The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Double-Duty Doctor Charged with Defrauding D.C.

The Attorney General's office today filed an 18-count criminal complaint against a doctor who was simultaneously employed by two agencies in D.C. The complaint alleges Dr. Charles Hall falsely represented himself and defrauded the D.C. government of about $12,240. According to the complaint, between 2004 and 2006 Hall would leave his job as a medical officer for the Addiction Prevention Recovery Administration (APRA) during work hours and head over to work for the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA). The Office of the Inspector General received a complaint in 2006 about Hall's double duty.

Firms Withdraw from Fabian Case

Looks like former Mitt Romney fundraiser, Alan Fabian, needs some fundraising himself, and it’s not just to cover the legal costs of his impending criminal trial. Two firms that represented him in bankruptcy proceedings in Maryland, Hogan & Hartson and Venable, have asked to be removed from Fabian’s case. The cause? Fabian has not paid his legal fees.

Hogan & Hartson attorneys, Mark Gately and Lauren Schultz Colton, who were representing Fabian’s Baltimore-based company called the Centre for Management and Technology, Inc., filed a motion to withdraw from the case on September 10, begging off the representation because “CMAT has not paid its outstanding legal bills for Hogan & Hartson’s representation in this matter.”

Venable attorneys—James Gray, David Rice, Lisa Tancredi, and Mark Maneche—mirrored that motion ten days later. Venable was representing Fabian, his wife Jacqueline Richards-Fabian, and Ocean Quest, an entity in which Fabian was a shareholder. As stated in the firm’s motion to withdraw, “the Fabians, and Ocean Quest defendants in these and other adversary proceedings, as well as in related litigation matters, Venable has accrued substantial unpaid legal fees and costs, many of which are past due by 12 months.”

Both firms reference Fabian’s recent criminal indictment back in August as a reason why they probably won’t get paid any time soon. Once a high-rolling, GOP campaign fundraiser, Fabian been charged with mail fraud, money laundering, bankruptcy fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice for allegedly defrauding companies out of $32 million, and prosecutors are putting a chokehold on his assets.

Prosecutors and law firms might be trying to get their hands on his money, but GOP campaigns can’t get away from Fabian funds quickly enough. According to this piece in The Hill, not only has Romney ditched the Maryland businessman’s tainted cash, but so has presidential hopeful —pardon me, my wife is calling—Rudy Giuliani.

Palfrey: I Want a New Judge

A new lawyer would be nice, but now alleged D.C. Madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey wants a new judge and new prosecutors, too. They’re the latest oh-my! motions in her case -- and only slightly less madcap than her civil attorney’s announcement two weeks ago that Palfrey wished to subpoena an ABC News reporter and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to prove she is victim of political persecution. (Cue the headshaking and sighing.)

Palfrey, in a motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, says that Senior Judge Gladys Kessler has shown bias and hostility towards her and her civil attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, whom Kessler forbade from sitting next to Palfrey during criminal proceedings. Incredibly, she also accuses Kessler of moving slowly, though Palfrey is on her second court-appointed lawyer -- she said the first, Federal Public Defender A.J. Kramer, was too busy to handle the litigation -- and has saddled the case with more than a dozen motions. Kessler, in a recent hearing, complained of a lack of progress.

In the other motion, Palfrey asks the court to toss Assistant U.S. attorneys Daniel Butler, Catherine Connelly and William Cowden from the case, alleging that they “disclosed privileged settlement communications for a malicious and improper use.” Palfrey notes in the filing that her current court-appointed attorney -- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe partner Preston Burton, whom she is also trying to shake loose -- refused to bring these matters before the court. Gee.

Is There an iCrime Wave? iMaybe...

The Urban Institute has released a report seeking to explain why violent crime increased nationwide from 2005 to 2006, especially for robberies. The culprit? "America may have experienced an iCrime wave" because iPods may be "criminogenic," or crime-creating. Apple probably won't be putting this news in their next TV spot.

The basic scenario from the Urban Institute is that iPods are high-dollar, readily visible items on the street, and its wearers are distracted from their surroundings because they are rocking out to the extended cut of "Freebird." The iCrime wave follows on the heels of the Michael Jordan basketball shoe crime wave and the North Face puffy jacket crime wave of the 1980s and 1990s, the report states.

Fortunately, the iCrime wave may now be on the decline because iPods "have become so ubiquitous, many of those who covet one likely already have one." And that should make Steve Jobs very, very happy, even if the iPhone is still a ripoff.

Howrey Says Olé

Howrey is adding a little Spanish flavor to its overseas offices, though siestas probably won’t be replacing the billable hour any time soon. The antitrust and IP focused firm announced last week that is opening up shop in Madrid, adding the Spanish capital to a collection of European offices that already includes London, Paris, Brussells, Munich, and Amsterdam.

Announced last week, Howrey is taking over the Spanish boutique Martínez Lage & Asociados. The merger will be finalized in the beginning of next year, and the Spanish firm will be integrated into Howrey at that time. “Back in ‘99 we decided we needed to be more global in scope for both IP and competition,” says Robert Ruyak, the firm’s managing partner. “Spain wasn’t the highest priority at first, but we always had our eye on Madrid.”

The firm had befriended the attorneys at Martínez Lage before on various European antitrust matters, and when the Spanish authorities began restructuring the country’s antitrust laws, both firms saw an opportunity to grow.

Santiago Martínez Lage will head the new shop, which is 11 attorneys strong, though Ruyak predicts the number will grow shortly. The firm plans to add a high level patent litigation practice in the next few months and is considering further expansion, possibly in Asia.

Morning Wrap

Lawyering Up Fourteen high-value terrorist suspects transferred from secret CIA prisons to Gitmo last year have been given the right to request lawyers, according to the WaPo. The formal offers, tendered by the government in late August and early this month, could lead to them challenging their status as enemy combatants in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, along with the other detainees.

Hot Water The NYT offers slivers of the Sept. 16 Blackwater USA shootings in this A1 story. In the chaos, at least one Blackwater guard continued to fire on civilians while colleagues called for a cease-fire. When the order was ignored, one of the guards guard drew a weapon on him. The Iraqis have concluded that the guards fired without provocation, while the American investigation is ongoing.

Grounded Airports. Delays. Disgust. The WSJ explains today that often weather isn’t to blame for all those hours frittered away at the gate. An antiquated and inefficient system for managing U.S. airspace holds up flights everyday. Have a good weekend, travelers.

Commander in Chief Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled that President Pervez Musharraf could try for a second five-year term in the election next month, without relinquishing his command of the army, Bloomberg reports. Opposition leaders and lawyers said they will seek a review of the decision from the same court.

Pitching In

The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless is hosting its 8th annual Lawyers Pitch In softball tournament this weekend in Rockville. 18 law firms are participating in the charity event, which will take place at Cabin John Regional Park on Saturday. Last year, the clinic raised more than $36,000 at the tournament. The clinic advocates for the homeless by providing pro bono legal representation and counsel. It reports that last year, $3.1 million in legal services were donated to its clients.

Now it begins

The Drudge Report is offering early details of this Sunday's 60 Minutes interview with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, on the eve of the publication of Thomas's memoir, My Grandfather's Son.

Thomas tells CBS reporter Steve Kroft, according to the report, that abortion was the real issue that led opponents to try to derail his nomination in 1991 by bringing forward Anita Hill's allegations that he sexually harassed her. "That was the elephant in the room... That was the issue. That is the issue that people are apparently so upset about," he tells Kroft. "[That is the issue] that you determine the composition of your Supreme Court and your entire federal judiciary, it seems now."

Thomas says the confirmation controversy did permanent damage to Hill, himself, and the country as a whole. "What are we going to look like years from now if we can't get people confirmed because everybody gets to attack them? They get to draw and quarter them," he says.

Facebook Costs Firms Big Money

If you’re reading this blog post right now, perhaps it’s because you’re a bit antsy at work and you’re looking for a minor distraction. But in a New York Observer piece this week, David Lat breaks down just how much another popular at-work distraction, Facebook, is costing big law firms.

The hugely popular social-networking site has roughly 40 million users, and the trend has apparently caught on among associates. Lat says a British study finds that visiting Facebook and similar sites during work hours costs U.K. firms more than $260 million a day. That’s right -- a day. Lat puts his math cap on to figure out what the numbers in the U.S. might be. He says that next year AmLaw 200 law firms are expected to hire 10,000 new associates. He estimates that if just half of them spend one billable hour a week on Facebook, and the hourly billing rate is $200, that totals $50 million a year in lost hours.

So basically, if you’re on Facebook at work, you might want to make sure your supervising partner has his or her head buried in a brief somewhere far, far away from your computer.

New Militia Group at Georgetown Law Center

Georgetown University Law Center has a new student group called the Georgetown Law-Militia. The group’s mission is to foster “greater awareness of legal issues concerning the right to keep and bear arms and the human right of self-defense.”

At the Militia’s inaugural meeting this afternoon, attorney Alan Gura of Gura & Possessky spoke about his work as lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Parker v. D.C.- the case that successfully challenged the District’s handgun ban in March. Gura told a group of about 30 Law Center students that “the Second Amendment is really not all that mysterious.” He says he is confident the U.S. Supreme Court will decide to review the case, and that he is “looking forward” to arguing before the court.

The group’s president, third-year law student Mike Stollenwerk, is an active gun-rights advocate. He helped found a website called opencarry.org that maps out where in the U.S. people can carry unconcealed firearms legally, and at what age, and he was inspired to form the Militia by the gun ban case. Stollenwerk has a concealed handgun permit in Virginia, and a license to carry firearms in Pennsylvania. “What good is a gun if you can’t carry it?” he says.

Read more about the Georgetown Law-Militia in next week's Legal Times.