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Kirkland & Ellis Host Literacy Event in D.C. Office
Law Firm News |
2007/12/07 17:44
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Last night at Kirkland & Ellis’ D.C. office, law firms engaged in a battle of who knows the most about nothing much in the first annual Lawyers for Literacy Trivia Night. The event, which raised funds for the children’s literacy program Everybody Wins! D.C., pitted nine firms against each other for five rounds of general interest trivia, with a heavy emphasis on, appropriately enough, children’s literature.
The nine firms—Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal; Morrison & Foerster; Sidley Austin; Steptoe & Johnson; White & Case; Nordhaus Law Firm; Shook, Hardy & Bacon; Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; and Kirkland & Ellis—donated $1,500 to the literacy program for each six-person team.
Mark Young, a partner with Kirkland who knows a fair bit about Winnie the Pooh, Monopoly, and Warren Harding, has been reading to children in the Everybody Wins! D.C. Power Lunch Program for 11 years. Twelve firms around town participate in the program, and he says reading to an elementary school child for an hour once a week is easy to fit into a lawyer’s hectic schedule. “People that have become lawyers have done an awful lot of reading, and they appreciate the value of reading as a skill,” says Young.
The trivia questions ranged from popular movies and music to history. For example, what did Scout dress up as for her school pageant in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird? Answer, a ham. And what country has outlawed resurrecting the dead? Answer, Haiti.
Occasionally the crowd got a little rowdy, forcing quiz master, Neal Racioppo, to lay down the law, so to speak. “I just assumed you all were used to the judge being right,” said Racioppo, when one of the Steptoe teams objected to his answer.
Though White & Case had an early lead followed closely by Kirkland & Ellis’ appellate team, the fourth round was especially brutal, knocking out the frontrunners. The Shook Hardy team, called Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner, played a steady game and came in to win in the last round with 51 points.
The team, which scored an impressive looking trophy for their efforts, said their secret to winning was trusting their instincts. Christopher Appel, a staff attorney at the firm, described their strategy with a quote from “The Simpsons.” “God gave us the atom. It’s up to us to make it dance,” he said.
Racioppo enjoyed the crowd, but added that in the seven years he’s been quizzing folks around Washington he’s never seen a more competitive lot. “They weren’t all about finding the answer to the question,” said Racioppo. Instead, “they looked for the loopholes around the questions.” |
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NY Law Firm Subpoenaed Over Questionable Hiring
Law Firm News |
2007/12/07 17:39
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As legislative leaders seek to award New York's thoroughbred racing franchise that's due to expire Dec. 31, a state committee has subpoenaed a firm that recently won a no-bid contract with the New York Racing Association, which holds the current franchise.
The law firm of Getnick & Getnick of Manhattan has been subpoenaed to testify before the state Commission of Investigation, Neil V. Getnick said Thursday, just as NYRA fights to keep the franchise it's held since 1955.
The subpoena apparently stems from a recent hearing by the state Senate's racing committee, in which the no-bid contract to Getnick & Getnick as integrity counsel was criticized. The contract is worth $125,000 a month.
Senators and NYRA's competitors have questioned the hiring of the law firm. The firm was appointed by a court in 2005 to oversee NYRA's finances and was instrumental in helping NYRA avoid a federal indictment for mismanagement.
"I regret that I was not afforded the opportunity to appear before the state Senate racing committee when it held its NYRA related hearing earlier this fall," Getnick said. "I would welcome the opportunity to testify before the state investigation commission. The facts are straightforward and should be heard by the public."
"We stand in full support of Neil and his firm," said Charles Hayward of NYRA. "We're thrilled to be associated with them."
Asked if he thought the subpoena was timed to hurt NYRA's chances at renewing its franchise, Hayward said: "I think the investigation is not fact based."
In 2005, Getnick & Getnick's report found that after years of mismanagement and corruption, NYRA had reformed itself enough to avoid a federal indictment and be in the running to retain its lucrative franchise. The U.S. Attorney's Office investigating NYRA then moved to dismiss the indictment against NYRA. Getnick & Getnick was paid more than $4 million for that study, funded by NYRA.
Now NYRA is competing against Empire Racing, Capital Play and Excelsior Racing Associates for what is expected to be a 30-year franchise to operate Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga race tracks.
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno called for public negotiations with Gov. Eliot Spitzer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to form a consensus. The various options discussed in closed-door sessions include awarding the racing franchise to NYRA _ favored by Spitzer and supported initially by Silver. Bruno said he opposes Spitzer's plan, but is open to discussing various combinations that could include NYRA.
Under Spitzer's plan, a separate franchise would be awarded _ with NYRA's input _ to one of the gaming partners with the racing groups that would run video slot machines at Aqueduct and potentially at Belmont.
The Senate is scheduled to be in session next week to consider only racing, Bruno said. The Assembly will commit only if there is agreement by the leaders, spokesmen said.
The closed-door negotiations, however, have grown to include several other measures including a pay raise from lawmakers and state judges, a senior citizen tax break, and a $900 million capital budget that would be directed to projects back in lawmakers' districts as a kind of pork-barrel spending. |
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Who Should Hold Katrina Fees?
Law Firm News |
2007/12/07 17:27
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A law firm fighting over legal fees with a prominent trial attorney recently charged with bribery wants a judge to take control of millions of dollars in settlement money from a Hurricane Katrina insurance case.
The motion filed Wednesday by the law firm of Jones, Funderburg, Sessums, Peterson & Lee said the indictment against Richard "Dickie" Scruggs "indicates that the Defendants are not proper persons to have control of any funds" at issue in the dispute.
Scruggs was indicted last week on federal charges of trying to bribe a judge to get a favorable ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Jones firm.
Scruggs and a group of his high-octane legal associates known as the Scruggs Katrina Group brokered a mass settlement with State Farm Insurance Cos. The Jones firm, which worked on the case, sued for a bigger cut of at least $26.5 million in legal fees; it rejected a check for $617,924 the Scruggs group sent it in March.
The Jones firm claims, among other things, breach of contract.
The indictment accuses Scruggs of conspiring to pay a judge $50,000 to rule in his favor on the Jones firm's lawsuit.
Four other people were charged, including Scruggs' son and law partner, Zach Scruggs. All pleaded not guilty, but on Tuesday one of the defendants, attorney Timothy Balducci, changed his plea to guilty on conspiracy to bribe a state court judge and is cooperating with prosecutors.
A message left after hours Thursday for Scruggs' attorney, Billy Quin, was not immediately returned.
The Jones firm's motion asks the Lafayette County Circuit Court to take control of all fees collected by the Scruggs Katrina Group, a consortium of lawyers that has represented thousands of Gulf Coast homeowners who sued over hurricane damages. It did not specify how much money is thought to have been collected by the group.
Scruggs, a brother-in-law of Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., has made millions from tobacco and asbestos litigation. He reportedly made $848 million for his part in brokering a multibillion-dollar settlement with tobacco companies in the mid-1990s. That case was portrayed in the 1999 movie "The Insider." |
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Bengal's Founder's Kids Lose 4 Year Battle
Court Feed News |
2007/12/06 18:18
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Two children of one of the founders of the Cincinnati Bengals have lost their four-year court battle over his estate, which includes about 30 percent of the shares in a team that Forbes estimated is worth $912 million this year.
A Hamilton County Probate Court jury on Tuesday rejected their claims that Austin E. "Dutch" Knowlton's will was a forgery. They sued after Knowlton died in 2003, at age 93, and they discovered they were left out of his will, which was dated February 1996 and left the bulk of his estate to the Austin E. Knowlton Foundation.
Knowlton, who owned a construction company, founded the Bengals in 1967 with Paul Brown and other investors. Two of his three children, Peter Knowlton and P. Valerie Knowlton, challenged the will.
Peter Knowlton has since died, but his claim remains. |
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New Online Law Firm Offers Affordable Services
Law Firm News |
2007/12/06 18:04
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The name of Greenwich resident Patricia A. DeWitt's business says it all: lawyersforless.net.
In such a litigious society where attorney fees can cost as much as $1,000 per-hour and many individuals and families are feeling strapped by the rising cost of living, DeWitt is convinced that her "E" law firm will be the wave of the future with Web surfers - and anyone in need of an effective attorney at an economical price.
"The time is right for an Internet law firm," DeWitt said. "People can save a lot of money shopping on the Internet, so why not save a lot of money on the services of an attorney?"
While she has numerous reasons for launching a Web-based law firm, paramount among them is the desire to spend time with her 11-year-old daughter, Annie, a student at Glenville School. "I have my daughter's interests in mind," DeWitt said. "She's very excited. She's my biggest helper. She's my biggest fan."
A single mother, DeWitt enjoys working out of the home because it provides her more time to be with her daughter, who is adopted. With that background, part of DeWitt's focus is on assisting those interested in adoption through the legal process.
"Once I adopted, as an attorney I became extremely interested in the resources that are available to people who seek to adopt," she said. "I am dedicated to advising and assisting persons interested in adopting or having their infant adopted."
She also handles product liability, medical malpractice and negligent matters. Those type of cases, though, can take years to resolve, so they are taken only after agreeing on a contingent retainer. DeWitt does not handle criminal law.
"A small contractor knows it costs the customer more money to hire an attorney than the customer could get back in small claims court," DeWitt said. "Affordable legal representation might help those who don't want the hassle of personally appearing, but want the satisfaction of getting back whatever was rightfully theirs, up to the $5,000 limit of small claims courts."
With word quickly spreading about lawyersforless.net through articles published in local newspapers, DeWitt has cases coming her way. Some are simply small business owners who want to craft a better contract, others involved motor vehicle accidents. The common denominator, though, is that her clients are "savvy professionals" with little spare time on their hands.
"I'm really very impressed with the clients," she said.
Perhaps the most widely followed set of rates for attorney fees is what is called the Laffey Matrix, which is available from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and is updated each year. The hourly rates are shown by years of experience. For June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007 the rates are as follows: 20+ years of experience, $425 per hour; 11-19 years, $375; 8-10 years, $305; 4-7 years, $245; 1-3 years, $205; and paralegals/law clerks $120.
Hourly rates are increasing almost every year and some lawyers charge substantially higher than the rates shown by the Laffey Matrix. Consider, the first attorney in the U.S. to regularly charge a four-digit hourly fee ($1,000 and higher) was Benjamin Civiletti in late 2005.
With a resume that dates her professional law career back two decades, including serving as an enforcement attorney for the New York Stock Exchange before beginning her general practice in 1993, DeWitt can certainly charge more per hour. Yet she has decided quality of life and time with her daughter is more important to her than making a killing. Some attorneys have called her nuts, she said.
DeWitt's hourly rates were initially $70 per hour, yet after reevaluating her expenses and the amount of time she puts into cases (hours of research), she decided on an hourly rate of $140.
"In this day and age it's just really interesting to see that even with doubling my rates, I'm going to still be half of some of the lowest rates."
Further, there is the matter of combating a widely held societal belief: "Primarily, people think they get what they pay for."
DeWitt, certified to practice law in both New York and Connecticut, wants to focus on clients in Westchester and Fairfield counties because they are close to home and she is familiar with the courts in these jurisdictions. But with the lack of geographical boundaries on the Internet, lawyersforless.net could grow into something much larger than a single-mother's humble practice. "We could create a network," she said when asked about the potential for growth. "I suppose something can be done about it."
"There is life after the law firm," she reminds aging attorneys.
For information, visit www.lawyersforless.net or call DeWitt at 532-4120. |
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Credit card receipt rule leads to class-action suits
Class Action News |
2007/12/05 17:48
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A law to protect against identity theft has spawned more than 300 class-action lawsuits across the country. The lawsuits claim merchants failed to remove both the expiration date and sufficient digits of the credit card number on receipts they give back to customers. Lawyers are trying to get the lawsuits certified as class actions, potentially opening restaurants and stores to thousands or even millions of dollars in liability. The claims are filed under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, or FACTA. Congress enacted the law in 2003 to address identity theft and credit card fraud. Most people, if they've dealt with FACTA at all, tapped a provision that gives consumers the right to a free credit report each year. But another section requires that businesses truncate credit card information on receipts. That's why retailers no longer print out receipts containing all 16 digits of your credit card number. They must limit the digits to five and remove the credit card expiration date. Lawyers say thousands of retailers across the country -- many using outdated credit card processing machines -- probably are in violation. Businesses that fail to comply with FACTA's credit card rule can be liable for statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per consumer if the noncompliance is willful. Since it would be very difficult to prove actual damages -- that someone had their identity stolen or was the victim of credit card fraud because of receipt errors -- the FACTA lawsuits focus on the argument that the violation was intentional. Defense attorneys describe the lawsuits as the latest consumer class-action fad. "We have lawsuits growing out of a situation where, as far as we know, no one's been actually injured," said Thomas Zych, a partner at a Cleveland law firm that is representing the Children's Place clothing store chain in a FACTA case. |
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