The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Former Patton Boggs Employee Ends Retaliation Lawsuit

A lawsuit against Patton Boggs that made headlines for its description of a firm with a purported drinking culture has ended, according to recent court filings. The plaintiff, a former business development coordinator at the firm, dropped her claims against the firm in January and settled claims against a former firm employee last week.

The terms of last week's settlement between the plaintiff Kristine Colombo and a former employee in the Patton Boggs' information technology department are confidential. In January, Colombo voluntarily dropped her claims against the firm, with each side agreeing to cover their own fees and costs.

In a complaint filed last April in District of Columbia Superior Court, Colombo claimed that the male IT employee assaulted her and made inappropriate comments during a firm-sponsored happy hour event in the office informally known as "Third Thursdays." She said the firm's culture included frequent social events where attorneys and staff would drink, a claim that the firm denied in its answer to her complaint.

House Republicans: Fast and Furious Settlement Talks 'Waste' of Time

Updated at 1:42 p.m.

After several months of trading settlement offers, House Republicans filed notice Friday with a District of Columbia federal judge that they believe Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. "is not serious" about reaching an agreement to release information on a controversial gun trafficking operation and that future talks "would be a waste of everyone's time."

Holder, in the same status report filed with U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, wasn't as pessimistic. He indicated that the U.S. Department of Justice was prepared to continue negotiating and that it would accept Jackson's previous suggestion of mediation with U.S. District Senior Judge Barbara Rothstein. Rothstein is a visiting judge from the Western District of Washington.

This afternoon, however, Jackson ordered the parties to mediation with Rothstein. She didn’t offer any explanation, except to say that she had considered what both sides said in the status report. If the parties don’t reach a settlement by April 22, Jackson is scheduled to hear arguments on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss on April 24.

D.C. Court of Appeals Chief Judge Interested in Third Term

District of Columbia Court of Appeals Chief Judge Eric Washington is interested in a third term leading the city's highest local court, according to an announcement today from the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission.

Washington's second four-year term will expire in August. He isn't guaranteed redesignation however – any regular active judge on the appeals court is eligible to apply. Washington, along with any other judge interested in the job, will have to submit a statement of interest by April 15.

Lawyers, members of the public, and organizations can also nominate a judge for the position, according to the commission, but they have to first get the judge's consent. The commission will accept letters or recommendation or endorsements through May 15 and offer an opportunity for public comment on the candidates once they've applied.

Jones Day Partner Tapped as Detroit's Emergency Manager

Updated at 5:08 p.m.

Kevyn Orr, a Jones Day partner in Washington with a background in business restructuring, is Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's pick for emergency manager of Detroit.

According to The New York Times, Snyder announced today at a press conference that he was recommending Orr to the board that would formally hire an emergency manager for the city, which has been plagued with financial instability. This afternoon, the Emergency Loan Board hired Orr as the city's emergency manager effective March 25, according to a release from the governor's office.

“I am deeply saddened to see a historic city such as Detroit in severe financial distress, but I am confident we can and will put the city back on the path to success,” Orr said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Mayor Bing, City Council, citizens and all stakeholders, including city employees and businesses, and faith and philanthropic communities, to find effective solutions resulting in long-term prosperity for all.”

New Rule Approved to Verify D.C. Lawyers' IOLTA Participation

Updated 3/15 at 10:57 a.m.

In a move that would bring the D.C. Bar in line with other states with mandatory bars, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals recently approved a new rule giving the D.C. Bar Foundation authority to periodically check that local attorneys are participating in the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, program.

The mandatory program, which collects interest earned on lawyers' trust accounts, helps fund annual grants to local civil legal services organizations through the D.C. Bar Foundation. Katia Garrett, the foundation's executive director, said that having a way to verify participation is considered a best practice in managing IOLTA programs.

"It's really to provide an added level of certainty," she said. Garrett added that by checking, the foundation could make sure that the accounts reported by lawyers matched bank records.

Plaintiffs to Appeal Dismissal of 'Plan Colombia' Lawsuit Against DynCorp

Lawyers for several thousand Ecuadorian citizens suing DynCorp International over alleged exposure to toxins through an aerial herbicide spraying operation are preparing to appeal a recent order dismissing the case.

In 2001, more than 2,000 Ecuadorians sued DynCorp in Washington federal court, claiming that the herbicide made them sick, hurt their animals, and ruined their land. In a February 15 opinion that was unsealed last week, U.S. District Judge Richard Roberts excluded testimony from the plaintiffs' sole expert. Without that testimony, Roberts found that the plaintiffs couldn't prove that DynCorp's actions caused their injuries and dismissed the case.

Terry Collingsworth, managing partner for Conrad & Scherer's Washington office and lead counsel for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, confirmed today that his team is "assessing which of the many possible appealable issues they will pursue in the Court of Appeals."

The Morning Wrap

More Jobs: The legal industry picked up 200 positions in February, The Am Law Daily reports. In January, the sector lost 2,400 jobs.

Lawyering Up: Ridesharing companies are lawyering up as they are facing scrutiny from cab companies, regulators and traditional drivers, The Recorder reports. Uber Technologies Inc., SideCar and Zimride Inc. in San Francisco have hired general counsel, taking that step much earlier than most companies at a similar size and stage.

Drones: John Yoo, the George W. Bush administration lawyer who authored legal memos for the war on terror, is backing President Barack Obama's use of armed drones, even against U.S. citizens, USA Today reports. "If an American joins an enemy with which we are at war, he is or she is a valid target as an enemy combatant," Yoo said. "That's been the rule throughout our history."

D.C. Court Caseloads Continued to Drop in 2012

The number of new cases brought in District of Columbia Superior Court reached a record low in 2012, with the court seeing fewer new cases filed in almost every division, including the high-volume civil and criminal divisions, according to data recently released by the court.

There were 96,692 new cases filed in Superior Court last year. It was the first year that the number of new cases dropped below 100,000 in recent history, representing a significant drop from the 144,244 new cases filed in 1999, the earliest year that data were readily available. Judges continued to make progress in clearing cases, so the number of pending cases at the end of the year dropped from 38,902 in 2011 to 36,090 last year. Chief Judge Lee Satterfield was not immediately available to discuss this year's numbers.

The civil division, which has the highest caseload of any division, saw its new case filings drop by 4.5 percent to 53,728. The number of new civil cases has, for the most part, steadily dropped since 1999, and the division had a 101 percent clearance rate last year, meaning judges resolved more cases than came in. There were 15,326 civil cases pending at the end of 2012.

D.C. Appeals Court: In Drug Cases, Proximity Isn't Enough

The fact that a man was sitting in a car near a closed container of drugs wasn't enough to convict him of possessing those drugs, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled today.

The opinion reinforces the government's obligation to present enough evidence in drug cases to prove that a defendant wasn't simply an innocent bystander. A three-judge panel found that in the case of David Jackson, prosecutors failed to offer evidence of guilt beyond the fact that he was sitting close to a closed cooler that held bags of marijuana.

"The myriad questions left unanswered by Mr. Jackson's presence in the car and position next to the cooler containing the drugs is the reason we do not allow intent to be founded on proximity to contraband alone," Judge Catharine Easterly wrote in the unanimous decision. The court reversed Jackson's conviction and ordered the trial judge to enter a judgment of acquittal.

Federal Government, Courts Close for Snow

If you have to ask, it's probably closed. As a major snow storm picked up around the metropolitan Washington region this morning, government workers (and many others) prepared for a day at home.

The federal government is closed. The U.S. District Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, and U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia are closed. The U.S. District Courts in Maryland are closed, although according to the courts' website one civil trial before U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis in Baltimore will proceed as scheduled. The federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., is closed.

Lawyers can still file documents with the courts electronically, but case processing – assigning case numbers and judges to new cases, for instance – won't take place until the courts and clerks' offices reopen.