Gone With the Sheep

Hogan & Hartson is ready to end its efforts to persuade Sen.Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to assuage a legal battle involving Vermont resident Houghton Freeman. Freeman is suing the U.S. government for the 2001 destruction of over 200 of Freeman's sheep after the U.S. Department of Agriculture ordered the flocks slaughtered when tests showed Freeman's flock may have had spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a class of neurological diseases that includes Mad Cow Disease. According to a CNN news story, "The USDA believed the Vermont sheep, imported from Belgium in 1996 — in the midst of Europe's mad cow disease crisis — may have been exposed to the disease through contaminated feed consumed by their ancestors."

Freeman, who argues that his sheep were healthy and that the government's tests were flawed, hired the law and lobbying firm Hogan & Hartson last month to seek the senator's support "to achieve a prompt settlement resolution," according to Senate lobbying records. But because the case is now in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Sen. Leahy's office has refused to interfere. Consequently, the firm will soon call it quits and leave the matter to litigation.