The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Hogan & Hartson Senior Advisor Wins Asian Peace Prize

A Washington-based senior advisor to Hogan & Hartson is in the Philippines today being awarded an international peace prize alongside a U.S. congressman, a world-famous boxer and a Tony award-winning actress.

President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines will present Christine Warnke with the Gusi Peace Prize in economics and humanitarianism at a banquet in Manila.

Warnke is one of this year’s 20 international recipients recognized for “working toward the attainment of peace and respect for human life and dignity,” according to the prize’s Web site. The awards cover such fields as science, sports, performing arts and politics.

Warnke, a government affairs advisor at Hogan & Hartson, is recognized for her involvement with humanitarian, business and health initiatives, particularly her work in Africa, said prize spokesman George Bistis. Bistis said he has been familiar with her work for years, and referenced Warnke’s efforts delivering wheelchairs to South Africa, building a hospital in Congo and fighting human trafficking in Romania among her accomplishments.

“There were so many countries,” Bistis said. “It was very impressive work that she has done, particularly for human rights, dignity and equality among sexes.”

Warnke, a native Washingtonian, works with several nonprofit organizations and said she was drawn to this work early on after spending part of her childhood in Sao Paolo, Brazil. “Growing up as a child and seeing it and watching kids on the street growing up in cardboard boxes really impacted me,” she said. “There are people living this way. Really destitute.”

Her next projects will be helping deliver wheelchairs to the Philippines (with help from Deepak Chopra) and encourage Angolans to register their children at birth so they can be citizens of the country, she said.

Meantime, she added, it’s rewarding to be honored among a class of noted humanitarians. “You feel like you’re among Mother Teresas here,” she said. “It’s very humbling.”

The only other American laureate this year is Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), who is recognized in the category of legislation for introducing into Congress the Filipino World War II Veterans Act, which extended equal veteran status to Filipino veterans. The act passed in February as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Among this year’s other recipients are seven-time world champion boxer Manny Pacquiao; Tony award-winning Philippine singer and actress Lea Salonga; Russian painter Alexey Steele; Princess Fuziah Raza Uda of Malaysia; and Ali Nasuh Mahruki, the first Muslim and the first Turk to climb Mt. Everest.

The Gusi Peace Prize is named for Capt. Gemeniano Javier Gusi, a Filipino guerrilla who fought against Japan during World War II before becoming a politician and a human rights activist. It’s administered by the nonprofit Gusi Peace Prize Foundation.

Former laureates include actor Anthony Quinn, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), and noted forensic scientist Henry Lee, of TV show Forensic Files fame. For a complete list of this year's and past winner, visit the prize’s Web site.

National Pro Bono Week Starts Today

Today marked the start of the first annual National Pro Bono Week, sponsored by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. Events across the nation will focus on pro bono service, and in Washington, D.C. Bar President Kim Keenan ushered in the celebration this afternoon by accepting a mayoral proclamation from Rawle Andrews, managing attorney of the AARP Legal Counsel for the Elderly, on behalf of Mayor Adrian Fenty.

“In the District of Columbia, attorneys, paralegals, and interns donate thousands of hours of pro bono time each year to serve the needs of the residents of modest means,” the proclamation read. “Therefore, I…call upon all the residents of this great city to join me in recognizing the professionals that give pro bono service to residents in need.”

The week will be capped by a Friday fundraiser called “Go Casual for Justice Jeans Day.” Participating law firms can sign up to donate $5 or more for every person who dresses down. The event organizers said they hope to pull in a healthy sum to be distributed by the D.C. Bar Foundation to pro bono causes.

They've already gotten a good response from local firms, and one in particular has upped the ante. Carter Phillips, managing partner of Sidley Austin's Washington office, has agreed to take a hit to his school pride if his office raises $4,000 through the casual day fundraiser and other donations. "I've agreed to wear a University of Michigan hat and tie for the day," said the Ohio State University alum. "This is no small sacrifice."

His colleagues from Michigan have already escaped embarrassment because the firm has raised more than $3,000, he said: They would have had to sing Ohio State's fight song.

For more information about this and other events, visit www.celebrateprobono.com.

Sughrue Mion Partner to Head IP Law Group

Alan Kasper, a senior partner and patent lawyer at Washington-based Sughrue Mion, has been named president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the firm announced Monday.

Kasper has spent more than 30 years as a member of the Arlington, VA- headquartered association, which was formed to improve intellectual property laws and has more than 17,000 members. Since 1968, he has practiced patent law, working as an examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and chief patent counsel for Communications Satellite Corporation before joining Sughrue two decades ago.

Kasper will serve a one-year term, then another year as past president. Much of that time will be spent coordinating dozens of committees that deal with wide-ranging topics like international relations, FDA law and domestic legislation. The group also files several amicus briefs yearly at the Supreme Court and federal circuit courts. Though he’s retaining his firm partnership, he said the job will take up at least half, if not three-quarters, of his working time. “It’s obviously an important position and the firm has made accommodations for me,” he said. “Fortunately for technology, I can work remotely.”

Kasper has worked abroad extensively with Sughrue, once heading the Tokyo office, and as president, he said he hopes to expand the association’s international presence.

He said he also wants to work with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to streamline patent laws and make them more user-friendly plus help pass a patent reform bill that ends Congressional diversion of public funds from the patent office. “That of course leaves the patent office with less money,” he said. “A lot of the problems we face today are because of that underfunding.” He said he’s hoping to see a bill scheduled for floor time this year.

Jones Day Partner Swinging to Top of Golf World

Jones Day partner Glen Nager has been nominated for second vice president of the United States Golf Association, continuing a climb to the top that started when he became the group's general counsel in 2006. He is expected to assume his new post in February.

Last year, he was bumped up the group’s leaderboard when he was appointed to the executive committee. He has served on nearly a dozen other committees during his tenure with the USGA, which is the national governing body of golf for the United States and Mexico. Now, as second in line for the presidency, Nager is only few strokes away from the pinnacle of golf governance.

Nager, 51, who chairs the Jones Day’s issues and appeals practice, said he first picked the game up in his 30s. “I love playing golf,” he said. “The game of golf has great traditions where you apply the rules to yourself, so it requires honor and integrity.”

A J.D. is an obvious boon in the general counsel position, being a lawyer helps in other posts too, Nager said. “There are a lot of parallels between being involved in developing the rules of golf and being a lawyer,” he said, because the procedures are similar. “I wouldn’t be shocked if I become chairman of the rules of golf committee.”

But he added that the choice is up to the incoming president, retired banking executive James Hyler. As far as potential rule changes, Nager said: “It’s publicly known that the USGA is looking at a number of different rules, such as the rules of balls lying on hazards. When you would be penalized for a ball lying in the sand and when you wouldn’t, for instance.”

The USGA position is a volunteer post and Nager will remain a full-time partner at Jones Day, but he said he’ll find a way to manage both. “The USGA will take up more and more of my time, no doubt,” he said.

Between the two gigs, when will he find the time to actually play the game he loves? “Well, that is a problem. All who serve on the executive committee, their golf games tend to suffer,” he quipped. “You think you’re going to get to play all these terrific golf courses. Well, you get to see them.”

Nager clerked for Justice O’Connor in the 1983 term and still meets up with her for a round of golf every now and then, he said. She was one of his sponsors when he applied for membership in the exclusive Chevy Chase Club. And much like her reputation on the bench, O’Connor swings right down the middle. “She hits the ball dead straight. It’s sickening,” Nager joked.

Odd Controversy Pits One Agency Against Another in D.C. Circuit

Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit called a fight over whether pay raises for SEC employees were implemented too quickly an odd controversy.

In the opening of her opinion, published today, Brown wrote, “This is the sort of dispute that could only arise between public employees and a governmental agency.” The case amounts to a tiff among the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Click here for a copy of the opinion.

As background, the SEC was having trouble keeping lawyers, accountants and examiners on staff, and so the agency asked Congress for the authority to adjust pay rates without being tethered to the General Schedule, the federal government’s pay scale.

In 2002, Congress passed the Investor and Capital Markets Fee Relief Act. The union and the SEC—both supported the legislation—began negotiations. But the talks reached an impasse. In May 2002, the SEC unilaterally imposed a new pay system.

Before the bargaining process ended, the SEC terminated so-called “WIGIs”—automatic annual within-grade increases. The union filed two unfair labor practice claims against the SEC, and an administrative law judge ordered retroactive pay raises for employees who were entitled to a WIGI—on top of the new raises the SEC obtained through congressional legislation.

Samuel Fornstein, assistant general counsel for the SEC, argued for the agency in the D.C. Circuit. The SEC was concerned about, among other things, the “undue windfall”—according to the D.C. Circuit—for the employees entitled to back pay in addition to the new raise. The agency also maintained it was necessary to the functioning of the agency to unilaterally implement the pay raises.

“As the SEC fails to appreciate, there is a difference between what an agency finds expedient and what is necessitated by an “overriding exigency,” Brown wrote in the opinion, which was joined by Judges Douglas Ginsburg and Brett Kavanaugh. The court sided against the SEC.

Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion to slam home the point that the court has authority to hear a dispute between two independent agencies in the executive branch.

James Blanford argued for the Federal Labor Relations Authority, and Barbara Sheehy represented the National Treasury Employees Union as an intervenor.

Court Thwarts Broader FOIA Request in BlackBerry Dispute

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has delivered a setback to R&HW in its ongoing patent litigation against Research In Motion, the BlackBerry maker, in an opinion that hinders R&HW’s push for documents.

R&HW? Not a new firm. But that’s how the appeals court identified Bert Rein (a founding partner of Wiley Rein) and Hunton & Williams in a recent opinion about the consolidated effort to squeeze documents out of the Patent and Trademark Office and the Commerce Department.

Wiley Rein and Hunton & Williams have represented patentholder NTP in a dispute against RIM. (Recall that NTP charged RIM with patent infringement related to the BlackBerry, and RIM settled in 2006 for $612.5 million.) The lawyers for NTP submitted records requests under the Freedom of Information Act seeking background about the PTO decision to reexamine related NTP patents.

Rein signed a FOIA request in his own name, on Wiley Rein letterhead. Hunton & Williams submitted its FOIA request under the firm’s name. The lawyers were dissatisfied with the production of documents and alleged in two separate complaints that, among other things, the search for records was inadequate and the agencies wrongfully withheld or redacted requested information. The two complaints in the Eastern District of Virginia were consolidated.

Why the distinction between an individual lawyer on one complaint and a firm on the other?

Hunton & Williams partner John Range says he filed both complaints. In general, he says, using the firm's name is a safe way to go in the event an individual lawyer leaves in the middle of an action. But Range says he filed the other suit under Rein's name because Rein individually signed the original FOIA request.

Senior U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton in June 2007 granted summary judgment in favor of the PTO and the Commerce Department on the consolidated FOIA complaint. Last week, the 4th Circuit panel affirmed the decision in part, refusing to force the agencies to conduct a new search for documents.

Women of Color

The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia today took on one of the more difficult issues involving women in the law: retaining and advancing women of color.

The conference, held at Howard University’s School of Law, drew representatives from a number of law firms, including Howrey, Jenner & Block, Latham & Watkins, and Patton Boggs.

Speakers included Michelle Fenty, wife of D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty; Lorelie Masters, a partner at Jenner & Block and president of D.C.’s Women’s Bar Association; and Holly Loiseau, a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

In one of the panel discussions, Suzanne Miklos, an attorney for General Motors Corporation, said her company sees the lack of diversity in its law firms as a problem. GM asks that its outside counsel on all GM matters be 20 percent minority and 33 percent female, Miklos said. The company measures the performance of its firms by asking the firms to turn in timekeeper sheets indicating whether attorneys are minority or female and will “penalize” firms that don’t comply. “You’re not going to do work for us,” she said.

Holly Loiseau cited a recent National Association for Law Placement survey showing that, nationwide, only 1.65 percent of law firm partners are minority women. In D.C., the stats are slightly higher: 2.11 percent of partners are minority women. Loiseau reported a survey conducted by the Women’s Bar Association, which found that 63 percent of minority female partners felt there was a “glass ceiling” preventing women’s advancement in their field and 80 percent felt a “sense of exclusion or alienation” in their firms. “The statistics are staggering,” Loiseau said.

Tallying the New Partners

The Project for Attorney Retention, run out of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings College of the Law, has just released its findings on new female partners at law firms in the U.S.

Surveying 77 law firms, the report found some good news for women at some firms: Crowell & Moring (4 of 7 new partners are women, or 57 percent), DLA Piper (15 of 28, or 54 percent women), Reed Smith (14 of 26, or 54 percent), and Arnold & Porter (2 of 4, or 50 percent).

Less impressive but better than some were a few other firms: Patton Boggs (4 of 9, or 44 percent), Venable (4 of 9, or 44 percent), McDermott Will & Emory (14 of 35, or 40 percent), and Hogan & Hartson (7 of 18, or 39 percent).

And then there were the firms that the project dubbed “seriously lacking behind” — Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (1 of 11 new partners are female, or 9 percent) and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld (2 of 15, or 13 percent).

In terms of trend, the report found that Crowell & Moring had named 50 percent female partners for almost all of the past four years, and DLA Piper has had three years of steady increase.

In Our Next Issue

In an exclusive interview with Legal Times, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talks about her early days in the law, where she had to justify taking the spot of a man at Harvard Law School, nurse her husband through cancer, and hide her pregnancy as a law professor. Even though she was only one of nine women in a class of more than 500 Harvard law students, Ginsburg juggled her life as a mother, wife, and top scholar: “I wasn’t overwhelmed by it — at 4 every afternoon was children’s hour, when I came home and played with [daughter] Jane until her bedtime. That’s when I learned to work all night.” The story will be available in our print edition Monday and at legaltimes.com over the weekend.

Beating the Boys Redux

It can get rough out there in the blogosphere. Mercedes Meyer, the focus of a recent Balancing Act column, “Beating the Firm Boys at Their Own Game,” found that out recently when the Legal Times article was summarized in the online ABA Journal. The original Legal Times article described a law firm go-getter who believes that women need to play by male rules — mixed in with female attributes — to succeed.

The “comments” section that followed the ABA summary, like many online posts, ranged from sane to silly. “Very retro,” wrote one commenter. “I don’t need to wear pants, my legs look great :)” she added. Another said, “Ok, hold on a minute. Let’s be fair to the author. I think her suggestion to adopt more powerful vocal mannerisms is apt in some instances.”

As for Meyer, she was given a chance to respond in an Oct. 19 update to the ABA article: “I’m not saying go be a man,” Meyer said. The update continues: “But, she says, when creating a personal brand and a business plan, a lawyer of either sex benefits by understanding the unwritten rules of the game and ‘making very conscious decisions about what you want to do.’”