Seven leading plaintiff’s law firms, which ordinarily donate to Democrats, have made themselves the leading backers of a so-called “Ten Commandments slate” of candidates for the Alabama Supreme Court backed by ousted Chief Justice Roy Moore, a hero to some on the religious right. Firms including Beasley, Allen of Montgomery; Cunningham, Bounds of Mobile; and Hare, Wynn, Newell and Newton of Birmingham have (through PACs) contributed 98 percent of the funding of Republican candidates Pam Baschab and Jerry Stokes, and about 44 percent of the support for Tom Parker. All three are running in the GOP primary against business-backed candidates. (Kyle Wingfield, “Parker, Baschab, Stokes get nearly $1 million from trial lawyers”, AP/AlabamaLive, May 28; Stan Bailey, “Brown spends over $1 million on race”, Birmingham News/AlabamaLive, May 28; Shaila K. Dewan, “The Big Name in Alabama’s Primary Isn’t on the Ballot”, New York Times, May 30). Update Jun. 4: one of the Moore-backed candidates wins.
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
Shareholder lawyers in Hevesi heaven
Citigroup announced the other day that it was paying an unexpectedly munificent $2.65 billion to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of investors in WorldCom, the telecom stock which collapsed after being hyped by Citigroup analyst Jack Grubman. (Mark Hamblett, “Citigroup Settles WorldCom Litigation”, New York Law Journal, May 11). According to a New York Sun editorial, two law firms noted for their work in shareholder class actions — Barrack, Rodos & Bacine and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP — “stand to share a legal fee of up to $144.5 million for representing the lead plaintiff, the New York State comptroller, Alan Hevesi, in the case against Citigroup.” As it happens, both law firms donated generously to the political campaigns of Hevesi and his predecessor, Carl McCall. And while a chunk of the settlement will indeed flow into the coffers of New York state and city pension funds to compensate them for their losses in WorldCom stock — holdings worth around $306 million at their peak — it turns out that the same public entities own $1.6 billion in stock in Citigroup itself, which was hurt by the litigation (and which of course is also a major New York employer). In fact, the Sun notes in its detailed analysis of the affair, that “stock is worth about $45 million less now than it was before Mr. Hevesi’s heroics,” a sum that may or may not exceed what the city and state wind up gaining by recouping some of their WorldCom losses. (“Citigroup wake-up call” (editorial), New York Sun, May 11).
W.Va.: McGraw holds off challenge
Incumbent West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw (see Sept. 4) withstood a stiff challenge in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. The race was one of the more expensive in state history, with plaintiff’s lawyers and labor unions backing McGraw and business groups heavily supporting challenger Jim Rowe, who won the endorsement of both Charleston papers. McGraw must still face Republican Brent Benjamin in November. (Toby Coleman, “McGraw defeats challenger”, Charleston Daily Mail, May 12; Scott Wartman, “Some say Justice race most important”, Huntington Herald-Dispatch, May 5).
“Trial lawyers court GOP”
Charm offensive? “Last week, ATLA dispatched a team of Republican trial lawyers to meet with key GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill. … behind the scenes, ATLA has been surprisingly generous toward GOP organizations,” giving $30,000 apiece this cycle to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee, the maximum allowable. (Geoff Earle, The Hill, May 5)(see Aug. 25). In Florida, housing secretary Mel Martinez’s background as a former president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers continues to generate controversy in the Republican Senate primary race, which comes to a vote Aug. 31; but Martinez says he supports class-action reform and even some version of loser-pays (William March, “Stance On Tort Awkward For GOP”, Tampa Tribune, May 2; see Feb. 21). [Update Sept. 3: Martinez wins primary]. And in Pennsylvania, the plaintiff’s bar is both perplexed and delighted that two of its good friends — incumbent Republican Arlen (“Shanin’s dad“) Specter and Democratic challenger Joe Hoeffel — are running against each other for Senate. “It’s going to be a tough call,” said James Mundy, a former president of the trial lawyers’ association in the Keystone State. “But in a sense it’s a nice call, because we can’t lose.” (Melissa Nann, “Arlen Specter or His Opponent? Trial Lawyers Like Both”, Legal Intelligencer, May 4). See also Lori Patel, “Lawyer Loyalties Eclipse Family Ties”, Law.com, Feb. 5 (Kline & Specter members donated more to Sen. Edwards than to Sen. Specter).
Number one in donations (and so civically engaged)
In this campaign cycle, “once again, lawyers as a group are not only the largest donors of any single profession tracked, they are also the most consistent, campaign watchers say. As of March 1, when the latest Federal Election Commission figures were available, the legal profession had contributed more than $65 million to federal campaigns since Jan. 1, 2003, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. … ‘It looks like lawyers are making a strong effort to make up for the lack of soft money,’ says CRP spokesman Steve Weiss.” Washington, D.C., attorney William Canfield, who chairs the ABA?s Standing Committee on Election Law, explains that lawyers “are so much more civically engaged than most parts of society”. (Susan Kostal, “Spreading the Money Around”, ABA Journal, May).
More Veeps ATLA could love
Among those much mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry is second-term Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (Adam Nagourney, “Kerry seeks running mate in 8 weeks”, New York Times/Contra Costa Times, Apr. 4; a Vilsack fan site; David Hogberg, “Vilsack for Veep?”, National Review Online, Feb. 10). Back home in Iowa, liability reform has been a contentious issue in the legislature this year, and although caps on pain and suffering in medical malpractice suits have passed both houses of the legislature, they are considered nearly certain to face a veto when they reach Vilsack’s desk. This does not come as the most total surprise in the world since Gov. Vilsack is a former president of the state’s trial lawyers association. (Tanya Albert, “Iowa governor might not sign tort reform bill”, American Medical News (AMA), May 3)(via MedRants). Another Midwestern Democratic Governor who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Kerry is Kansas’s Kathleen Sebelius (Mark Z. Barabak, “Edwards Isn’t a Cinch for the No. 2 Slot”, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 3). In one of those coincidences that one encounters so seldom in novels and so often in real life, Sebelius also headed her state’s trial lawyer association, in this case as executive director (see May 5, 2003). See also “Veeps ATLA could love”, Jul. 7-9, 2000.
Unanimity by way of professional solidarity?
Encountering the winds of adverse opinion at a Texas law school: “Previously, I had nearly been lynched at a happy hour by the editors of my former [law] journal for expressing support for Proposition 12, permitting limits on civil damages. ‘Even if you want to do defense work, you should be against it because fewer lawsuits means fewer hours billed defending them!’ My suggestion that one might support a law based on the public good rather than naked self interest was met with blank stares.” — law student blogger SlitheryD, Apr. 12.
D.C. police won’t estimate crowds
“There are no hard numbers on the march size since police stopped actually counting crowds (via overhead photos) a few years ago after they were threatened with a suit. The [L.A. Times] spoke to ‘police sources’ who guessed that there were somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 protestors, which would make the march [supporting legal abortion] among the biggest in years.” (Eric Umansky, “Today’s Papers: Demonstrating Your Point”, Slate, Apr. 26). “After the 1995 Million Man March, organizers maintained that at least 1 million men took part. That was more than double what the U.S. Park Police estimated. The organizers threatened to sue. Ultimately, researchers from Boston University, working from photographic images, judged the crowd size at more than 800,000. … After the dispute over the size of the crowd at the Million Man March, the Park Police decided in 1997 that the department no longer would make official estimates.” (“March One Of Largest Mall Events”, Washington Post, Apr. 26).
It’s a mad, mad, mad Madison County
As we noted Apr. 15, Griffin Bell, who served as U.S. Attorney General in the Carter Administration, called last week for a federal law enforcement probe into the handling of asbestos litigation by the courts of Madison County, Ill. What happened next: state court judge Nicholas Byron (more: Mar. 24, Apr. 4-6, Apr. 30, 2003), who presides over Madison County’s asbestos docket, declared that lawyers from King & Spalding, the big Atlanta-based law firm with which Bell is associated, would be unwelcome in his courtroom. Reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “A lawyer who was before Byron Friday morning said that Byron twice told a capacity crowd of lawyers in his courtroom for an asbestos lawsuit hearing that he was barring King & Spalding. The lawyer, who asked not to be identified, said Byron asked, ‘Is anyone here from the Atlanta firm of King & Spalding? I’m banning them from practicing in the county.’ ‘He clearly wasn’t joking,’ the lawyer said.” Bell, who served for many years as a federal judge before becoming Attorney General, appears to have taken the news in stride: “He can debar all the defense lawyers, but then again, he’d run into the constitutional problem that you are allowed to have a lawyer of your choice.” “Bell, 85, said that his firm does not handle asbestos litigation and to his knowledge had no cases in Madison County. ‘I don’t know that we would have lost anything by being barred anyway,’ Bell said. ‘If Judge Byron feels that way, I doubt he would give us a fair hearing.'” (Paul Hampel and Trisha Howard, “Criticism of court leads to ban on Atlanta law firm”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apr. 17).
Med mal: around the blogs
Not that this exactly qualifies as news, but Sen. Tom Daschle says things to pro-tort-reform constituents back home that are rather different from what he says in Washington, notices the South Dakota Politics blog (Apr. 4, Apr. 7). And the departure of a surgeon in MedPundit Sydney Smith’s home town, coinciding with a particularly obdurate sound bite from ATLA-admired Sen. Patrick Leahy, prompts her (Apr. 10) to give the Vermont Democrat an Open Secrets look-up (see also MedRants, Apr. 8, with comments section). Dr. Smith also notes (Apr. 6) that the med-mal crisis in famed Madison County, Ill., may play a role in the contemplated closure of Scott Air Force Base in Belleville.