The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

This Week in The National Law Journal

Apple vs. Android: The International Trade Commission is expected to issue a final decision this week in the patent infringement case between smart phone giants Apple and Google Inc.'s Android. Jenna Greene reports.

A Penalty that Includes Career Death: The former top executives and general counsel of Purdue Pharma L.P. are fighting their 12-year ban on working in the health care and pharmaceutical industries. Mike Scarcella reports.

Legal Times 150: In its annual survey of the 150 largest law firms in Washington, Legal Times found that attorney headcount declined for the second year in a row. This led to some dramatic changes at the top of the chart. Matthew Huisman reports.

Web Piracy Goes Viral: Opponents of the Stop Internet Piracy Act say the proposed legislation would mean the death of the internet as we know it. Sheri Qualters reports.

Former Prince George's County Councilwoman Sentenced to A Year in Jail

Updated at 6:26 p.m.

A Maryland federal judge sentenced former Prince George's County Councilwoman Leslie Johnson to a year and a day in jail for trying to destroy evidence of her husband's extortion scheme.

Johnson's husband, former County Executive Jack Johnson, was sentenced on Dec. 6 to serve 87 months in jail. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.

Leslie Johnson, according to a Justice Department press release, was also sentenced to perform 240 hours of community service and pay a $15,000 fine. She will forfeit $79,500 in cash that FBI agents found stuffed in her bra and underwear when they arrested her and her husband on Nov. 12, 2010.

Jack Johnson was accused of accepting bribes from local developers in exchange for helping them secure federal housing dollars. On the day of the arrest, as FBI agents were knocking on the door, agents recorded Johnson on the phone with his wife discussing how to get rid of evidence.

Leslie Johnson was recorded asking Jack Johnson if she should flush a $100,000 check down the toilet; a flushing noise follows. The two then discussed how Leslie Johnson should hide the cash in her undergarments. They were arrested at the house shortly after.

Leslie Johnson has been represented by Blank Rome’s Shawn Wright. Wright said she "wasn't shocked" that U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte sentenced Johnson to serve time in jail, but had been hopeful that they could make a case for probation.

"We were hoping with all of her community service and the lack of knowledge that she had about the entire pay-to-play corruption scheme her husband was involved in, the judge would consider giving her a time of probation," Wright said.

Leslie Johnson was elected to the county council shortly before her arrested in November 2010. She was previously an administrative law judge in the District. Johnson held a J.D., but was not a practicing attorney.

“People who hold public office have a duty to serve with integrity,” U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a written statement. “Government officials must always keep in mind that their job is to pursue the public interest and not personal profit.”

A previous version of this post incorrectly stated the amount of time Leslie Johnson was sentenced to do community service.

Former Prince George's County Executive Sentenced to 7 Years in Jail

Former Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson will serve more than seven years in jail after pleading guilty to extortion and witness- and evidence-tampering.

U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte sentenced Johnson to serve 87 months in jail. Messitte also ordered Johnson to pay a $100,000 fine and forfeit $78,000 and an antique Mercedes-Benz, according to a release from the U.S. attorney's office in Maryland.

Johnson has been represented by Dorsey & Whitney partner Billy Martin. Martin could not immediately be reached for comment this afternoon. Martin previously told The National Law Journal that Johnson is "a good man" and that he would be advocating for "a punishment that would be appropriate and allow him to move ahead with his life."

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein said in a written statement that “Jack Johnson could have been a role model for integrity, but he chose to be a poster child for greed. The facts of this case read like a dime novel because the defendant acted as if corruption was the normal way of doing business. It is our responsibility to prove him wrong.”

Johnson, a former state’s attorney, served as Prince George’s County executive from 2002 to 2010. Federal agents raided Johnson’s home and arrested him and his wife, former Prince George’s County Councilwoman Leslie Johnson, on Nov. 12, 2010.

Jack Johnson was charged with taking bribes to tune of about $1 million to help steer federal grant money to local developers. Leslie Johnson was charged with helping her husband cover up evidence of the crime.

In a telephone call recorded by the FBI, Jack Johnson could be heard telling his wife to flush a $100,000 check down the toilet and hide about $79,600 in cash in her underwear as federal agents knocked at their door.

Jack Johnson faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. According to the Washington Times, Messitte had agreed to a lower sentencing guideline than the charges usually carry because Johnson cooperated with authorities. Johnson’s attorneys argued for leniency on Tuesday because Johnson had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, but prosecutors disputed that claim.

Leslie Johnson pleaded guilty to the charges of destroying evidence and is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 9.

Immigration Lawyer Disbarred for 100-Plus Conduct Violations

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ordered (PDF) the disbarment Thursday of Vahid Shariati, a Washington immigration attorney facing allegations of more than 100 violations of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct.

Shariati, who represented himself in the proceedings, was accused of taking a retainer to do immigration law work, usually between $500 and $3,000, and then failing to file paperwork or keep clients informed about what was going on in their case.

A working phone number for Shariati could not be found.

A July 2010 report (PDF) from the Board on Professional Responsibility listed eleven clients that Shariati allegedly failed to properly represent between 2002 and 2003, to the tune of 128 disciplinary rule violations. The cases ranged from asylum petitions, visa and residency applications, and other immigration-related work.

Shariati claimed that the Bar Counsel engaged in “vindictive prosecution” and disputed that he had done anything wrong. The board wrote that Shariati attempted to “craft by vituperation and fanciful supposition a plenary defense to disciplinary charges.” He also claimed that he was denied the right to counsel, but the board found that he had failed to assert that right.

The board found Shariati had violated all but three of the charges. The three-judge appeals court panel disagreed with the board, finding that there was enough evidence that Shariati had violated all of the charges.

“The recommendation of disbarment is based upon respondent’s multiple violations in eleven client representations, the dishonest and deceitful nature of his conduct, as well as ‘his lack of remorse,’” the judges wrote, referring to the board’s report, which called for disbarment.

Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby and Phyllis Thompson, and Senior Judge Williams Pryor heard the case.

The Morning Wrap

Shake-up: Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier were given the boot in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal, the New York Times reports. Former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested saturday, charged with sexually abusing eight boys during a 15-year period.

Fess up: Richard Nixon's June 1975 grand jury testimony is being made available to the public today, four months after a judge ordered them unsealed. According to the Associated Press, Nixon was the first former president to testify before a grand jury. 

Link up: Convicted lobbyist, Jack Abramoff played three holes with Politico at his old stomping grounds - Woodmore Country Club in Bowie, Md. When asked about his three and a half years spent in prison, Abramoff described it with one word: misery.

Snatched up: Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was kidnapped at gunpoint in his native Venezuela, the Washington Post reports. The aspiring rookie was taken near his mother's home Wednesday night. So far no demands have been made.

D.C. Attorney Accused of Breach of Contract

Updated 3:39 p.m.

A Washington attorney has been accused of a bilking a client out of $50,000 in a development scheme, according to a civil complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Oct. 13.

Attorney Mark Lezell of Lezell Law is accused of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act violations, breach of contract, civil conspiracy, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud/intentional misrepresentation, according to the complaint. The suit also named Isam Ghosh as a codefendant.

The plaintiff, Ying Qing “Lucy” Lu, is seeking $225,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, which includes attorney fees.

According to the complaint, Ghosh was set to receive a large fee related to the sale of a building in Ocean City, Md. but needed to borrow additional funds before his fee was to be paid. Lezell allegedly convinced Lu to deposit $50,000 into an escrow account and then refused to return the funds.

“Mr. Lezell denies all the allegations in the complaint, and he will be filing a motion with the court to dismiss the complaint,” said Peter Goldman, Lezell’s attorney.

A call to Lu’s attorney, Randy McRae, was not returned. Ghosh could not be reached.

Three D.C. Lawyers Accused of Stealing Client Data Before Opening Own Shop

An Alabama law firm has accused three of its former Washington-office attorneys of stealing confidential client information from the firm and using it to establish a competing firm with poached clients, according to a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Slocumb Law Firm, which specializes in personal injury cases, filed suit on Wednesday against Zeke Roeser, Morgan Whitlock and Kevin Gracie of Roeser & Whitlock, seeking $4.5 million in damages. Founding partner Michael Slocumb also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order.

According to the complaint (PDF), Roeser, Whitlock and Gracie were employed in Slocumb’s D.C. office and privy to confidential client information. But Michael Slocumb maintains he was responsible for the creation of the attorney-client relationship. These relationships, Slocumb contends, are the result of a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign.

In 2009, William Shatner appeared in television commercials for the firm, according to the Internet Movie Database website. The firm’s website also features a picture of Shatner.

In his declaration (PDF), Slocumb wrote that nobody outside of the firm has knowledge of the client identities since the cases have not yet been filed in court. Furthermore, he claims that Roeser, Whitlock and Gracie were responsible for collecting medical records, interacting with insurance companies and collecting additional information from clients who had yet to file cases. Slocumb alleges that the confidential information is maintained by an internal case tracking software called "needles," which is access-restricted.

When the three men resigned from the firm in early October, they allegedly took the information and used it to set up a competing firm. Shortly thereafter, Slocumb said, he began to receive termination letters.

“Upon investigation of the circumstances in this case, I discovered information demonstrating that defendants began contacting my firm’s clients while still employed by my firm before they resigned and they had established their practice before they left my firm’s employment,” Slocumb wrote in his declaration.

Slocumb also attached a redacted needles report on a showing that Roeser made contact with one of the firm’s clients to meet them after business hours while still employed at the firm.

“My firm has suffered and is continuing to suffer loss of clients as a result of defendant’s use of its confidential client information,” Slocumb wrote in the declaration. “In 2010 alone, my firm invested approximately $1.5 million in its District of Columbia office. To date, approximately 32 clients have terminated my firm’s services in favor of being represented by Defendants. The recovery from these clients is estimated by me to be from $2,500 to $1,000,000 each, and there are approximately 500 additional cases to which Defendants had access.”

Slocumb, Whitlock and Gracie did not respond to requests for comment. Roeser declined to provide an immediate comment.

Two Scandalized Lawyers, in Different Cases, Punished by D.C. Appeals Court

Updated 4:51 p.m.

The D.C. Court of Appeals issued punishments to two attorneys Thursday in different, highly publicized cases.

A three-judge panel of the court disbarred David Safavian, the former chief of staff of the U.S. General Services Administration who was convicted of obstruction of justice and making false statements in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

The panel concluded Safavian's conduct amounted to “moral turpitude.”

“And, it is well settled that obstruction of justice is inherently a crime of moral turpitude,” the panel wrote.

The court, through a different three-judge panel, also publicly censured Sheryl Robinson Wood, an attorney who was the lover of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

According to the panel's ruling, from late 2003 through 2004, Wood had “undisclosed and personal communications” with Kilpatrick. She retired from her position as federal monitor of the Detroit Police Department in July 2009, after allegations of inappropriate communications with Kilpatrick surfaced.

“Respondent mitigated her conduct by taking full responsibility and fully cooperating with Bar Counsel,” the panel wrote in its ruling. “Moreover, respondent did not have any prior disciplinary actions, her conduct did not result in personal gain or negatively or financially impacted the monitored cases, and no client was harmed by her conduct.”

Neither Wood nor Safavian could be reached for comment. Safavian is currently serving a one-year sentence for his conviction.

Audit Questions $8.1M in Treasury Department Legal Fees

A new audit report says that four major law firms failed to justify $8.1 million in legal fees that they charged the U.S. Treasury Department for work related to the financial crisis.

The report indicates that billing problems at law firms working for the Treasury Department have been more widespread than previously known. An earlier audit report in April spotlighted “vague and inadequate” fee bills submitted by a fifth law firm, Venable, but that report questioned a smaller amount, $677,000.

The latest report is especially critical of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Auditors looked at $5.8 million in fees that the firm received under three Treasury Department contracts, and they called into question all of it. The firm, the report says, “provided no detail of work performed in its fee bills, and did not provide receipts or proper documentation for expenses.”

On one day, the report says Simpson Thacher submitted two fee bills, one for $200,000 and another for $300,000, that “contained only the total dollar amount owed” with no detail of the work performed, the hours worked or labor rates. Later, the firm was able to provide the names of lawyers and their hours and rates but no detail of what work they did.

“No invoice contained enough information to justify [Treasury officials] paying Simpson Thacher,” the report says.

Asked for comment on the report, a Simpson Thacher spokeswoman e-mailed a statement saying the firm’s lawyers were “honored” to work with the Treasury “during an unprecedented and extremely challenging time.” The statement added that “our team of highly qualified lawyers worked closely with the Treasury staff on a daily basis to structure and implement [the Troubled Asset Relief Program] that played a key role in stabilizing the US financial system.”

Three other law firms come in for criticism: Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, now known as Locke Lord; and Bingham McCutchen along with Bingham predecessor firm McKee Nelson. Those firms’ fee bills were plagues by inadequate detail and block billing, the report said.

A spokesman for Cadwalader, which worked on Treasury's investment in General Motors Co. and the Chrysler Group, wrote in an e-mail that the firm does not comment on specific matters for clients “but we are very proud of the work we did in record time and under incredible pressure to restructure these two critical auto companies.”

The two other firms did not respond to requests for comment today.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Stability received blame in the report, too. Auditors wrote that the office’s contracts with the law firms were inadequate because they had little direction for how detailed the firms’ fee bills should be, and the office had inadequate and inconsistent policies for reviewing legal fee bills once they came in.

In a written response to the audit, a Treasury official downplays its significance. Timothy Massad, the assistant secretary for financial stability, wrote that the contracts in question relate to the fallout from 2008 financial crisis, when government officials were desperate to save world markets. “Our entire economy was on the verge of a catastrophic collapse, markets had ceased to function, and almost every major financial institution was at risk of failure,” Massad wrote in a two-page letter attached to the audit report.

Former White House Aide Allen Suspended from Practicing Law in D.C.

A Gaithersburg, Md. attorney and former aide to President George W. Bush was suspended from practicing law in the District of Columbia for one year, a three-judge D.C. Court of Appeals panel ruled Thursday.

Claude Allen was suspended in the District after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft of property under $500.

According to the opinion (PDF), between October 2005 and January 2006, Allen committed three separate thefts at Target stores in Maryland. Allen would purchase items using a credit card and then return to the same store or a nearby store and grab the same item off the shelf to return. In all, Allen pilfered a $525 Bose stereo, a $237 Kodak printer and a $88 RCA stereo. Allen was arrested and later pleaded guilty to the theft of the printer.

The opinion states that Allen “testified that at the time of the thefts, he was an Assistant to the President of the United States for Domestic Policy, advising the president on domestic issues and tasked with leading the White House response to Hurricane Katrina.” A forensic psychiatrist testified that Allen was under a “high state of stress” that impaired his judgment.

The D.C. Bar Counsel asked the hearing committee to rule the conduct involved moral turpitude, arguing that the thefts were “a well thought out and well-executed scheme marked by stealth and deception.”

However, the panel ruled that the actions did not involve moral turpitude.

“Undoubtedly, the offense for which respondent has admitted guilt is serious and his fraudulent conduct breached a lawyer’s essential obligation not to act in a manner ‘involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation,’” the panel wrote in the opinion. “Our holding that the theft did not involve moral turpitude does not diminish the severity of respondent’s misconduct, especially considering the repeated nature of his offenses.”

Bush nominated Allen to the domestic policy post in early 2005. Before that, Allen had served as Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, and as Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia, according to a White House press release.

Allen did not respond to a request for comment.