The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

The Morning Wrap

Bonjour Paris: Boston University School of Law is launching an exchange program that will send 3Ls to the City of Light for a semester to learn how to be leaders in a global economy, The National Law Journal reports.

Shooting Documents: State police in Connecticut plan today to release thousands of pages of documents about the Newtown school shooting, NPR reports.

Strange Suits: U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform lists the biggest stinker lawsuits of the year, The National Law Journal reports.

Tax Reforms Could Bring Changes to Big Law

A tax reform proposal in Congress could mean big changes for the inner workings of the largest law firms, and business experts said it would spell financial hardship for the firms and hit partners with outsized tax bills.

Draft legislation that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released in late November includes a fundamental change to the way large law firms and other professional service firms report and pay their taxes. A draft bill in the House, first circulated in March, includes a similar provision.

Firms with gross receipts of greater than $10 million could no longer use the cash method of determining taxable income, but instead would use the much more complex accrual method, according to an analysis of the Baucus draft bill released last week by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Senate Panel Will Review Surveillance Report

Members of an Obama administration review group will testify on Capitol Hill next month about their recommendations to reform the government's surveillance authority, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced.

Leahy, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said he will hold a Jan. 14 hearing on the group's 303-page report that offers changes to better protect privacy and civil liberties. It will be the committee's first full hearing in 2014.

"The recommendations from the President's Review Group make clear that it is time to recalibrate our government's surveillance programs," Leahy said in a written statement. "Momentum is building for real reform."

DOJ Lawyer Disciplined for Lapsed Bar Membership

From 1990 to 2011, a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer practiced law without an active bar membership, according to a letter issued last month by District of Columbia attorney disciplinary officials.

Laura Heiser received an informal admonition—the least severe form of disciplinary action—for failing to maintain an active law license and giving false information to the Justice Department about her status with the D.C. Bar.

Heiser was a lawyer with the Justice Department from September 1986 through January 2013, according to the department. The letter from the Office of Bar Counsel indicated she worked in the Antitrust Division. Her membership with the Ohio bar lapsed in 1989, according to the letter, and she became an inactive member of the D.C. Bar in 1990.

The Morning Wrap

Prosecutions Missing: As the five-year statute of limitations of financial crimes nears expiration, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff questions the Justice Department's dearth of high-Level executives prosecutions, in the upcoming New York Review of Books.

Documents Stalled: Federal prosecutors in U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office say they can't meet U.S. District Judge Richard Berman's timeline for producing documents about detained immigrants (which the ACLU requested five years ago), the Associated Press reports.

Protections Lost: A new case delves into the novel question of Fourth Amendment rights in copies of sent e-mails, George Washington University Law School professor Orin Kerr writes.

Georgetown Restaurant Sues Ex-Manager for Breach of Contract

Café Milano, an Italian restaurant in Georgetown, is suing its former manager for allegedly breaching his contract by secretly agreeing to work for a soon-to-open competitor months before announcing his resignation.

The restaurant, represented by ShawnCoulson in Washington, claimed Antonio Ferraro ran afoul of the non-compete clause in his contract by accepting an offer to work at Fiola Mare, a new restaurant set to open soon in Georgetown.

Contract information was unavailable for Ferraro. A lawyer for Fiola Mare, Mark Sandground of Kalbian Hagerty, declined to comment, as did Café Milano's lead attorney William Shawn.

Attorney Ethics Complaints in D.C. On the Rise in 2013

The Office of Bar Counsel is on track to receive more attorney ethics complaints in 2013 than it did in 2012, especially related to criminal cases.

According to the latest bar counsel statistics, the office received 1,090 complaints as of Nov. 13, up from 1,021 complaints received by the same time in 2012. There were a total of 1,081 complaints received by bar counsel in 2012.

Bar counsel officials said they weren't sure what accounted for the increase in complaints this year. "There's nothing in particular that we know of at this point," said Deputy Bar Counsel Elizabeth Herman.

The Morning Wrap

Mission Accomplished: Edward Snowden, the ex-National Security Agency contractor who leaked top-secret documents to news outlets earlier this year, sat for a 14-hour interview with The Washington Post. "The mission’s already accomplished," he said.

Royal Pardon: Alan Turing, a pioneer in the field of computer science who also helped break Nazi codes during World War II, received a a formal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, at the time a criminal offense in Britain. The New York Times reports.

Same-Sex Marriage: It's been a busy past few days in the courts with respect to same-sex marriage litigation. The Wall Street Journal has a roundup.

State Bar Investigates Former Office of Special Counsel Chief

The State Bar of California is investigating possible ethics violations against Scott Bloch, who led the Office of Special Counsel during the George W. Bush administration, court records in Washington show.

The pending disciplinary proceeding, which began in August, is rooted in Bloch's effort to erase files on government-issued computers in his office, according to court records filed on Dec. 19 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Bloch pleaded guilty in February to the misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property. In June, U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins sentenced him to two years' probation and to spend one day in jail.

At the time of the computer files erasure in 2007, the inspector general of the federal Office of Personnel Management was investigating Bloch over claims he retaliated against employees in his office. Wilkins in court questioned Bloch's position that he ordered computers wiped amid a concern about viruses.

Two Lawyers Appointed as Superior Court Magistrate Judges

A public defender and children's law attorney were recently appointed as magistrate judges in the District of Columbia Superior Court.

The court today announced the appointments of Renee Raymond and Sean Staples. They'll begin serving in January after finishing training.

Raymond joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia more than 20 years ago. She's currently a supervising attorney, and served as the organization's training director from 2006 to 2010. Raymond is also an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law.