The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

O'Connor & Hannan Merges with Calif.-based Firm

The 23 lawyers and lobbyists of D.C. law and lobbying boutique O’Connor & Hannan will merge with California-based law firm Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott on Tuesday. The combined firm will have more than 150 attorneys and lobbyists across eight offices nationwide. In Washington, the firm will operate under the name Nossaman/O’Connor & Hannan. In the Arlington, Va., Austin, Los Angeles, Orange County, Calif., Sacramento, San Francisco, and Seattle offices, the combined firm will be called Nossaman.

The merger is the latest in a string of Washington boutiques to announce unions with bigger firms. Troutman Sanders and Washington litigation boutique Ross, Dixon & Bell, for example, announced their plan to combine last week. And Kilpatrick Stockton acquired D.C. corporate and financial transactions firm Muldoon Murphy & Aguggia last month.

“Merging with Nossaman allows us to better serve our clients’ range of needs,” said F. Gordon Lee, O’Connor’s managing partner, in a statement released by Nossaman.

In the same statement, Nossaman’s managing partner Michael Heumann said the two firms' complementary practices motivated the merger. He said his firm’s land use and environmental clients will benefit from a larger footprint in D.C., which will offer “the opportunity to contribute at a federal level to the formation of the laws that govern their businesses.”

O’Connor was founded in D.C. in 1957. Its lawyers and lobbyists represent corporate clients, trade associations, non-profit organizations, and public clients. The firm placed 50th in 2007’s Influence 50, Legal Times’ rankings of the top-grossing lobby shops, but did not make the cut for this year’s list.

Nossaman, founded in 1946, has practices focused on infrastructure, complex civil litigation, land use, environmental, real property, water, healthcare, corporate transactions, and public policy.

D.C. Circuit Finds Detainee Evidence Lacking

A federal appeals court has ruled that the government must prove the reliability of hearsay evidence it submits in support of the confinement of Guantánamo Bay detainees.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit found that a review tribunal had improperly labeled detainee Huzaifa Parhat an enemy combatant. The court gave the government three options with Parhat, a Chinese Uighur who has been imprisoned at Guantánamo for six years: release him, transfer him to another country, or conduct another review. It was the first time the court considered the merits of a detainee’s petition to have his combatant status reviewed.

The court withheld the opinion supporting the order because it contained classified information. In a redacted version released today, the court said that the government had failed to offer evidence that permitted “an appropriate assessment” of its reliability.

While the court stopped short of barring hearsay evidence in determining whether a detainee can be classified as an enemy combatant, it cast doubt on the authority of hundreds of intelligence documents and records the government has held up as proof of detainees’ threat.

The ruling is particularly instructive for federal district judges presiding over the 200 or so habeas cases brought by detainees. In a recent meeting with Chief U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, Justice Department officials reportedly requested time to shore up the factual returns that were filed in
detainee cases several years ago. The D.C. Circuit’s ruling would seem to give the department impetus to do so.

In Parhat’s case, the government alleged that he was a member of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement associated with al-Qaida and the Taliban. The government acknowledges that he never engaged in hostile activities against the United States.

As proof of his affiliation with ETIM, the government submitted at least three intelligence documents from the State and Defense Departments. The Justice Department said the three documents supported each other, but the court ridiculed that reasoning, with a reference to the nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark,” by Lewis Carroll.

“Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has ‘said it thrice’ does not make an allegation true,” wrote Judge Merrick Garland. Chief Judge David Sentelle and Judge Thomas Griffith joined him on the opinion.

Sami Al-Arian and DOJ Face Off, Again

The legal skirmishes continue between the government and Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor who pleaded guilty in 2006 to conspiracy to assist a terrorist group.

This afternoon, Al-Arian is being arraigned in Alexandria, Va., on criminal contempt charges for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. The two-count indictment was announced last week.

Al-Arian was initially arrested in January 2003 and accused of heading the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's operations in North America. However, after a six-month trial in 2006, a Tampa, Fla., jury acquitted him on eight of 17 charges and was hung on the rest. He then entered a plea agreement, and U.S. District Judge James Moody sentenced him to 57 months in prison, to be followed by deportation.

That deal became the focus of his next brush with the law. While he was serving his sentence, prosecutors twice brought him to Virginia to testify in a terrorism-finance investigation that involves Islamic nonprofits. Al-Arian refused to answer questions. His lawyers — law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University and Bryan Cave associates Will Olson and P.J. Meitl — argue that nothing in Al-Arian's plea agreement requires his cooperation with the government.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg of Alexandria — the lead prosecutor in the terrorism-finance investigation — believes otherwise.

Al-Arian appealed to the U.S. Courts of Appeals in the 4th and 11th Circuits, but both appellate courts have sided with the government. The Supreme Court refused to hear his case.

Turley's blog has links to all documents. For an opposing view, check out this post by terrorism expert Steven Emerson, a longtime critic of Al-Arian.

Al-Arian's latest troubles could cost him additional time in prison. If convicted, he faces an unknown sentence because criminal contempt carries no minimum or maximum prison terms.

Nixon Peabody's Public Finance Group Gets Hill Recruit

Nixon Peabody’s D.C. office will add a new counsel to its public finance practice next month when Gary Bornholdt joins from the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Bornholdt, who will start at the firm July 30, has spent the past four years as legislation counsel to the joint committee. In that role, he worked with the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee to develop and analyze tax proposals. Prior to serving on the Hill, Bornholdt was a senior attorney in the tax-exempt bond branch of the Internal Revenue Service. At Nixon Peabody, he will handle tax-exempt bond, tax legislative, and audit matters.

Bornholdt says he searched for the past six months to find the right opportunity in private practice. His move to Nixon Peabody will be his first stint at a law firm. He says he settled on Nixon because he had previously worked with lawyers at the firm, and was impressed with its “sophisticated bond practice.” Bornholdt will mainly represent state and local governments, banks, underwriters, and other clients on the issuer side of bonds.

This Week in Legal Times

Now that the justices have recessed for summer, Tony Mauro takes a look back at this term in his Supreme Court Wrap-Up. Despite June's string of 5-4 splits, Mauro finds that for the most part, the Court was in tune, especially compared to last term.

Speaking of those split decisions, Joe Palazzolo has this account of Alan Gura's wild day following the High Court's ruling in the D.C. gun ban case, District of Columbia v. Heller. Palazzolo followed Gura — the lawyer who successfully argued that Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms — as he signed autographs, juggled hundreds of emails, and made the cable news rounds in the wake of the historic decision.

Legal Times also finds that the Supreme Court popped up in some unlikely places over the past year, including in an episode of South Park.

In Legal Business news, Marisa McQuilken has more on the merger between Atlanta's Troutman Sanders and D.C.-based litigation boutique Ross, Dixon & Bell. The merger will be final January 1.

Morning Wrap

Another Firm Combo: Chicago law firm Schwartz Cooper is set to end operations next month, reports the Chicago Tribune. 53 of the firms 60 lawyers will join the Chicago office of Dykema.

D.C.'s Financial Sector: The WaPo reports that the D.C. area’s financial sector has sustained some of the most damage among local stocks. Arlington investment bank Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, D.C. investment firm Allied Capital, and Bethesda REIT CapitalSource are some of the firms that have taken hits.

Heller's Trouble: In the wake of last year’s revenue drop and dozens of partner departures, The Recorder reports via Law.com that Heller Ehrman may be in merger talks with Baker & McKenzie.

Civil Liberties: A University of Chicago law professor contributes this op-ed to the NYT today. He proposes that a new position should be created in the executive branch: a civil liberties adviser to the president.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: In case you missed it, the NYT ran this piece Sunday about law schools that are standing up to the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell policy.” The Vermont Law School is one institution barring military recruiters from campus, and losing out on federal funds as a consequence.

Janitors, Mafia, and Backpay

The Sicilian Mafia and janitorial services might seem an unusual pairing, but it’s at the root of nine years of litigation ruled on today by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The case began in 1999 after a U.S. Naval contracting officer awarded a $28 million maintenance case to Joint Venture Conserv. at the Navy’s Sigonella Air Base near Catania, Italy. The janitorial services company was owned by Carmelo La Mastra, who had been indicted by Italian prosecutors in 1997 for his alleged role in a mafia scheme to win construction contracts on the base. A losing bidder, Impresa Construzioni, filed a protest over both the price and ethical questions surrounding the winner.

ALM's Jonathan Ringel wrote about the case back in 2000, when New York attorney Sam Gdanski first went to the Federal Circuit seeking to overturn U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Emily Clark Hewitt’s ruling that the Navy awarded the contract properly and that La Mastra’s alleged mafia ties were “irrelevant.”

Gdanski won, and the award of fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act has now become the main contention of the case. The original fee request amounted to several hundred thousand dollars, he says, and he intends to seek fees for copious subsequent litigation. “The DOJ categorically imposed opposed us every step of the way,” he says. “They wouldn’t compromise on anything.”

At the heart of Federal Circuit’s decision today was the question of whether a voluntary dismissal of a case is appealable, and if so, in what time frame. Two of the three judges sided with Gdanski. The Department of Justice team couldn’t be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Gdanski, meanwhile, says he’s looking forward to the next round. ”Ever since oral argument, I’ve been checking the Web site every day,” he says.

DOJ to Pay $5.8 Million to Steven Hatfill in Anthrax Probe

The Justice Department has agreed to pay Dr. Steven Hatfill and his lawyers more than $5.8 million to settle a suit over the disclosure of information during the investigation in the fatal anthrax mailings in 2001.

This afternoon, Brian Roehrkasse, the department's director of public affairs, said: "By entering into this agreement, the United States does not admit to any violation of the Privacy Act and continues to deny all liability in connection with Dr. Hatfill’s claims."

In addition to more than $2.8 million in cash for Hatfill and his lawyer Mark Grannis, name partner at Harris, Wiltshire a& Grannis, the department has agreed to buy Hatfill an annual annuity of $150,000 for 20 years.

FBI searches of Hatfill's home were widely publicized in 2001 and he later was named a "person of interest," but he was never charged in the unsolved attacks, which killed five people and injured 17 others.

Hatfill filed his suit against then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2003, alleging the Justice Department and the FBI had violated his presumption of innocence and damaged his reputation. He later filed a libel suit against The New York Times and a defamation suit against other media.

Last year, in the suit against the government, Hatfill attempted to have journalists testify about sources they used in their stories about him.

D.C. Bar Raises $650,000 for Pro Bono

The D.C. Bar was celebrating pro bono Thursday night at its annual business meeting.

Through a fundraising reception that evening, the bar's pro bono program had brought in a record $650,000, almost one-third of its annual budget. Outgoing D.C. Bar President Melvin White, a partner at McDermott, Will & Emery, said the donations showed the bar’s commitment to pro bono work in the District. “As I turn over the reins, I have to say that being the president of the D.C. Bar is a chance to use the bully pulpit of the office to help the poor of our district,” White says. “We’ve seen the strong impact [pro bono work] has had on our city. It’s a mark of the tremendous service the D.C. Bar has provided.”

Former D.C. Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti, who was sworn in as the bar’s new president, told the 400 people in the audience that the bar would remain committed to pro bono work over the next year.

Although the actual business of the meeting consisted solely of approving last year’s minutes and financial report, the main event was honoring lawyers. John Payton, director-counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund, received the Thurgood Marshall Award, which recognizes commitment to civil rights and liberties. David Cleveland, a lawyer at Catholic Charities, and Seth Galanter, of counsel at Morrison & Foerster, were named pro bono lawyers of the year. Dickstein Shapiro was given the pro bono law firm award.

Scruggs Sentenced to Five Years

Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, famous for his suits against tobacco companies, was sentenced today to five years in prison. Scruggs had pled guilty in March to conspiring to bribe a judge in a dispute over legal fees.

The New York Times has the AP story here, and The American Lawyer has a story here.