Updating our Apr. 28 item on Rogers v. Merck: the Washington Legal Foundation has filed a judicial misconduct complaint (Jun. 21, PDF) against Alabama Circuit Judge John Rochester, saying he should have disqualified himself from hearing the suit brought by the firm of Beasley Allen, which according to an April AP report had last October donated $60,000 to his unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the state’s high court. Judge Rochester characterized the complaint as meritless, saying “attorneys for Vioxx’s manufacturer, Merck & Co., had not complained about the donations and had not asked him to step aside from the case.” (“Complaint Filed Against Vioxx Case Judge”, AP/Forbes.com, Jun. 21).
Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
NYT on potential Lerach indictment
Must-read story in today’s New York Times on the Lerach scandal (Jul. 5, Jun. 28, Jun. 27, Feb. 4, 2004). (Timothy L. O’Brien & Jonathan D. Glater, “Robin Hoods or Legal Hoods?”, Jul. 17). Tom Kirkendall suggests the government has an uphill battle.
Champerty and maintenance watch
The law firm of Cellino & Barnes bills itself as the largest personal injury firm in western New York, and the “faces of [name partners Ross M.] Cellino and [Stephen E.] Barnes grace a reported 150 billboards across upstate New York. The attorneys’ names and likenesses frame their phone number and the one-word question ‘Injured?'” However, the firm has now gotten itself into hot water: an appellate panel has suspended Cellino and censured Barnes for, among other infractions, “advancing financial assistance to clients that was unrelated to the expenses of litigation”.
The unanimous five-judge panel found that Cellino and Barnes advanced financial assistance to clients beyond the expenses of litigation and, when they subsequently became aware that such actions violated the disciplinary rules, “arranged for the establishment of, funded and controlled [a] company owned by respondent Cellino’s cousin and that they did so in order to continue loaning money to clients.”
At common law, champerty (supplying clients with money in exchange for a share in the action) and maintenance (supplying them with money in order to keep their lawsuits going) were both offenses, but the prohibitions have tended to fall into disuse or to be repealed outright in recent times. On champerty, see Jun. 19, 2005, Jun. 27, 2004, Oct. 25, 2003, and this excerpt from The Litigation Explosion. (Mark Fass, “Bad Lawyer, No Billboard”, New York Law Journal, Jun. 14; Michael Ziegler, “Cellino & Barnes leaders punished”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Jun. 11; Rick Pfeiffer, “Lawyers Cellino and Barnes found guilty of violating conduct code”, Tonawanda News, Jun. 11). More on the Barnes law firm: Jan. 31, 2006.
New York judge thrown off the bench
Brooklyn Surrogate Michael H. Feinberg, elected to the bench in 1996, appointed a law school buddy, Louis R. Rosenthal, counsel to the public administrator, and then rubber-stamped $8.5 million in fees to him without making legally-required findings to justify the large awards—money taken from the estates of those unfortunate enough to die without a will in Brooklyn. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct wasn’t impressed with his excuse that he hadn’t actually read the law he failed to apply. The state’s high court, the Court of Appeals, affirmed his removal from the bench, and there will be a new judge elected, who will have to clean up the messy files left behind. “A probe of 25 files during 2004 found such disarray that [the administrator] closed the books on one dead Brooklyn resident’s estate without distributing 48 U.S. savings bonds. The bonds later showed up in an employee’s desk drawer, the report said.” (John Caher, “Judge Loses Seat After Showing ‘Shocking Disregard’ for Law”, New York Law Journal, Jul. 1 (via Legal Reader); Nancie L. Katz, “News helps get dirty B’klyn judge axed”, NY Daily News, Jun. 30; Nancie L. Katz, “Big mess in B’klyn court for estates”, NY Daily News, Jul. 1; In the Matter of Hon. Michael H. Feinberg (NY Jun. 29, 2005); NYSCJC decision, Feb. 10, 2005).
LawLimits.com
A new blog from Jeffrey Lewis (also of Southern California Law Blog). Its mission: “exploring topics of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, anti-SLAPP procedures, legal malpractice and other areas around the boundaries of the practice of law”.
Bad-mouthing Frodo
Okay, so lawyers constantly serve as press sources for coverage critical of the people they litigate against, but still…. After the New York Times reports on a revenue-splitting dispute between Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema (Ross Johnson, “The Lawsuit of the Rings”, Jun. 27), Jack Shafer wonders: “[S]houldn’t there be a Times policy against giving a partisan source, in this case a defense attorney, the cover of anonymity to call the plaintiff in a case against his client piggish?” (“Lord of the Pigs?”, Slate, Jun. 27).
Update: staking the Shinnecocks
On the day the Shinnecock Indian tribe filed the first of an expected series of lawsuits laying claim to wide swaths of the Hamptons (see Jun. 13), the tribe disclosed that its courtroom offensive was being underwritten by wealthy Detroit casino investors Marian Ilitch, who with her husband Michael founded Little Caesars Pizza and since then has gone on to purchase baseball’s Detroit Tigers as well as the city’s Red Wings hockey team, and real estate developer Michael Malik. “Gateway Funding Associates, a company backed by [Ilitch and Malik], signed an agreement with the tribe more than a year ago to pay for the lawsuit and other ‘economic development’ initiatives in exchange for a part of any future proceeds, said Tom Shields, a spokesman for Gateway.” Champerty has been defined as the practice of aiding in a lawsuit in return for a share in the benefits being sued over; it was illegal at common law but “the prohibitions have been greatly relaxed in modern times” and in some cases abolished. (Katie Thomas, “Shinnecocks launch legal claim to Hamptons land”, Newsday, Jun. 16; “Lawsuit backers invest in casinos” (sidebar), Jun. 16; James Langton, “Native American tribe lays claim to the Hamptons”, Sunday Telegraph (U.K.), Jun. 19).
Every law-blog post an advertisement?
The Kentucky Bar is advancing the unreasonable position that when a lawyer operates a weblog, every post he or she puts up counts as an advertisement for legal services. Ben Cowgill is at the center of the controversy, and on the case are David Giacalone, Eugene Volokh, Larry Ribstein, Evan Schaeffer and John Steele, among others. More: Stephen Bainbridge enters a partial dissent.
“When Lawyers Steal the Escrow”
The New York Times reports on what can be a real estate nightmare. Jay W. Rosen stole $3.6 million from his clients, and will be sentenced to prison after pleading guilty. (Patrick Healy, Jun. 5).
Update: Ed Fagan
The embattled New Jersey attorney, best known for international reparations claims, is now responding to charges that he mishandled money he secured for Holocaust victims. (Kate Coscarelli, “Embattled Holocaust attorney blames state”, Newark Star-Ledger, Jun. 2). More: Mar. 18, Feb. 16, Feb. 5 and many others.