The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Law Firms Raise $3.6 Million for D.C. Civil Legal Services

Judge David Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit made an impassioned plea yesterday for law firms to take more responsibility for the welfare of civil legal services groups, lamenting the small percentage of the legal industry's billion-dollar revenues that go to financially-strapped providers.

Tatel spoke at an event honoring 36 law firms that contributed $3.6 million last year to local civil legal services through the D.C. Access to Justice Commission's second annual Raising the Bar in D.C. Campaign. Firms were honored based on the percentage of annual D.C. office revenues donated to legal services; the number of participating firms in 2012 was up from the 23 that participated in 2011.

Tatel praised the private bar's efforts to assist their colleagues in civil legal services, but warned the challenges facing individuals who can't afford a lawyer "is only getting worse." In the District of Columbia, for instance, he noted that more than 90 percent of litigants are unrepresented in certain types of civil cases.

D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Unopposed for Third Term

In 2012, the median time for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to resolve cases was 352 days. It was the first time in a decade that number dropped below the one-year line, and as Chief Judge Eric Washington prepares for what will likely be another tem as chief, he says he wants to do better.

Washington is unopposed in his bid for a third four-year term leading the city's highest local court. He is widely credited with making the court more efficient, but complaints about case backlogs have persisted. In his application materials, Washington wrote that "fair and timely resolution" of cases remains a top priority.

According to court statistics, the median number of days it took the court to resolve cases dropped from 10-year highs of 505 days in 2002 and 2007 to 352 days last year. The average time it took to resolve cases remained higher—a sign that certain cases are still taking much longer—although the court also reached a 10-year low of 427 days last year.

D.C. Circuit Won't Hear Challenge to SEC Resource Rule - Yet

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit put off - at least for now - reviewing a controversial rule by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that would require oil and gas companies to disclose government payments.

The appeals court concluded that the petitioners, led by the American Petroleum Institute, first had to litigate their case in district court.

"To be sure, this may not be the most efficient way to resolve such cases, and we certainly understand petitioners' desire to have these important issues addressed expeditiously," wrote Judge David Tatel for the panel, which also included Judge Janice Rogers Brown and Senior Judge David Sentelle. "But it is Congress’s job, not ours, to determine ‘the court in which judicial review of agency decisions may occur.’”

Lawyers, Judge Share Close Ties in Jesse Jackson Jr. Case

Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.'s embezzlement case is proving just how small Washington's legal world can be.

The first judge randomly assigned to the case in Washington's federal trial court has now recused himself. Today in court, the second judge—also randomly assigned—took extra measures to air her connections to the lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman, a former white-collar criminal defense attorney at Trout Cacheris, listed her connections during the first status conference on the case since it was assigned to her April 16. President Barack Obama appointed Jackson to the bench in March 2011.

Salvage Company Presses Second Suit Over Treasure

Updated 4:11 p.m.

The salvage company that has been locked in a lengthy court battle with the Republic of Colombia over billions of dollars worth of sunken treasure has filed another suit in Washington federal district court.

The suit is the latest legal maneuvering by the Bellevue, Wash. company to assert its ownership interest in the undersea bounty. This month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of an earlier lawsuit the company filed. The appeals court cited a three-year statute of limitations.

More than 300 years ago, the Spanish galleon San Jose sank off the coast of Colombia after a skirmish with British warships, taking with it a cargo of coins and bullion valued at as much as $17 billion. Sea Search contends the company is entitled to a cut of the treasure. The company has litigated on two fronts—in Colombia and in Washington, D.C.

D.C. Bar Leaders Express Concern Over Dues Increase

The D.C. Bar Board of Governors voted earlier this month to raise member dues by $10, a decision that has drawn criticism from some board members who say it was an unnecessary increase and not in bar members' best interests.

Active bar members will pay $265 in annual dues beginning July 1, up from $255 last year. Judicial member dues will also go up, from $127 to $130, while dues for inactive members will hold at $130.

Board member and local solo practitioner Gregory Smith said his opposition to the increase wasn't so much about the amount, which he acknowledged wouldn't make a difference to most lawyers, as the principle and what it would fund. Under the approved budget, the bar would continue to set aside a little over $500,000 annually for future building needs, which could include buying space, as opposed to leasing as it does now.

Congressman Sues House Speaker Boehner Over Censure

U.S. Representative Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) filed a lawsuit today against House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other House Republicans seeking reversal of a censure vote in 2010 and accusing them of denying him due process.

The House voted in December 2010 to censure Rangel after an ethics committee found him guilty of violations ranging from unpaid income taxes to improper solicitation of funds. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Rangel claimed he learned after the vote that several members of the committee received improper ex parte information.

The alleged misconduct "offends the view that the American system of justice requires persons sitting in the capacity of 'judges' in a quasi-judicial proceeding must not only avoid prejudice and bias, but must also avoid the appearance of prejudice and bias," he said in the complaint.

On Gideon's 50th, Lawyers Lament Lack of Access to Justice

Updated 4/22/13 at 9:04 a.m.

The District of Columbia is home to what's widely considered the gold-standard of local public defender offices, but a panel of right-to-counsel advocates today challenged the courts and the criminal justice community not to grow complacent.

"D.C. is a place where the expectations are incredibly high, and they should be," said Jonathan Rapping, a former local public defender who founded Gideon's Promise, an Atlanta-based organization that supports public defender offices in southern states. When it came to ensuring access to justice, he urged local attorneys and judges to ask among themselves, "What else can we do?"

Rapping was part of a panel today during the annual joint session of the Judicial Conference of the District of Columbia and the D.C. Bar. The theme of this year's bench-bar conference was access to counsel, in light of the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that secured the right to counsel for criminal defendants.

Deceased Judge's Family Sues Law Firm for Infringement

The family of the late Donald Duvall, former chief administrative law judge for the International Trade Commission, filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a Washington law firm yesterday accusing the firm of unlawfully taking credit for Duvall's work.

Duvall's widow, Kathryn Duvall, accused Washington-based Kenyon & Kenyon of conspiring to not give Duvall credit on the latest edition of a legal text he first wrote more than 20 years ago. In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Kathryn Duvall called the firm's claims that the updated text no longer included her husband's writings "frivolous" and said the firm was trying to cut her family off from future royalties.

The firm and four individual attorneys are named as defendants. Partner Edward Colbert, who isn't a defendant, said that they were "taken aback" by the complaint. He said the publisher, and not Duvall or his family, owned the copyright to the text, and that the firm wrote the latest edition at the request of the publisher. The text had been "substantially altered" over the years, he added.

Report Highlights Need for Lawyers in D.C. Family Court

Updated at 3:51 p.m.

A task force of family law attorneys in Washington released a new report yesterday calling for expanded legal services for the growing population of unrepresented litigants in domestic relations and paternity and child support cases.

The D.C. Bar Family Law Task Force spent more than three years studying operations in the domestic relations and paternity and child support branches of the District of Columbia Superior Court. Task force co-chair Margaret McKinney, a founding partner of Washington's Delaney McKinney, said expanding access to legal representation stood out as a need.

The task force's recommendations included allowing lawyers to enter limited appearances in cases and expanding self-help resources available at the courthouse. McKinney said the response from court officials had been positive.