The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Baker Hostetler Names New DC Managing Partner

Jeffrey Paravano is the new managing partner of Baker Hostetler's Washington office, the firm said Thursday.

Paravano, 43, who previously headed the firm's tax group, will continue to practice while managing partner of the office, which reported having 74 lawyers in the most recent LT 150 survey. He took over the managing partner job from William Schweitzer, who has done the job for 16 years, on Nov. 1.

Schweitzer, a government policy attorney, will remain with the firm, and continue to represent a roster of clients that includes Major League Baseball.

Paravano worked at Baker Hostetler before leaving to become a senior adviser to the assistant secretary for tax policy at the U.S. Department of Treasury in 2001. In 2003, he returned to the firm and took over the tax practice. His practice includes tax litigation and structuring transactions, and he said he intends to practice close to full-time. Partner Paul Schmidt is the new chairman of the tax group.

Paravano said the office has hired a lateral partner specializing in government contracts, though he would not yet say who, and expects to hire two additional lateral partners by the end of January, one in bankruptcy and one in tax. "We're also spending a lot of time looking for a bank regulatory partner," he said.

Baker Hostetler Executive Partner Steven Kestner said the firm intends to continue a "measured growth strategy," despite the economic downturn. Asked if the firm would consider a merger, Kestner said he is "talking to other firms all the time," but "there is nothing I would say I could characterize as being close."

Note to Justices: Specter Saw You on TV

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) has been a longtime advocate of televising sessions of the U.S. Supreme Court, a quest that has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears across First Street NE.

But Specter noted today that the justices haven't exactly been camera-shy.

In a speech on the Senate floor, he said that Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice John Paul Stevens have appeared in interviews on ABC’s “Primetime,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on CBS News, Justice Stephen Breyer on “Fox News Sunday,” and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” All the justices, he added, were recently interviewed on C-SPAN.

“We cannot accept the justices’ plea for anonymity when they so regularly appear before the camera,” Specter said in his prepared remarks.

The former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is hoping to line up his colleagues behind a resolution he introduced today that would get the “sense of the Senate” on cameras in the Court. He so far has seven co-sponsors, including Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who is the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a former state Supreme Court justice. No vote on the resolution has been scheduled.

Specter pointed to several reasons why he thinks the tide is turning: camera opponent David Souter has retired from the Court, several sitting justices said during their confirmation hearings that they would be open to televising sessions, and the new high court of the United Kingdom allows cameras.

Previously, Specter has pushed legislation that would require the Supreme Court to allow television coverage, but the legislation never won Senate approval. The new resolution, he said, is a more “restrained and modest approach.”

Click here (PDF) for a copy of Specter’s prepared speech, which doubles as a critique of some of the Court’s recent rulings and of its reduced workload.

Defense Lawyers in Wone Case Seek to Exclude Uncharged Conduct

Federal prosecutors have said repeatedly that Robert Wone, former general counsel at Radio Free Asia, was tortured and sexually assaulted the night his body was found in August 2006 in the Northwest Washington home of an Arent Fox litigation partner. Wone was fatally stabbed.

But the defendants—Joseph Price, Victor Zaborsky and Dylan Ward—are charged with conspiracy, evidence tampering and obstruction of justice. No murder count. No sex crimes.

Lawyers for Price, Zaborsky and Ward filed court papers this week saying that the government attorneys should be forbidden to say anything about torture and sexual abuse. A motion to exclude uncharged criminal conduct was filed Nov. 2 in D.C. Superior Court.

The defense lawyers—including Thomas Connolly, Bernie Grimm and David Schertler—say the alleged uncharged criminal conduct is inadmissible. The lawyers have asked for a hearing on the motion. The government has not responded.

“Even viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, it is overwhelmingly clear that there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Mr. Wone was ever ‘incapacitated by being injected with some type of incapacitating or paralytic drug,’ ‘sexually assaulted,’ or ‘tortured,’” the defense lawyers said in court papers (.pdf). “Indeed, the government’s own evidence proves the exact opposite—none of these acts ever occurred.”

The defense lawyers say no paralytic drug has been found in Wone’s blood “despite repeated testing by government experts.” There are at least eight needle marks on Wone’s body, and prosecutors say there’s no evidence that Wone reacted in any way—for instance, he reportedly did not clutch his chest—as someone plunged a knife into him.

At a hearing in September in the case, Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg said he would be “most reluctant” to allow prosecutors to tell jurors about an injection unless the government comes up with more evidence to support the theory.

A status hearing in the case is set for Friday afternoon in front of Weisberg. Expect more discussion about discovery. Price, Zaborsky and Ward are scheduled to stand trial next May.

DOJ: Employment Discrimination Bill a Top Priority

The Obama administration renewed its push today for legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Thomas Perez, the U.S. Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, testified before a Senate panel that the legislation is a "top legislative priority" for the administration, even as the White House focuses on health care and global warming. The legislation was first introduced at least 15 years ago, but advocates for gays and lesbians are optimistic that it will pass in 2010.

Perez, giving his first testimony on Capitol Hill since his confirmation a month ago, said the federal government is at a loss now to fight discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Twenty-one states explicitly prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, he said.

“There’s nothing more frustrating for a law enforcement officer than to hear a horrific tale and to tell that person, ‘You have been wronged, and there’s nothing I can do for you.’ That is a horrible feeling,” Perez said. “This bill is going to enable us to correct that.”

The “Employment Non-Discrimination Act” would make it unlawful for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to the compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment of the individual, because of such individual's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.”

As with other forms of discrimination, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which Perez leads, would enforce the law against municipalities and other public employers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would do so against private employers.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, promised action on the bill once lawmakers finish their work on healthcare and other higher priorities. “We’re going to move this bill next year,” Harkin said.

Other witnesses before the committee included Camille Olson, a partner in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw who said that some of the legislation’s language is too vague, and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who said that a similar state law has not led to a predicted avalanche of litigation against employers.

Latham & Watkins Promotes 23 to Partner, Six in D.C.

In what Eric Bernthal, managing partner of Latham & Watkins' Washington office, called a show of confidence, the firm promoted 23 associates to partner yesterday and another 13 to counsel. Of those, six of the new partners and a new counsel will be based in Washington.

The promotions mark a strong play in Latham's corporate practices, which were hardest hit by the economic downturn last year. According to this year's National Law Journal 250 survey (available in Monday's edition of the NLJ), Latham lost 444 lawyers during 2008. The firm's round of layoffs in February saw 190 associates pink slipped.

The new class of partners includes 12 corporate partners and 5 new finance partners. Half of the six new partners in Washington have corporate practices. Latham's promotions will also add to its ranks in regulatory and litigation, including its health care, intellectual property, white collar, and securities practices among others. All of the promotions take effect on Jan. 1.

"The way we see it, we are one of the premier capital markets and corporate players in the world, and these promotions show that we are prepared to vote on talents, not on short term economics," Bernthal said in an interview. "When the economy turns around, and it will, these lawyers will better position us to be there for our clients."

Latham's class is down by about 25% from the 30 promoted last year, but it's still larger than some of the other firms that have announced new partner classes in recent months. Last month, Sullivan & Cromwell announced that it had promoted five associates to partner and Covington & Burling upped 10. Kirkland & Ellis, which was one of the first to announce its new partnership class in early October, promoted 51.

The Morning Wrap

Intel: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed an antitrust suit against computer chip maker Intel yesterday, following in the tracks of European and Asian regulators. The suit accuses Intel of a “systematic worldwide campaign of illegal, exclusionary conduct to maintain its monopoly power.” The AmLaw Litigation Daily notes that Gibson Dunn & Crutcher will be running the company’s defense.

Champions: The New York Yankees win the World Series.

Incredible Immunity: Should prosecutors have immunity from lawsuits over their official acts, even when they fake evidence to win a murder conviction? U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared torn on the issue yesterday during arguments in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee and Harrington, writes The National Law Journal’s Tony Mauro.

Troubled Troutman Partner: Federal prosecutors are accusing Troutman Sanders real estate practice chair Leonard Grunstein of participating in a $50 million kickback scheme involving the nursing home company where he serves as a principal. The American Lawyer has more.

Top 10: Politico offers up its list of President Barack Obama’s ten best and ten worst politcal moves since his election one year ago. Nominating Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court makes the best of list. Click through to find out where she ranks.