The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Reed Smith Joins Fight Over D.C. Attorney General Election

Lawyers from Reed Smith are stepping in pro bono to fight the D.C. Council's decision to delay the city's transition to an independent, elected attorney general.

The council voted Oct. 1 to push the election back from 2014 to 2018. Paul Zukerberg, a lawyer and former D.C. Council candidate, challenged the delay in court, arguing the council unconstitutionally ran afoul of the charter amendment approved by voters in 2010 calling for the first election to take place in 2014.

Zukerberg was serving as his own lawyer until last week, when Reed Smith partner Gary Thompson entered the case as Zukerberg's attorney. Reed Smith partner Marc Kaufman joined the case yesterday. Zukerberg said that when he started asking law firms earlier this month about taking the case, Reed Smith expressed interest and "was ready to jump up on such short notice."

Tech Counsel Show Support for 'Patent Troll' Reform

Tech companies SAP AG and Vizio Inc. have a friend in Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the sponsor of a patent lawsuit reform bill to fight so-called "patent trolls."

Speaking Tuesday at the Association of Corporate Counsel's Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, SAP senior IP counsel Lisa Buccino and Vizio general counsel and legal affairs vice president Jerry Huang signaled their support for the Innovation Act [PDF], which Goodlatte introduced last week. The legislation is intended to make it more difficult for patent trolls—also known as patent assertion entities (PAEs)—to file abusive lawsuits, without weakening the overall U.S. patent system.

SAP and Vizio constantly face attacks by patent trolls, Buccino and Huang said. The patent system, the lawyers said, is skewed toward PAEs, which they said have little to lose when pursuing infringement claims.

Eleven Lawyers, Judges Vie for D.C. Court of Appeals Seat

Judges, law firm partners and local and federal government attorneys are among the 11 lawyers vying for a seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals.

The judicial hopefuls want to replace Judge Kathryn Oberly after she steps down Dec. 15. The local group that vets judicial applicants, the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission, will recommend three lawyers to the White House. The president's nominee goes before the U.S. Senate for confirmation proceedings.

The nine-member D.C. Court of Appeals is the city's equivalent of a state supreme court. It has one of the busiest appellate dockets nationwide. The city doesn't have intermediate appellate courts, meaning the appeals court takes a broad array of cases from the D.C. Superior Court and local administrative hearing judges.

The Morning Wrap

Hot Seat: Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius appears today before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House Republicans are expected to be harsh in their questioning at the hearing, which will help determine her future and perhaps whatever post-Obama administration public life she might have, Politico reports.

Jury Duty: Prospective jurors who take the subway to D.C. Superior Court and exit near the National Building Museum see these words: “Good jurors nullify bad laws” and “You have the right to ‘hang’ the jury with your vote if you cannot agree with other jurors.” Since the billboard went up, District prosecutors have been worried that the message could sway their cases, The Washington Post reports.

Artistic License: The heirs of sculptor Alexander Calder have sued his trusted art dealer, claiming he surreptitiously held on to hundreds of Calder’s works and swindled the artist’s estate out of tens of millions of dollars, The New York Times reports.

On Capitol Hill, Intelligence Officials Defend Surveillance

By Alex Zank

Intelligence officials defended NSA surveillance during a House committee hearing on Tuesday. NSA employees "have taken an oath to defend this nation and protect our privacy," NSA director Keith Alexander said. "It’s a privilege and an honor to work next to them every day.”

In a discussion similar to one conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee in September, Alexander, along with director of intelligence James Clapper and deputy attorney general James Cole and others, testified before the House permanent select subcommittee on intelligence.

Several protesters holding signs and wearing large sunglasses, representing what they considered the NSA’s intrusive surveillance methods, were escorted out of the room.

Democrats, Republicans Spar Over D.C. Circuit

Updated 5:31 p.m.

The day before the Senate could vote on the first of President Obama's three nominees to a key federal appeals court, Republicans and Democrats held dueling events on Capitol Hill about whether appeals lawyer Patricia Millett should be confirmed to the bench.

Democrats in the Senate held a press conference today to focus the debate on Millett's legal experience and character, arguing that the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld partner is well-qualified to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Republicans in the House held a hearing to highlight the workload of the current D.C. Circuit judges, restating their view that Millett and two other nominees to the bench are not needed. Republicans in the Senate say Obama wants to tilt the balance of the court, whose non-senior judges are split evenly now between judges appointed under Democratic and Republican presidents.

Reed Smith Adds Two Partners to Insurance Practice

Two Dickstein Shapiro insurance partners are leaving the firm to join Reed Smith. John Schryber and Andrew Weiner represent corporate policy holders in disputes against insurance companies.

Schryber and Weiner have represented clients in a range of disputes—from environmental coverage, asbestos and professional liability to directors and officers liability, products liability and bankruptcy.

In an interview with Legal Times, Schryber said Reed Smith offered a broader platform to better serve clients. Reed Smith reached out to Schryber about his interest in joining the firm, he said. Schryber said he’d earlier asked a Reed Smith lawyer "how things were going over there and by the time I was talking with people they had a good interest in me, so it was a bit of a coincidence."

The Perils of Keeping FCPA Infractions Under Wraps

Charles Duross, the deputy chief of the U.S. Justice Department's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Unit, delivered an ominous message Monday to in-house lawyers at the Association of Corporate Counsel's Annual Meeting in Los Angeles: Failure to report potential bribery is more perilous than ever.

Duross, who is based in Washington, D.C., said DOJ is handling a "pretty steady stream of cases," with every major U.S. attorney's office investigating alleged violations of the FCPA, which prohibits bribery of foreign officials.

"The risk of getting caught . . . is greater today than any point previously," Duross said. "I think that's kind of a no-brainer."

Booz Allen Settles Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

On the eve of trial, Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. has settled with a former partner who accused the consulting firm of gender discrimination.

The trial was scheduled to start today in District of Columbia Superior Court. On Oct. 23, Booz Allen and plaintiff Molly Finn told the judge they had reached a settlement. The terms of the agreement are confidential, according to a Booz Allen spokesman.

Booz Allen is facing two other gender discrimination lawsuits still pending in Superior Court. Both cases mirror Finn's claims that the company pushed out women before they reached top leadership positions, an allegation Booz Allen has denied.

Dutch Bank Pays $1B to Settle Rate Rigging Charges

Dutch banking giant Rabobank will pay more than $1 billion to settle charges it manipulated benchmark global interest rates from 2005 to 2011.

The biggest piece of the settlement - $425 million - will go to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for what Enforcement Division chief David Meister called "a truly shocking and brazen degree of unlawfulness" in rigging the Libor and Euribor rates.

It's the fifth case against a bank for interest rate manipulation, and the second-largest penalty to date. Swiss bank UBS AG paid U.S. and overseas regulators $1.5 billion in December 2012 to settle similar charges.