The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

The Morning Wrap

Foreign Corruption: Wal-Mart, the giant retailer now under fire over allegations of foreign bribery in Mexico, has participated in an aggressive and high-priced lobbying campaign to amend the long-standing U.S. anti-bribery law that the company might have violated, The Washington Post reports.

Oil Spill Charges: Federal prosecutors yesterday filed the first criminal charges flowing from the deadly Gulf of Mexico explosion and leak that became the worst environmental disaster in the country's history, The National Law Journal’s Mike Scracella reports.

Bayer Signs DLA Piper to Lobby on Building Standards Issues

Updated at 5:35 p.m.

DLA Piper last week notified Congress it is lobbying for the polymer unit of a German pharmaceutical and chemical giant.

The law firm is advocating for the Bayer AG company Bayer MaterialScience LLC on "[b]uilding materials technology and standards policy," according to a lobbying registration filing. Bayer spokesman Bill Allan wrote in an e-mail that DLA Piper's work concerns "technology the company developed to protect people and structures from blasts and terrorists attacks." Based in Pittsburgh, Bayer MaterialScience LLC creates polymers that are used in building construction, as well as electronics, cars, sports equipment and other goods.

DLA Piper partners Matthew “Mac” Bernstein, James Pickup and Steven Phillips, as well as policy adviser Nathaniel Bell and associate Beth Schwanke, are handling the account.

IP Litigator Gerchick Moves to Quinn Emanuel in D.C.

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has added an intellectual property litigator to its Washington office, the firm announced Tuesday.

Jeffrey Gerchick, formerly a partner at Kenyon & Kenyon, has litigated patent infringement cases in U.S. district courts and handled International Trade Commission Section 337 Investigations. He has represented companies including Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, Toyota and Barnes & Noble.

Gerchick has experience litigating patent infringement cases involving wireless and wired networking, cellular mobile communications, computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, digital audio formats and automotive technologies. He said in an interview that he would continue to do much of the same work at his new firm.

D.C. Appeals Court Weighs Warrantless Car Searches

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals heard arguments this morning on when it's still lawful for local police to search a car without a warrant after making a lawful arrest.

The U.S. Supreme Court tried to limit those types of searches in its 2009 decision in Arizona v. Gant. The high court did carve out some exceptions, though, which included searches where police have "reason to believe" they might find evidence of the crime.

The D.C. appeals court is being asked to decide what the standard should be for "reason to believe," and whether there could be types of crimes - in this case, driving under the influence - where it's generally assumed that warrantless searches are reasonable.

In Gulf Spill Probe, DOJ Charges Former BP Engineer with Obstruction

By Mike Scarcella

As the U.S. Justice Department continues to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, federal prosecutors today filed the first criminal charges flowing from the deadly explosion and leak that became the worst environmental disaster in the country's history.

The government charged Kurt Mix, a former engineer for BP plc, with obstruction of justice for allegedly intentionally destroying evidence that the authorities wanted to review. Mix, 50, a Texas resident, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said in a statement that Mix alleged deleted records concerning the amount of oil flowing from the Macondo well after the explosion in April 2010. Eleven people were killed in the incident.

"The Deepwater Horizon Task Force is continuing its investigation into the explosion and will hold accountable those who violated the law in connection with the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history," Holder said in the statement.

Senator: If Court Doesn't Strike Arizona Immigration Law, Congress Will

Updated 3:33 p.m.

If the U.S. Supreme Court upholds an Arizona immigration law after hearings this week, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other legislators say they will file legislation to undo it.

“Congress does not intend for states to enforce their own immigration schemes,” Schumer said at a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. “It is simply too damaging to our economy and too dangerous to our democracy, to have 50 different states be permitted to take their own direction when it comes to immigration policy.”

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday on Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, SB 1070, which gives police broad authority to detain individuals suspected of being in the country illegally. Schumer said the Arizona law also makes it a federal crime for any individual to fail at any time to possess documents verifying their immigration status.

Senate Confirms Federal District Judge for Missouri

The Senate confirmed Brian Wimes as a U.S. District Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri on Monday night, part of an agreement to vote on 14 judicial nominees before May 7.

Wimes, a judge on the 16th Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri since 2007, is one of the non-controversial nominees moving forward under an agreement struck between Senate leaders in March. The nominee was confirmed 92-1.

The only vote against was Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has said he will vote against all of President Barack Obama’s nominees as a response to Obama’s controversial recess appointments to consumer and labor boards in January.

Wimes received his law degree from the Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in 1994.

Roger Clemens' Drug Denials Are the Truth, Defense Lawyer Tells Jury

Updated 1 p.m.

Roger Clemens was not deceitful, his defense lawyer told jurors today in Washington. Clemens did not lie. He did not cheat. When he denied ever using drugs, he was telling the truth, his attorney said.

Clemens' chief defense attorney, Russell "Rusty" Hardin Jr. of Houston, this morning began attacking the credibility of the high profile perjury and obstruction prosecution of the former Major League Baseball star. Clemens was one of a group of players identified in a 2007 report about steroid use in baseball.

“We’re here because a man cared to publicly deny, consistently in every forum known to man, his innocence of an allegation in a private report released publicly,” Hardin said in his opening statement in Washington federal district court. “It’s as simple as that.”

The Morning Wrap

Trial Begins: The trial of John Edwards began on Monday with considerable attention on Andrew Young, a campaign adviser who wrote a tell-all book about the Democratic former presidential candidate, The News & Observer reports.Young is a key witness for the government as it tries to prove allegations that Edwards broke campaign-finance laws to hide his affair with campaign videographer Rielle Hunter, who had a child with him.

Rejected: The Sanford, Fla., city commission on Monday didn't accept the resignation of Police Chief Bill Lee over his department's probe into the February shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Lee offered his resignation earlier on Monday.

Hired: A team of Latham & Watkins in Washington will receive almost $1 million from the University of Texas to defend before the U.S. Supreme Court the college's admissions standards, which use race as a factor, The National Law Journal reports. Partners Gregory Garre and J. Scott Ballenger, as well as of counsel Maureen Mahoney, are representing the university.

Making Plans: Senate Democrats are preparing to bring a floor vote on a measure that would undo Arizona's controversial immigration law if the U.S. Supreme Court fails to overturn the statute this summer, The Washington Post reports. “If the court upholds the Arizona law, Congress can make it clear that what Arizona is doing goes beyond what the federal government and what Congress ever intended,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said.

Former Public Defender Krauthamer Sworn in as D.C. Superior Court Judge

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Peter Krauthamer was sworn in on Friday as one of the newest members of the bench.

Krauthamer, a longtime public defender in Washington, was nominated to Superior Court in July and confirmed by the Senate in November.

Shortly after earning his J.D. in 1982 from Boston University School of Law, Krauthamer joined the D.C. Public Defender Service. Superior Court Chief Judge Lee Satterfield, speaking at Friday's ceremony, said Krauthamer "did just about everything there."