Ethics

PI Law Firm, Lawyer Plead Guilty

A New Jersey lawyer and his former law firm have pleaded guilty to paying runners $70,000 to find people to submit false accident claims. The charges were the result of an undercover insurance fraud investigation spurred by complaints from Allstate and Prudential insurance companies. Irwin Seligsohn of Kinnelon, N.J., admitted…

Aug 9, 2007 12:41 PM CDT

Warrant Issued for Missing Lawyer

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of the lawyer who disappeared after admitting in a letter that he embezzled money from clients. Police belief Jonathan Hoyt stole at least $500,000 from clients before he disappeared, leaving his abandoned Lexus in a parking lot near a Bridgeport, Conn., train…

Aug 8, 2007 6:16 PM CDT

Trophy Prank Cost: Law License & More

Helping a buddy hide a stolen Florida State University national football title trophy may have seemed like an amusing prank at the time. But the incident is now providing a painful lesson for a 30-year-old attorney who graduated from law school at the University of Florida, FSU’s archrival. Jason Paul…

Aug 8, 2007 5:39 PM CDT

Did Affair With Mom Help Prosecute Son?

A prosecutor in Washington state has been accused of gaining information through an affair with the mother of an arson defendant to help prosecute her 17-year-old son. Lewis County Prosecutor Michael Golden reportedly admits he had a relationship with Kristine Wallace, but denies any wrongdoing, saying that the relationship ended…

Aug 7, 2007 9:16 PM CDT

Qualcomm ‘Litigation Abuse’ Cited

A judge has ruled that Qualcomm Inc. waived its rights to enforce two patents for video compression and engaged in “aggravated litigation abuse.” The judge said Qualcomm had deliberately concealed patents from a standard-setting body and failed to turn over thousands of discovery documents in its patent infringement suit against…

Aug 7, 2007 7:16 PM CDT

Ex-Client Loses Paul Weiss Suit

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison has succeeded in getting a suit thrown out that claimed the law firm breached a fiduciary duty to a banker it represented in WorldCom litigation. U.S. District Judge George Daniels of New York dismissed the case in an opinion dated Aug. 2 (PDF posted…

Aug 7, 2007 10:32 AM CDT

Suit: Insurer Issued False Katrina Reports

A federal whistleblower lawsuit ordered unsealed today claims that State Farm Insurance Co. pressured engineers investigating homeowner claims to falsify reports about the cause of damage from Hurricane Katrina. Instead of saying that wind damage from the August 2005 storm, which is covered by homeowner policies, destroyed insured houses on…

Aug 6, 2007 11:14 PM CDT

Fen-Phen Lawyers to Pay $60 Million

A Kentucky judge has ordered three lawyers accused of misappropriating proceeds from a diet drug settlement to repay their former clients $62 million. Judge William Wehr ruled Friday that the Lexington lawyers owed $42 million taken from the settlement and $20.1 million in interest, the Associated Press reports. The lawyers…

Aug 6, 2007 12:41 PM CDT

Freshfields Partner Fined

A partner with London-based Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will pay a 9,000 pound fine and 50,000 pounds in court costs for a client conflict. Barry O’Brien was fined yesterday for representing entrepreneur Philip Green in his offer to buy Marks & Spencer even though the law firm also represented the British…

Aug 3, 2007 10:49 AM CDT

Judge in $2 M Libel Case Seeks to Retire

A judge who won a $2 million libel verdict against the Boston Herald is now on sick leave and seeking to retire on a disability pension. Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy says he is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of the paper’s coverage criticizing his judicial…

Aug 2, 2007 8:41 PM CDT

Unlicensed Gen’l Counsels are Unusual

Does a general counsel of a corporation have to be a licensed lawyer? To many, the answer to that question would seem to be a no-brainer: Yes. But a small number of general counsels have chosen not to maintain active law licenses, and are now fielding questions in the wake…

Aug 2, 2007 6:41 PM CDT

NY Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Runner Probe

An investigation into a runner accused of visiting hospitals to find personal injury clients has resulted in another guilty plea. New York lawyer David Sheeger of Sheeger, of Kafko, Schnitzer & Sheeger pleaded guilty to filing a false “retained statement” that failed to reveal the source of a referral, the…

Aug 2, 2007 11:06 AM CDT

House Ethics Bill Passes in 411-8 Vote

Legislation hailed as the most sweeping Congressional ethics reform since the Watergate era of the 1970s passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 411-8 majority yesterday and appears poised for approval in the Senate. Drafted, ironically, behind closed doors, the ethics bill for the first time requires lawmakers to…

Aug 1, 2007 9:55 PM CDT

Observers Differ Over Gonzales’ Future

As 15 Democratic members of Congress piled onto the controversy over Albert Gonzales by calling yesterday for a investigation of whether “sufficient grounds” to impeach him exist, observers are split about the U.S. attorney general’s future. “Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it gets worse,” Douglas Kmiec,…

Aug 1, 2007 8:25 PM CDT

New Standard Lets Weil Sue Mayer

A private equity firm’s selection of New York City bankruptcy powerhouse Weil Gotshal & Manges to handle a $245 million claim against Chicago-based Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw probably wouldn’t have been possible in the not-so-distant past. That’s because Weil likely would have been conflicted out of representing Thomas H.…

Aug 1, 2007 4:53 PM CDT