day at Howard Rice: While litigators there launched an antitrust suit against Microsoft, the firm’s business department was saying goodbye to some of its partners. Business department Chairwoman Deborah Marshall and vice chairman Michael Sullivan left last week for separate firms. Both had worked at what is now Cooley Godward Kronish for many years before joining Howard Rice just weeks apart in early 2003. Two more partner departures are reportedly on the horizon.

A king’s ransom of mansions, cars, boats, bank accounts and millions of dollars in political and charitable contributions are up for seizure from disgraced attorney Scott Rothstein, according to a court filing Monday. The latest filing details the free-spending lifestyle of Rothstein, who has been accused by federal authorities of operating a Ponzi scheme that could top $1 billion. Prosecutors also say staff salaries at Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler were $18 million in a year when the firm’s billings were just $8 million.

A trial judge has thrown out separate civil lawsuits brought against Los Angeles private investigator Anthony Pellicano and attorney Terry Christensen, who were convicted last year on federal anti-wiretapping charges. The actions, by two lawyers whose client was a target in the scheme, were among more than a dozen civil cases against Pellicano or Christensen.

From the start of Monday’s trademark fight between San Francisco’s iconic Italian establishment Original Joe’s and upstart Uptown Joe’s, two things were clear: Judge Charles Breyer was going to enjoy dispensing his knowledge of San Francisco cuisine and he wasn’t going to stop Uptown Joe’s from using its name.