The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Judge Sentences Longtime D.C. Defense Lawyer to 63 Months in Prison

Updated 5:58 p.m.

Calling a defense lawyer's crime "truly unconscionable," a federal judge in Washington today sentenced a longtime Washington attorney to more than five years in prison for his role in a scheme to manufacture evidence to dupe jurors in a drug trial.

The defense lawyer, Charles Daum, who had practiced law in the District of Columbia for three decades, will serve 63 months behind bars for a plot that included staged photographs and perjured testimony.

Daum was convicted at a bench trial last year that featured a series of jail recordings and testimony from cooperators—including Daum's client, whom the defense lawyer blamed for creating and executing the plot. Daum was indicted in 2011.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler today called Daum's scheme "shocking" and said it threatened public confidence in the integrity of the judicial system. Kessler said her sentencing decision should serve as a deterrent for any lawyer "who may think of cutting a corner, not telling quite the truth to a judge."

Dispute Over Smith Currie Ex-Partners' Funds Goes to Arbitration

A Washington federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Smith, Currie & Hancock over the return of ex-partner capital contributions, instead granting the firm's motion to compel arbitration.

The former partners, Dick Haire and Reginald Jones, along with other members of Atlanta-based Smith Currie's small Washington office, left the firm for Fox Rothschild in August 2011. Besides hiring Smith Currie attorneys and staff, Fox Rothschild also took over the lease of its Washington office.

Haire and Jones, in a complaint filed last April, said that they left Smith Currie over concerns about their compensation. The two claimed that after they left, the firm wrongly refused to return their capital contributions; Haire said he paid $49,981 into his capital account and Jones said he paid $65,852.

In 2012, Dickstein Shapiro's Gross Revenue Dipped, But Net Income Grew

Updated 5:04 p.m.

On paper, Dickstein Shapiro's fiscal year 2012 financial metrics represented a big change from 2011. Whereas gross revenue held steady in 2011, last year it dipped 3.2 percent to $258.5 million. But revenue per lawyer, profits per partner and net income all showed strong growth. Revenue per lawyer climbed 7.7 percent to $840,000 and profits per partner increased 3.8 percent to $950,000. Net income had the largest gain of any metric category, jumping 8.9 percent to $55 million.

"From the perspective of our firm, we thought it was a good year," chairman Michael Nannes said. "We know it's a challenging time."

Nannes said that the litigation, insurance, government contracts and intellectual property practice contributed to the firm's success in 2012. He expects these practices will continue to be strong through 2013. The corporate practice also finished out the year strong, in part bolstered by the uncertainty of the fiscal cliff.

Judge Denies New Trial in Armenian Genocide Museum Dispute

More than a decade after efforts began to build a museum memorializing the mass slaughter of Armenians during World War I, litigation over the failure of those efforts has consumed everyone involved. Yesterday, a Washington federal judge denied a motion for a new trial in the dispute and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the defendants $1.4 million in fees and costs.

Minnesota philanthropist and businessman Gerard Cafesjian tangled for years with museum trustees over who was to blame for the project's failure and what should happen to buildings Cafesjian donated to house the museum. Following a bench trial, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the buildings should return to Cafesjian. Yesterday, she denied the trustees' motion for another trial.

Over the trustees' objections, she also ordered them to pay Cafesjian $1.4 million in fees and costs, a figure based on recommendations from U.S. District Magistrate Judge Alan Kay. Cafesjian's legal team was led by Jones Day attorneys.

Consumer Financial Agency Chief Lays Out 2013 Agenda

At a public meeting this morning, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said the agency will focus on a handful of priorities in 2013, including "the evil of discrimination" that prevents minorities from receiving equal access to credit.

The other types of issues the agency will concentrate on, said CFPB Director Richard Cordray at an agency consumer advisory board meeting, are deceptive marketing of consumer financial products and services; debt traps; and a category that included debt collection, loan servicing, and credit reporting.

Cordray said the CFPB is also developing new technological tools, such as "Ask CFPB," an interactive database of 1,000 answers to common consumer questions. Plus, he said the agency's consumer complaint database and Project Catalyst, which seeks to promote consumer-friendly financial product and service innovations, have helped to fulfill their pledge to broaden public participation.

Crowell & Moring Shows Strong Financial Gains in 2012

Last year proved to be lucrative for Crowell & Moring. The D.C.-based firm showed strong financial gains in all of our metrics for 2012.

The biggest jump for Crowell – a full 16.3 percent, to $93 million – was in net income, according to our reporting. The firm also posted profits per partner of $925,000 and gross revenue of $349.5 million, increases of 9.5 percent and 6.1 percent, respectively. Likewise, revenue per lawyer crept up 2.7 percent to $760,000.

Firm chairman Kent Gardiner said that the financial success of the firm cannot be attributed to a single factor, but rather a prolonged push to strengthen core practices at the firm. Two top practices in 2012 were litigation and trial work, as well as in the firm's government and regulatory groups. Within those broad areas, antitrust, government contracts, patents and trade secrets and environmental matters remained robust, he said. In the last year, the firm also bulked up its health care group, particularly in California, as well as its tax and regulatory practices.

Judge Dismisses Lawyer's Constitutional Challenge to 'Post and Forfeit'

The District of Columbia's "post and forfeit" procedure is controversial, but a Washington federal judge ruled today that it doesn't violate the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures.

Under the "post and forfeit" process, individuals arrested for certain misdemeanor crimes, such as disorderly conduct, can pay a small amount of collateral and then forfeit it in exchange for essentially having the case dropped. The process has been criticized in the past as a way for police to cover up cases in which they made an unlawful arrest.

The decision (PDF) today from U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson represented the latest defeat for Hamilton Fox III, an assistant bar counsel in Washington who sued the city after he was arrested for disorderly conduct. Fox, who opted to "post and forfeit" after his arrest, claimed that police didn't have probable cause to arrest him and that "post and forfeit" in general was coercive and illegal.

Judge Dismisses Lawsuits Over ATM Fees

A Washington federal judge gave a win yesterday to Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., dismissing (PDF) a set of lawsuits that accused the two credit card companies of violating federal antitrust laws in how they set ATM fees.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson found that the plaintiffs – ATM operators and consumers who used ATMs – failed to make sufficient claims that they were harmed by how Visa and MasterCard managed ATM fees, and also didn't present enough facts to support a claim that the companies were part of an anticompetitive conspiracy with banks.

A lead attorney for the ATM operators, Washington solo practitioner Jonathan Rubin, said today that his clients are planning to file an amended complaint that would address Jackson's problems with the original case. "This is basically an economic issue that we intend to lay out in greater detail for the court," he said. A lead attorney for ATM users, George Sampson of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, said in an e-mail that his team also believed they could amend the complaint to address the court's concerns.

Appeals Court Affirms $775K Judgment for Injured MLB Umpire

Updated at 1 p.m.

The Wilson Sporting Goods Co., struck out in its appeal of a $775,000 judgment awarded to a Major League Baseball umpire who sued after being injured by a foul ball. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in an opinion (PDF) released this morning.

Edwin Hickox sued Wilson in District of Columbia Superior Court after a foul ball knocked off his Wilson-made face mask during a Washington Nationals game in 2005. A jury sided with Hickox in March 2011 and ordered Wilson to pay $775,000 to Hickox and $25,000 to his wife. Wilson appealed, challenging the admission of an expert who testified for Hickox at trial, among other things.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld the judgment today. Wilson had pointed to flaws in the expert's testimony – such as the fact that he didn't do his own testing of the face masks at issue – but the appeals court found that any deficiencies went to the weight the jury gave that testimony, as opposed to whether it should be admissible.

D.C. Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Stealing $109K

Updated at 12:52 p.m.

A now-disbarred Washington lawyer and former D.C. Council candidate, Deairich Hunter, pleaded guilty this week in federal court to stealing more than $109,000 in funds intended for his clients.

At a plea hearing January 23 before U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, Hunter, a former solo practitioner, admitted to keeping thousands of dollars in settlements for clients in disability and personal injury cases. In at least one instance cited in court filings, he stole funds that he was supposed to use to pay the medical bills of a client injured in a car accident.

Hunter is scheduled for sentencing before Howell on April 26. He was released on personal recognizance until the hearing, and was ordered to stay in the Washington area and surrender his passport.