The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Judge Orders Man Jailed in Landmark GPS Case

The Washington man who was at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling over GPS tracking will remain locked up pending his fourth trial, a federal judge ruled today.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle concluded no condition of release would “reasonably assure” the safety of the public. The defendant, Antoine Jones, has remained in custody since his arrest in late 2005 for his alleged role in a drug trafficking ring.

Prosecutors brought Jones to trial three times since then. After the first mistrial in 2007, prosecutors a year later landed a conspiracy conviction and a life sentence. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in 2010, erased the victory.

Legal Aid Society Opens Clinic in Southwest Washington

The Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia today opened a newly expanded legal services center in Southwest Washington, with financial help from Kirkland & Ellis.

The firm has pledged $125,000 a year for at least five years toward a legal services center that expands an existing clinic at Friendship Baptist Church, 900 Delaware Avenue, S.W.

"We're very hopeful that it will provide even broader services, and that the community will benefit from expanding Legal Aid’s expertise and experience into this quadrant of the city," said Kirkland litigation partner Jennifer Levy, pro bono coordinator for the firm’s Washington office.

Orrick Bolsters Supreme Court, Appellate Practice

Updated 2:13 p.m.

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has added a partner to the firm’s Supreme Court and appellate group in Washington.

Eric Shumsky, previously a Sidley Austin partner, brings experience representing clients in industries like telecommunications, technology, pharmaceutical, financial services, transportation and consumer goods.

During the 2011 Supreme Court term, Shumsky was part of a team that represented Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital in a case challenging the California Assembly's efforts to reduce the state's Medicaid payments.  In all, Shumsky is the main author of more than 75 briefs in the Supreme Court.

In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Shumsky recently urged a panel to uphold a trial judge’s ruling that blocked the U.S. import of a drug used in carrying out the death penalty. Shumsky argued in 2011 in the D.C. Circuit on behalf of an investment company in a dispute over the scope of a federal trial judge to impose sanctions on a foreign country.

Five Former Finnegan Lawyers Form Trademark Boutique

Five attorneys from Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner are leaving the firm to start an intellectual property boutique in Washington focused on trademark issues.

Finnegan confirmed on Friday the departure of partners Stephanie Bald, David Kelly, Robert Litowitz, and Linda McLeod, and of counsel Lynn Jordan.

Litowitz was a member of the firm's management committee. In 2012, the IP-focused Finnegan had gross revenues of $348 million with profits per partner of $1.16 million.

Twenty-One Lawyers Apply for Superior Court Vacancy

Magistrate and administrative law judges dominated the pool of Washington lawyers who applied to fill an upcoming vacancy on the District of Columbia Superior Court.

Of the 21 applicants hoping to fill Judge A. Franklin Burgess Jr.'s seat after he retires, seven are Superior Court magistrate judges and five are local administrative law judges. The other nine attorneys come from private practice, civil legal services groups, and government agencies.

Burgess is set to step down August 3 after serving 30 years on the bench; he has said he plans to ask for appointment as a senior judge. The District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Commission, the local body that recommends applicants to the White House for consideration, is accepting comments on the applicants by April 29.

Judge: DOJ Victory a 'Warning, Not an Invitation'

A federal appeals court in Washington today unanimously overturned the suppression of evidence in a drug trafficking case, giving the government a second chance. But one judge on the panel cautioned that the U.S. Justice Department and police should not celebrate.

"[W]hile the government ultimately prevails, its victory should be looked upon as a warning, not an invitation," Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in the court's ruling. "We have found probable cause by only a hair’s breadth."

The issue in the case: whether an officer's alleged false statements in a search warrant affidavit doomed the entirety of the warrant and, as a result, all the stuff the police seized.

The lawyers for the defendant, a man named Jared Cardoza, successfully argued in the trial court that a District of Columbia police officer lied in the affidavit about certain visual observations of Cardoza and certain statements he allegedly made.

Appeals Court Affirms Wilmer Win in Malpractice Suit

Updated at 4:24 p.m.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed the dismissal of legal malpractice claims against Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr and denounced the "contumacious behavior" of the lawyer who brought the case.

Wilmer represented the lawyer, James Pietrangelo II, as part of a legal challenge to the now-defunct "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Pietrangelo was one of a dozen former armed service members that the firm represented pro bono. He was a Wilmer client from 2004 to 2006, and then split off to pursue his own challenge on his own.

Pietrangelo accused Wilmer of interfering with his efforts to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to yesterday's opinion. Trial judges who handled the dispute at different times dismissed most of his claims, and a jury found for Wilmer on the remaining counts. A three-judge appellate panel yesterday affirmed the dismissal of Pietrangelo's claims.

The Morning Wrap

Charged: From today's National Law Journal: "A former senior KPMG LLP partner in Los Angeles has been charged with passing confidential information about clients to a close friend in exchange for cash bribes." Coverage here in The New York Times.

Overcrowding: A three-judge district court panel has given California 21 days to come up with a plan to reduce prison overcrowding, The Los Angeles Times reports. "At no point over the past several months have defendants indicated any willingness to comply, or made any attempt to comply, with the orders of this court," the panel said. "In fact, they have blatantly defied them."

Big donor: The Am Law Daily reports: "Simpson Thacher on Hand for Lauder's $1.1 Billion Cubist Art Donation to Met."

Mishandled: "The military justice system at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has been dogged by charges of secret monitoring of proceedings and defense communications, became embroiled in a fresh controversy Thursday when it was revealed that hundreds of thousands of defense e-mails were turned over to the prosecution," The Washington Post reports.

New Brownstein Practice Focuses on Energy, Natural Resources Clients

Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck has started a new Washington-based practice focused on legal, lobbying and strategy services for energy and natural resources clients, the firm announced Wednesday.

The new practice will explore "complex infrastructure and policy matters that require a multi-disciplined approach," the firm said. Brownstein shareholder David Bernhardt, a former U.S. Interior Department solicitor, will lead the group, which has more than two dozen members located in the firm's Washington office and outposts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

Bernhardt will receive assistance in D.C. from Brownstein shareholder Lawrence Jensen and of counsel Ryan Smith, as well as policy directors Luke Johnson, Elizabeth Gore and Jon Hrobsky, all of whom have experience working in the federal government on environmental issues. Jensen and Johnson are new hires whom the firm picked up within the past two months.

Bingham Bolsters Antitrust, White-collar Practice in D.C.

Bingham McCutchen is adding two attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to the firm’s Washington office.

Darren Tucker, a former senior competition advisor at the FTC, and Michael Whitlock, a DOJ Antitrust Division prosecutor, join the firm as partners in the antitrust, competition and trade regulation group.

At the FTC, Tucker was the top advisor to Commissioner Joshua Wright. Tucker was also the primary drafter of the In the Matter of North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners decision. The FTC in 2011 ruled the board violated the agency's rule on deceptive trade practice when it sought to block non-dentists from providing teeth whitening services.

During his tenure at DOJ, Whitlock investigated price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation by auto-part companies. Whitlock participated in the antitrust price-fixing prosecutions of freight services companies Horizon Lines LLC and Sea Star Lines LLC.