Great Expectations: Law Clan in 14-Year Estate Battle

Corrected: When Walter L. Green died in 1993, the prominent Prince George’s County jurist, lawyer and businessman left an estate variously estimated as worth between $17 million and $30 million, as well as a detailed 10-page will explaining how to divide it. The basic plan, however, wasn’t particularly complex: after…

Aug 15, 2007 10:57 PM CDT

Dry Cleaners Drops Fee Claim

The dry cleaners sued for $54 million for losing an administrative judge’s pants is dropping its claim for $83,000 in attorney fees. A motion filed yesterday by Custom Cleaners says it has raised enough money from supporters to cover expenses, the Washington Post reports. However, the cleaners reserved its right…

Aug 14, 2007 2:04 PM CDT

Widow Seeks Info on Slain Lawyer-Husband

The wife of a Washington, D.C., lawyer killed last year is appealing for witnesses to come forward. Robert Wone, general counsel for Radio Free Asia, was stabbed with a butcher knife while staying at a friend’s home. His widow, Kathy Wone, said she is frustrated with the pace of the…

Aug 6, 2007 3:56 PM CDT

Final Likely Loss for ‘Pants’ Judge: His Job

An administrative law judge who became a target of international disapprobation after suing his neighborhood dry cleaners for $54 million over an allegedly botched dry-cleaning job that resulted in the loss of his suit trousers, is now poised to lose more than his pants and the case. It is becoming…

Aug 2, 2007 10:49 PM CDT

$3,100 a Week for Summer Associates

Big Washington, D.C., law firms are paying summer associates as much as $3,100 a week while offering plentiful perks. The Washington Post writes about a dinner with a “Masters of the Universe ambience” atop the Kennedy Center, attended by summer associates at Steptoe & Johnson. Competition for top law grads…

Jul 24, 2007 4:45 PM CDT

‘Part-Time’ Partner Works 9 Hours a Day

Virginia Seitz is living proof that women lawyers can do it all, balancing a high-powered career with a family life. The Washington, D.C., appellate practitioner, 50, is a partner at Sidley Austin, yet leaves the office at 2:55 p.m. to pick up her two children from school, reports the New…

Jul 16, 2007 10:52 PM CDT

Desire to Help Hurts Ex-Prosecutor

A Washington, D.C., ethics committee is considering whether to recommend sanctions for a former federal prosecutor accused of giving improper vouchers to witnesses. G. Paul Howes is accused of giving 132 witnesses more than $140,000 in vouchers in two cases, Legal Times reports. Among those who got the vouchers were…

Jul 11, 2007 1:38 PM CDT

Dry Cleaners Seeks Fees

Owners of a dry cleaners that successfully defended a $54 million lost-pants lawsuit claim the plaintiff was out to destroy their lives and should pay their legal fees. The cleaners seeks nearly $83,000 in fees in a motion filed yesterday. It alleges that plaintiff Roy Pearson submitted “outrageous demands for…

Jul 6, 2007 6:04 PM CDT

Townsend Moves to D.C., Raids Rivals

A 200-lawyer California intellectual property boutique is establishing an East Coast presence in Washington, D.C., with seven lawyers raided from other firms. Townsend and Townsend and Crew has set up shop temporarily at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in a law office headed by Gary Morris, formerly of Kenyon & Kenyon,…

Jul 2, 2007 9:49 PM CDT

Law-and-Order Libby Judge Under Fire

The product of a strict childhood under an authoritarian father, U.S. Dist. Judge Reggie Walton expects those who do the crime to do the time. And that includes Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. But his two-and-a-half-year sentence for Libby in an obstruction…

Jun 27, 2007 11:20 PM CDT

More Missing White House E-mail; Official Cites ‘Extensive’ Violations

Far more e-mail than originally thought was sent and received by White House officials on Republican National Committee accounts, and records of many of those e-mails are missing. And that suggests there may have been “extensive” violations of federal open records law by the Bush administration, says the Democratic chair…

Jun 19, 2007 3:00 AM CDT

The Washington Web of Lawyers

Washington lawyers who represent corporate targets of government investigations are connected by financial and social ties. The personal connections often determine which lawyers get referrals in high-stakes, high-paying cases, the Washington Post reports. Among the elite is Robert Bennett, who has passed along business he couldn’t handle from big clients…

Jun 18, 2007 5:50 PM CDT

Proffered Pants Serve as Evidence

A lawyer for a dry cleaners sued for millions of dollars introduced a pair of proffered pants into evidence yesterday, saying the plaintiff was abusing the legal system. Custom Dry Cleaners contends the pants, found after they were initially lost, belong to plaintiff Roy Pearson, the New York Times reports.…

Jun 14, 2007 2:27 PM CDT

Tears Flow as ALJ Presses ‘Pantsuit’

The administrative law judge who filed a $67 million lawsuit against a dry cleaners that lost his pants cried on the witness stand yesterday.

Roy L. Pearson Jr., a former legal aid lawyer, testified that he wanted to dress nicely for his new job as an ALJ and became annoyed when the cleaners lost his expensive pants, according to the New York Times.

He began to cry as he testified that the business tried to pass off a cheaper pair of pants as his.

The courtroom was packed with reporters from media outlets in at least five countries, along with a tort reform lobbying handing out green buttons protesting the “pantsuit,” the Washington Post reports.

Jun 13, 2007 1:47 PM CDT

White House Counsel Hires 10 Attorneys

Ongoing investigations of the Bush administration by the Democrat-controlled Congress are good news for attorneys seeking work in the White House. White House Counsel Fred Fielding announced today that his office has hired nine lawyers, five of them for newly created positions, reports the Washington Post. A source says a…

Jun 9, 2007 4:35 AM CDT