#kirkland family law attorney

[dimity-lawn]

In honor of Juneteenth, this post is dedicated to Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907), activist and seamstress, an extraordinary figure who worked towards abolition and should be more well known.

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hobbs was born in 1818, an illegitimate daughter of Agnes “Aggy” Hobbs, who taught her dressmaking skills, and Colonel Armistead Burwell, the man who held them as his slaves.

At the age of 14, she was separated from her mother when the Burwells sent her to work for their son, Reverend Robert Burwell, and his wife, Margaret. They and a neighbor beat her without reason, and eventually sent her to work for store owner Alexander McKenzie Kirkland, who would repeatedly assault her over the course of the next few years. As a result of one of Kirkland’s assaults, in 1839 she gave birth to a son, who she named George, after her assumed father who had been taken away in her childhood.

After the death of Armistead Burwell, she and her son were inherited by Hugh A. Garland, the husband of her white half sister, Ann, and returned to the family that owned them. In 1847, the Garlands took Agnes, Elizabeth, and George Hobbs with them when they moved to St. Louis, where Hugh Garland continued to practice law (including serving as John Sanford’s defense attorney. John Sanford was the man who held Dred Scott as a slave). During this time, she became an accomplished seamstress, and she Garlands became increasingly dependent on her as a major source of income.

In 1850, she met and developed a relationship with James Keckley, a free African American man, who she refused to marry until she and her son were free as well. Hugh Garland initially refused to free her and her son, but eventually agreed to do so for the price of $1,200. With an end to her and her son’s slavery in sight, in 1852 she agreed to marry James Keckley.

Over the next three years, her attempts at saving the required sum were repeatedly foiled by the Garlands, and eventually she needed to seek help from another wealthy family in St. Louis who were more sympathetic to her plight, and gave her a loan, thus allowing her to finally purchase freedom for herself and her son in 1855. The $1,200 dollars she spent would be worth around $43,320 today.

By 1860 she was able to repay the family who had given her a loan, and she separated from her husband due to his alcohol abuse, which she claimed turned him into “a burden instead of helpmate”. She then moved to Washington D.C., and began to establish herself as a prominent dressmaker for the elite women in the area, especially the wives of politicians.

By 1861, her reputation was such that she was recommended to soon-to-be First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary received the first dress on the morning of her husband’s inauguration. Upon seeing Mary in the dress, Abraham Lincoln (who did not find his wife attractive) said "You look charming in that dress. Mrs. Keckly has met with great success”. Elizabeth would serve as Mary’s personal dressmaker for the next four years, and the two women grew closer after they both lost a son.

Along with her work as a seamstress, Elizabeth also helped others seeking freedom in Washington D.C.. In doing so, she founded the Contraband Relief Association, which helped the many groups of people who had escaped their enslavers, and met many famous abolitionists, including Fredrick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, including later arranging a 1864 meeting between Sojourner Truth and Abraham Lincoln.

After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Elizabeth was an important source of comfort to Mary. However, in 1867, an unfortunate misunderstanding caused a rift in the friendship between the two women, and they fell out entirely in 1868, damaging Elizabeth’s and resulting in the loss of many clients. Despite this, she continued to work as a dressmaker until 1892, when she became the head of a department dedicated to the “Sewing and Domestic Science Arts” at a university in Ohio. Unfortunately, a year later she was forced to resign after suffering from a stroke, and spent the rest of her days at a foundation that helped destitute African American women and children which she had helped to found years earlier.

[leasaads]

— BASICS

Name: Lea Saad Age / D.O.B.: 11 November 1988 Gender, Pronouns & Sexuality: CIS Female, She/her, Bisexual Hometown: Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York Affiliation: Civilian, various political ties. Job position: Corporate attorney on Wall Street. Education: NYU; Fordham School of Law. Relationship status: Divorced. Children: N/A. Positive traits: Determined, persuasive, adaptable, resilient, passionate. Negative traits: Impatient, smug, bitter, lacks empathy, occasionally unethical.

— BIOGRAPHY

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lea is raised by immigrant parents fleeing civil strife in Lebanon. Though the Saad family carries deep scars, they are a tight-knit unit, comprised of Amir Saad, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Mount Sinai Heart (b. 1962–2019), Alessandra (b. 1966) and their two children, Lea and Jude (b. 1990).

A daddy's girl, Lea excels in academics and attends NYU before graduating fifth in her class at Fordham School of Law.

Works for several years in Boston, where she meets her husband, politico Dexter Ellis. They are married for four years before disagreements over whether or not to have children devour the marriage. Ends bitterly.

At the end of her marriage and with the sudden death of her father, Lea moves back to New York and begins working for the NY District Attorney's Office. Sets her sights to bigger and brighter things and eventually climbs the ropes of Kirkland & Dessoukey LLC, a major law firm headquartered on Wall Street, as a junior partner/corporate attorney.

More to come!

— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

Coming soon!

[kerlonfaces]

Digs deeper synonym

#DIGS DEEPER SYNONYM FOR FREE#

Marc Lester, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Sep.

#DIGS DEEPER SYNONYM FOR FREE#

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[wherearemyglassesbro]

If the lawyers were going to get arrested for a crime what would it be? :) just for fun of course

Prosecutor Braginsky: Assault! His only regret would be getting caught lmao

Prosecutor Braginskya: Hiding evidence from the court or tampering with evidence herself

Prosecutor Edelstein: Drunk driving. He didn’t get caught swerving or anything, he sat at a green light for 10 minutes and an officer passing by saw him and was like ‘wtf’ and when he got Roderich out of the car to assess him, he barfed on his and the officer’s shoes. Eliza was not happy when she went to bail him out lmao

Prosecutor Bonnefoy: Premeditated murder 0-0 he becomes the very thing he seeks to destroy, blinded by rage....bruh...

Defense attorney Jones: Too many unpaid parking tickets. He sobs the entire time he’s in holding and calls Matthew at the hospital, begging him to come to the police station. So he leaves work to come pay the $370 Alfred owed. ‘You’re a lawyer! Why were you just sitting there crying? Just negotiate or something??’ ‘I’m sensitive Mattie!!! I forgot every law the second those cuffs went on ;-;’

Defense attorney Kirkland: He would actively try to avoid crime cause of his family history but if someone is gonna start a bar fight with him? He’s finishing it >:)

Defense attorney Herdarvey: Accidentally stealing a car

Private defense attorney Wang: Shoplifting from a Gucci store. Technically it was an accident but no one believed him lmao he tried on a $2,000 watch and just. Left the store. He forgot it was even on his hand. 15 minutes later a bunch of mall security guards grab him and call the cops. Does he cry? Yes. Does it help? No

[anjanettexcordonia]

Meet the MC- Cami

Meet the MC for the upcoming series The Spare. The Royal Romance A/U 

Name: Camilla Aspen Wellington Nickname(s): Cami; Cam; Wells  Age: 22 Birthday: July 7, 1998  Parents: Christian & Amelia Wellington  Siblings: Twin sister: Ansley Carson Wellington (2 minutes older); (brother) Thomas Christian Wellington Ethnicity: English/American Father is from London England, Mother is from New York Hometown: Manhattan, New York  Education: Currently in graduate school at Columbia University Law School masters in Corporate Law with Minor in International Securities  Occupation: ???  Love Interests: Prince William Constantine Rhys of Cordonia (aka: Liam) Personality Traits: Quirky; Keeps herself closed off emotionally; She’s hyper focused on her career; adventurous; She hates social media; For being adventurous she is not a risk taker; she will zipline across the Grand Canyon before she says yes to a date; her family is the most important thing to her; she’s a daddy's girl; her twin sister is her best friend but they are complete opposites; she’s classy and professional but she’s also a goofball that loves to binge Netflix in her sweats; Tequila shots on the beach is her weakness Background: Cam’s dad was one of the top criminal defense attorneys in the country before he retired. He is her inspiration for attending law school. Her mother is a Women’s Studies professor at Columbia University. Camilla’s twin sister is a Art History Major at NYU and Her older brother is a free-lance journalist for National Geographic. She had a normal childhood in Manhattan NY. She has always been goal-oriented and driven to succeed like her parents. She does not allow distractions in her life. She has never been in a serious relationship. Her twin sister is engaged. And her older brother is also married. Cam is about to graduate from Columbia and she’s received multiple offers from law firms around the country but she hasn’t chosen one yet. Her father is pushing her towards Kirkland & Ellis in New York. Her and sister take a vacation to the Maldives after her finals to take a break and let Cam make the most important decision of her life….this far…

[toilethot6-blog]

Top Ten Reasons Why Regulation Businesses Must evaluate Discerning Legal Freelancing

In the last fraction of 2008 America deals with economic problems never imagined even a few a few months ago. How will businesses manage and survive the constraints on credit, demand and even growth? How does the particular economical downturn impact attorneys together with law firms which service the business community? It is an evident truth that businesses can only look at modifying two earnings streams, income and expenses, in order to maximize profitability. In the event earnings can be down in addition to definitely not anticipated to increase substantially around the near term, clients of law firms can take typically the hatchet to expenses so as to survive. Legal fees will be underneath extreme scrutiny. Legal outsourced workers, while still a nascent industry, is gaining impetus, being considered in even more corporate boardrooms. As the pressures to be able to outsource build up, attorneys wonder whether these people should embrace outsourcing legal work offshore or even withstand that. In the deal with of international economic troubles coupled with the improving reduction of American job opportunities the reason why would a Circumstance. T. law firm desire to actually consider legitimate outsourcing? Is there valid motives why targeted legal outsourcing techniques should be considered by every U. S. regulation organization? Several weeks before I gotten an e-mail from a lawyer who else was considering outsourcing a few of the legal work of their law firm. Facing weight in addition to challenges from numerous in the law firm which wanted to keep up with the condition quo, he asked for my own advice as to what exactly this individual should tell his / her partners. Why should typically the firm delegate lawful do the job offshore, a good practice found by quite a few as adventuresome and dangerous, instead associated with staying the training, doing it "the way we have now always done it. inches I solved him with all the top ten reasons why any law firm should take into account selective legal outsourcing: one. PRUDENT, FOCUSED OUTSOURCING MAY RESULT IN REDUCED REGULATION FIRM OVERHEAD Outsourcing some legal work to skilled providers in India can lead to significantly lower overhead to the outsourcing law firm. Around assessing the comparative prices the law determined will certainly be wise to meticulously compute the real costs of employing a single law firm or paralegal. Those people costs consist of salary and even bonus, health and fitness insurance, family vacation together with holiday pay, hurt time expense, FICA, office space and even equipment for the lawyer, paralegal and secretarial employees assigned to that legal representative, pension plan and profit posting, automobile and parking price, CLE seminar costs, together with other occupation benefits these as disability plus life insurance. The real gross annual cost of one lawyer getting a base yearly salary involving $150, 000-$175, 000 is likely in often the range of $250, 1000 to $300, 000 annually. NONE of these routine expenditures accrue to the rules solid utilizing added offshore authorized providers. two. OUTSOURCING TECHNIQUES ARE GOING TO ENHANCE RULES FIRM EFFICIENCIES Frugal outsourcing will improve the productivity of your law business. Because Indian native lawyers job when United states lawyers sleep, this will probably be like the law firm has a full time, fully staffed night time shift. Some do the job may be assigned simply by a new partner in 6 s. m. after sunset and the completed task on his workdesk when he arrives with the office the so next morning. Lawsuit cases can move more speedily by way of the court system using less need for plug-ins of your energy. 3. OUTSOURCING WILL RESULT IN ENHANCED LEGAL PROFESSIONAL MORALE As some sort of little one not many of this sermons I heard via my pastor stuck along with me. But a single, whenever I was fourteen years old still rings a bells. They said: "Ninety per cent of any worthwhile attempt is pack work, promoting, day in and outing. Only ten percent associated with our job tasks are usually necessarily thrilling exciting. " I have generally kept in mind that statement. In more in comparison with two years to be a trial lawyer I loved strategizing and trying cases to juries. But I did certainly not necessarily enjoy all of of the test and even deposition preparation, exploration plus briefing, document review, plus different mundane requirements associated with the practice of legislation. A law firm which will features outsourcing into it is practice may inevitably instill more satisfied lawyers who also commit their own time and even energies to the tougher, fun and rewarding portions of typically the practice regarding law. The particular "chore" legal work is outsourced using the "core" operate staying onshore. This will allow a lot more time for customer relationship and development by simply typically the firm's lawyers. 4. OUTSOURCED WORKERS WILL RESULT IN ALL ROUND SAVINGS THROUGHOUT LEGITIMATE SERVICE FEES TO CONSUMERS Customers involving law firms, particularly company clients, are seeking a long way and wide for methods to cut their authorized expenses. Quite a few inquire exactly why they should give, regarding example, $200 to three hundred hourly for document review. Gone are the times when legal bills are simply just paid without scrutiny. Moreover, the annual increases throughout hourly rates will definitely not be nicely received by clients looking to cut prices. Wise law firms put the interests of their buyers earlier mentioned their own. Precisely what is good for the consumer will ultimately be fine for that laws firm themselves. four. THE RULES ASSOCIATED WITH PROFESSIONAL DO REQUIRE PAYING FOR FREELANCERS CONSIDERATION The principles of Expert Conduct connected with require that will: the. "A lawyer ought to seek to accomplish the particular legitimate objectives of any client through reasonable permissible means. " (Rule one 2) b. "A legal professional should explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to help permit the client to make informed options about the particular representation. " (Rule you. 4 b) d. "A lawyer shall help to make fair efforts to expedite a lawsuit consistent with the interests of the client. " (Rule several. 2) A legal representative is required to explore and discuss with the buyer all reasonable suggests of attaining the patient's objectives. A legal professional is certainly not permitted to charge an unreasonable or maybe excessive payment. It would seem which a lawyer is debatably necessary to discuss discerning outsourcing as an easy way of reducing the company's ultimate fee obligation in addition to furthering the interests with the client. 6. OUTSOURCED WORKERS "CHORE" LEGAL WORK HELPS BRING ABOUT CLIENT RETENTION AND GROWTH Clientele have long stunted ever-increasing legal fees for fundamental, "chore" legal work. Nevertheless, many people felt as in the event they had not any alternative. They needed typically the legitimate representation and needed great quality work. As there was not a new significant penetration of fee variance from practice to law firm, consumers assisted to "stay place. inches This trend is usually beginning to change as consumers know that they currently have options. Lawyers who use outsourcing for selectively are reporting a more contented, faithful client base. Clients who else perceive the fact that their legal professionals are hunting out for the entirety of the his or her interests, which include fee fees, tend to stay committed to his or her existing law firms together with even refer other customers (whose lawyers refuse to outsource). 7. COMPETITION IS DEFINITELY OUTSOURCING If your laws firm is not outsourcing, be certain that your competition is. On September 21, 07 Bloomberg. contendo reported that even long-established AMLAW 100 law firms such as Smith Day and Kirkland & Ellis are outsourcing below pressure from clients. 9. Georgia tax Attorney U. S. LAWYERS MAY WELL CHARGE A REALISTIC ORGANIZATION FEE It is usually affordable together with acceptable with regard to U. H. law firms outsourcing legal job what exactly is to charge an affordable organization fee in conjunction with outsourced legal work. That can be axiomatic that a good legal professional who outsources authorized job, whether to the partner, contract lawyer or even overseas provider, ultimately continues to be in charge to his consumer for your quality and timeliness regarding delivery of the legal merchandise. If some sort of lawyer assigns your research together with writing of a brief to a new junior associate, the assigning lawyer will not likely usually submit the closing operate product to often the court devoid of review and even supervision. Making it with what exactly is legal outsourced workers. Published life values opinions of the San Diego, New York plus United states Bar Groups signify that will a law firm who outsources offshore might charge a reasonable managing fee. 9. CLIENTELE ARE INSISTING ON PICKY FREELANCING TO ACHIEVE CHARGE SAVINGS Clientele talk for you to one another. Executives of major companies golf and have lunch with one a further. Corporate General Counsel attend meetings and CLE tutorials, sharing information and approaches to increase efficiencies together with reduce costs. They know concerning offshore paying for freelancers and the dramatic cost savings that could be obtained. It is unpleasant, thus, to ignore lawful outsourcing and, as 1 managing lawyer partner instructed me, include "no appetite" for it. ten. FREELANCING WILL HAPPEN. Doing absolutely nothing is not an option. A few are outsourcing techniques. Many even more are considering it, if prompted by eager business sense or economical realities. Outsourcing is like a sizable, ominous wave a couple of a long way offshore. It is preferable to search this wave than hang on to be able to be swallowed up, overwhelmed by means of its power and left wondering what happened. United kingdom economist Herbert Spencer is acknowledged with originating this term "survival of typically the fittest" in the core 19th century. Although in addition having software to biology, Spencer applied the idea of success of this fittest to cost-free marketplace economics. In a absolutely free market, companies and corporations will do what is necessary to make it through. In the event that that means outsourcing many U. S. legal jobs for the greater great involving success of typically the entity themselves, then and so be that. The unit of actually increasing wages and expenses to get law firms followed by in fact higher legal fees incurred clients cannot sustain themselves any longer. Legal outsourcing techniques is here to stay. The wise is going to take see, make it and flourish

[jhlawfirmseo]

Despite M&A Slowdown, Big Firms Like Latham Continue Growing Corporate Bench

Despite M&A Slowdown, Big Firms Like Latham Continue Growing Corporate Bench

Latham, like Kirkland and a few other Big Law juggernauts, is in the enviable position of almost always being a top recruiter of talent, no matter the economic conditions.        See Original Article

Attorneys Say Products Liability Is Emerging as a Key Tool in Fight to Hold Social Media Companies Accountable

A trending approach is gaining momentum as more and more plaintiffs allege that social media companies seek to addict their users.        See Original Article

Matter of Reich

Acknowledgement of Debt Did Not Restart Statute of Limitations in Time-Barred Case       See Original Article

Matter of Webster v. Larbour

Court Rejects Claim Wife Used Family Court Proceeding to Circumvent Eviction Moratorium       See Original Article

Despite M&A Slowdown, Big Firms Like Latham Continue Growing Corporate Bench Attorney Power

[fenrislorsrai]

A child’s 18th birthday is a dreaded milestone marked by the arrival of federal immigration agents at shelter doors, sometimes just after midnight. Current and former staff said they have overheard older children talk about running away as their birthday approached. Some have been successful.

In some cases, Heartland assigns a staff member to monitor the child.

Heartland officials said they “have not had a significant number of children turn 18 while they are in our care.” But records show that, in July alone, at least six detained youths were picked up by ICE agents the day they turned 18.

A federal detainee locator showed that three of those teens remained in adult detention more than a month after they were transferred, including one in a county jail in Illinois that contracts with the federal government to provide immigrant detention. It’s unclear if the other three 18-year-olds were deported or released.

Nationally, between 1,000 and 1,200 children who turned 18 while in custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement were taken to ICE adult detention facilities in fiscal year 2017, according to a lawsuit filed in March by NIJC and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. The suit seeks to halt the practice of automatically transferring 18-year-olds into adult facilities without considering “the least restrictive setting” — including non-detention placements — as required by law.

In some cases, teens who had secured placements were still transferred to ICE on their 18th birthday, according to documents filed in the lawsuit.

“The concerns and vulnerabilities of immigrant kids don’t magically disappear on their 18th birthday,” Kate Melloy Goettel, an attorney with NIJC, said.

What changes in adult detention is not all for the worse. On one hand, 18-year-olds can receive visitors, something that rarely happens at youth shelters because of the confidentiality around their locations.

But they lose access to free calls to families, daily classes and caseworkers. They trade in their plain shelter clothes for jail jumpsuits and, depending on where they are sent, their bunkmates for men and women charged with serious crimes. And instead of worrying about whether a sponsor will take them, the 18-year-olds wait to see if they will be eligible for release or whether their families can afford to bond them out.

[phroyd]

For years, Wall Street On Parade has been documenting and reporting on how the Federal courts and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York function as a protection racket for Wall Street. For decades, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY has been populating itself through a gold-plated revolving door to Wall Street’s biggest and coziest law firms. This ensures that Wall Street’s darkest secrets never see too much sunshine in the court of public opinion and that Wall Street’s titans never see the inside of a jail cell. (See related articles below for an in-depth understanding of the problem.)

According to CNN reporting, the Michael Cohen law office that was raided was located at the global corporate law firm of Squire Patton Boggs. The 1500-lawyer firm had announced a “strategic alliance” with Cohen in April of last year, a few months after Trump’s inauguration.  When queried about the raid by news media yesterday, Squire Patton Boggs said that its relationship with Cohen is over, without commenting on why Cohen still has an office there.

According to Legal Week, Squire Patton Boggs is advising Cambridge Analytica on the U.K.’s investigation into its harvesting of data from Facebook and its potential role in manipulating voters in the Brexit vote that took the U.K. out of the European Union. Cambridge Analytica is also under investigation in the U.S. by the Federal Trade Commission for harvesting data from Facebook without users’ permission and potentially using that data to assist the Trump campaign. Trump’s major donor, Robert Mercer, funded Cambridge Analytica. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, will testify today and tomorrow before the U.S. Senate and House, respectively, on how Cambridge Analytica and others harvested its users’ personal data without the users’ permission.

The man currently in charge of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has not been vetted or confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He’s serving as an interim U.S. Attorney. His name is Geoffrey Berman and he is a Trump supporter. Federal Election Commission records show that he donated $5400 to Trump’s campaign on July 28, 2016. At the time of his appointment, Berman was also a fellow shareholder and law partner of Rudy Giuliani at the giant law firm, Greenberg Traurig. Berman had worked there for more than a decade. Giuliani is a longstanding Trump ally and loyalist and a former head himself of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY.

Two days after Berman was named interim U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, Berman named Robert Khuzami to be his Deputy U.S. Attorney for that jurisdiction. Khuzami was General Counsel to Deutsche Bank-Americas from January 2002 to February 2009. Deutsche Bank has been the major lender to Trump’s businesses for decades, even as other major Wall Street banks refused further lending to him. In January of last year,Deutsche Bank was charged with laundering billions of dollars out of Russia and paid approximately $630 million in fines. Mueller is probing the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government and Russian money.

In December the German language newspaper, Handelsblatt, reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has subpoenaed bank records from Deutsche Bank relating to President Trump and his family members. Handelsblatt writes that “The former real-estate baron has done billions of dollars’ worth of business with Deutsche Bank over the past two decades, and First Lady Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner are also clients.”

Khuzami had also previously been the head of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission following the financial crash of 2008. During his tenure at the SEC, all of the major Wall Street bank CEOs got off without prosecution. During that period Khuzami became the target of a whistleblower complaint from a person working inside the SEC. Those claims were investigated by the SEC’s Inspector General. As we previously reported:

“According to the SEC’s Office of Inspector General which investigated the whistleblower’s claims against Khuzami, this is what transpired: On June 28, 2010, Khuzami spoke on the phone with Mark Pomerantz, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the law firm representing Citigroup. Pomerantz and Khuzami knew each other from their work at the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. SEC attorneys working under Khuzami had already decided to bring fraud claims against Citigroup’s CFO, Gary Crittenden, for misstating the amount of Citigroup’s exposure to subprime debt by almost $40 billion.

“On the call, Pomerantz told Khuzami that Citigroup would experience collateral damage if a key executive were charged with fraud. Shortly after this call, another Citigroup lawyer, Lawrence Pedowitz of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz (the law firm that helped former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill maneuver the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act) told SEC Associate Enforcement Director, Scott Friestad, that Khuzami had agreed to drop the fraud charges against Crittenden. The Inspector General’s report says that Khuzami denies ever making this promise.

“But the fraud charges were dropped and the deeply redacted Inspector General’s report does not inform the public as to how they came to be dropped. The report essentially whitewashes the claims against Khuzami, ensuring that fewer and fewer whistleblowers within or outside the SEC will go to the trouble of reporting wrongdoing.

“The SEC’s Inspector General’s report is dated September 27, 2011 but it was not released to the public until November 17, 2011 – at which time it was obvious that someone had demanded confidential treatment for large swaths of the report, at times making the language unintelligible….”

Last month American Lawyer reported that Khuzami had indicated on his financial disclosure form that he had earned “$11.1 million in partnership income” at the corporate law firm, Kirkland & Ellis “in about a year’s span” prior to becoming second-in-command at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY. According to Kirkland’s client list it represents some of the largest Wall Street banks, hedge funds and private equity firms such as Bank of America, UBS, Citadel, The Carlyle Group and KKR.

Phroyd

[marymosley]

SIX DEGREES FROM JEFFREY EPSTEIN: WASHINGTON GRAPPLES WITH A WEB OF EMBARRASSING ASSOCIATIONS

Below is my column on the charging of Jeffrey Epstein and the complex connections raised by his prosecution. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta gave a press conference where he attempted to show that 2007 was a different century where victims rights did not exist and transparency was just a word used in window glazing. It was a ridiculous performance as Acosta sought to justify a sweetheart deal that has been universally condemned. Acosta attempted to shift the blame to state prosecutors who came out after the press conference to angrily contest his account. Previously, in 2011, Acosta insisted he yielded in the case because of  “a year-long assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors” by “an army of legal superstars” like Dershowitz and Starr.  He also wrote “The defense strategy was not limited to legal issues. Defense counsel investigated individual prosecutors and their families, looking for personal peccadilloes that may provide a basis for disqualification.”  That is bizarre. Most prosecutors would have the backbone to double their efforts in the face of such pressure. Instead, Acosta’s defense came off as a whining or whimpering excuse for letting these big bad lawyers scare him off.

Here is the column:

Hollywood has long played the game of “six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon,” exploring the connections between the actor and other celebrities and individuals. The rage in Washington this week is exploring all the degrees of separation from disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, following his federal indictment in New York on sex trafficking charges.

The degrees involving Epstein are closer, and the names include more highly placed figures, by design. Epstein has collected art, cars, planes, mansions, and, of course, underaged girls. However, the thing that the billionaire spent most of his time and money collecting was powerful men, many of whom flew on his infamous plane, known as the “Lolita Express” for its crew of underaged girls. He referred to them as his “collection” and told friends, “I invest in people, be it politics or science. It is what I do.”

They were, in effect, his insurance policy. No one would want to see him prosecuted when plane logs or island guest books listed top names in the political and business worlds. None of the people Epstein collected and cultivated for years will acknowledge any real connection. These degrees of closeness could well prove as important legally as politically. So while Epstein warrants little sympathy, his prosecution may raise more troubling issues of double jeopardy, made worse by a new Supreme Court decision.

For the record, I have long criticized the secret deal that Epstein secured in 2007 with former United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and current United States labor secretary, Alexander Acosta. The deal was a disgrace. It not only allowed Epstein to avoid a lengthy prison stint but, as recently found by a federal court, it violated federal law by hiding the details from more than 30 identified victims of Epstein.

However, one does not have to like Epstein to acknowledge the curious posture of the prosecution. In the Southern District of Florida, the Justice Department still defends the deal Acosta put together as valid despite the illegality of his actions. In the Southern District of New York, the Justice Department claims it is not bound by the agreement. Epstein, of course, insists his nonprosecution agreement and criminal plea covered much of the same period as the latest two count New York indictment this week.

Under the extraordinary agreement, Epstein pled guilty to state charges, accepted 13 months in jail, and registered as a sex offender. He not only avoided a life sentence but secured an agreement to spend 12 hours a day, six days a week, out of jail on “work release.” He simply had to sleep in jail. Moreover, the Southern District of Florida also agreed that he would not be prosecuted federally. Now, the Justice Department is insisting that was a deal with just one district and does not count in another district.

The fact that Acosta cut such a ridiculous deal with a serial sex abuser does not mean the deal is invalid. Cutting such nonprosecution deals are also usually meant to bind the Justice Department as a whole. Yet, this agreement said “in this district,” three words likely to come back to haunt Epstein. The Justice Department is basically saying his legal team failed to close a major loophole, since the agreement “expressly referred to that federal district” and did not “purport to bind any other office or district.” There is also Second Circuit case law enforcing such limiting language.

The fact that there are only two counts in the new federal indictment this week may indicate that New York prosecutors are looking for crimes not covered by the earlier agreement, including new charges connected to photos of allegedly underaged girls that were reportedly found in the safe of Epstein. To that end, they displayed a huge photo of Epstein at their press conference and encouraged any unknown victims to contact them.

Epstein has raised another possible claim under the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment, that he is being prosecuted twice for the same underlying conduct in both cases. The timing for that argument could not be worse for him. The Supreme Court ruled in Terance Gamble versus United States last month that “dual sovereignties” like Florida and the federal government can prosecute individuals for the same underlying acts without violating protections of the Constitution.

Some of us have been highly critical of that practice as effectively gutting the protection. Indeed, the danger of that happening applies not only to despised individuals like Epstein. As Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in his dissent, “When governments may unleash all their might in multiple prosecutions against an individual, exhausting themselves only when those who hold the reins of power are content with the result, it is the poor and the weak, and the unpopular and controversial who suffer first, and there is nothing to stop them from being the last.” This is a key point.

Faced with rising disgust over its prior agreement with Epstein, the Justice Department has decided to ignore the obvious purpose of the original nonprosecution agreement and take another shot at him. Weirdly, Acosta, the man who approved the sweetheart deal in the first place, applauded the indictment as creating the possibility to “more fully bring” Epstein to justice. That was his very job as United States attorney in the first place.

Attorney General William Barr is also placing great significance on the separate offices in the two districts. Barr has recused himself from an ongoing review of the plea agreement under the Southern District of Florida because his old law firm, Kirkland and Ellis, represented Epstein, although Barr himself had no role in the case. However, Barr will not recuse himself from the New York case, which is proceeding outside of the plea agreement. It could prove a precious distinction in the case, since the earlier agreement will be raised in New York proceedings.

It is a fitting level of chaos surrounding a man who actively sought to intermingle people in different aspects of his life. Indeed, the strange degrees of separation include the family of the attorney general. Epstein was a college dropout but was still hired in 1973 to teach calculus and physics at the prestigious Dalton School in Manhattan. The man who hired him for the job was headmaster Donald Barr, the father of William Barr.

The six degrees of Kevin Bacon is premised on the idea that everyone is connected by six people or less. As the list of interested parties grows, that seems true in the case of Epstein. But there is a great danger in creating a law of a different kind. The law should not depend on how powerful or unpopular a defendant may be. Epstein twisted the law in his favor with the help of Acosta. The law became more twisted when the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. argued in court eight years ago that Epstein should not be registered as a top level sex offender despite his dozens of victims, a leniency angrily rejected by the judge.

With the New York case, there is an effort to twist the law to get a second chance at prosecuting Epstein, despite his nonprosecution agreement and earlier plea agreement. It is quite likely to succeed, given the recent Supreme Court ruling. But prosecution by popular demand comes with its own dangers. Epstein made our criminal laws a matter for his personal convenience. We should care to not make it a matter of legal contrivance.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley

SIX DEGREES FROM JEFFREY EPSTEIN: WASHINGTON GRAPPLES WITH A WEB OF EMBARRASSING ASSOCIATIONS published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[wherearemyglassesbro]

Back to...the lawyer au...

Prosecutor Braginski: Ivan’s mother was a famous prosecutor. His older sister was expected to follow in their mother’s footsteps but she would not and instead, went to live on a farm with her husband. Ivan stepped up to the plate and went through an insane amount of training with his mother as his teacher outside of school. She taught him to be cold ‘Do not let those criminals back out onto the street. Do you hear me? Your grandmother would roll over in her grave if she saw you letting them free!’. When Ivan lost his first case his mother lectured him endlessly for hours...Ivan does have common sense though. There are times where he sees an innocent up there...And he loosens up. He practically lets them go. That’s something his mother and sister wouldn’t do. They care too much about the family name.

Prosecutor Braginski: Natalya adores her big brother and will do anything to gain his and their mother’s approval. Coming from a line of prosecutors puts a lot of pressure on her. Her family name is well known and the thought of losing a case keeps her up at night. She has nightmares where her family disowns her for losing a case! Of course that would never happen but in stress dreams, anything is possible. She’s ruthless in court and her objections are plentiful. She’s purposefully vague but she doesn’t hide information, she thinks that’s wrong. Also...That makes her look bad. She wins cases through intelligence and persistence! Not through fiddling with evidence.

Prosecutor Bonnefoy: Francis Bonnefoy went throughout most of his schooling wanting to be an artist or musician but that all changed when his girlfriend of 5 years, Jeanne, was brutally murdered behind a supermarket. Francis had been in the car waiting for her and she never came out of the store, he and a few employees came across her body behind a dumpster while looking for her. A man was found fleeing the scene with the murder weapon but he was never convicted and he was set free. Ever since, Francis has been out for justice, becoming attatched to cases and doing anything he can to find a guilty verdict because the thought of letting a murderer go free makes him sick. Because of his stubborn nature he’s incredibly hard to work with (depending on the case). He has many friends outside of work and works very well with detectives and other prosecutors...he mocks defense attorneys often. Mostly Kirkland just to get a rise out of him.

Defense attorney Kirkland: Arthur worked hard to keep his record clean despite growing up with a criminal father and 5 brothers who often got up to no good. He has his fair share of schoolyard fights but none of them made it onto his resume...Whew...He paid for his college education all on his own and at first, his plan was to become a police officer. He knew his town needed more crime prevention so he wanted to give back! But after taking criminal psychology classes and other law related classes, he realized he would rather stand up for the accused in court. He worked hard to get to where he is now! He’s won 7 cases...and lost 2...But he’s extremely proud of himself either way. He keeps in touch with past clients and is known to go to lunch to catch up with them every once in awhile. He mocks prosecutors often, mostly Bonnefoy just to get a rise out of him. He and Bonnefoy face off in court occasionally but they don’t usually face the same cases. Francis is usually working murder cases and Arthur is mostly hired for smaller crimes like B&Es, robberies and such. When he IS hired for a murder case, he always holds his breath before reading the case file to see who’s the prosecutor...Damn...Bonnefoy again...

Defense attorney Jones: Alfred is a work in progress. He’s recently gradusted uni and he’s shadowing Arthur in court to see how everything goes. Al became a lawyer for almost the same reasons as Art! And Art’s an old family friend so of course he’d shadow him! He offers input and jokes that should definetly not be in a courtroom during testimonies which Arthur does not enjoy. Al can’t wait to be a lawyer and have cases of his own! What he won’t say is that he’s also a bit nervous to be on his own. It’s a bit stressful...Hes still overcoming his argumentative nature because obviously, the court won’t allow him to cuss out a witness!! He knows everything he needs to know! But he just needs a bit more experience in the field before taking it on on his own! Al likes having Art as his partner! Even though Art can be a stick in the mud sometimes!

Judge Beilschmidt: Ludwig went to a private school at a young age, he’s always been advanced and ahead of his peers. He took high level classes and was accepted into an esteemed university. He became a judge because it sounded like a promising career! His grandfather praised him for his academic success and reccomended taking on a career like that! So he thought ‘why not!’. The job has been relatively easy for him, he’s a man that trusts the facts and knows a guilty face when he sees one. However, the hardest thing he ever did was sentancing his beloved brother Gilbert to 10 years in prison for money laundering. He knew Gil was guilty then second he saw him standing at the podium. He visits him in prison but Gilbert frequently refuses to talk to him.

Detective Oxenstierna: Berwald comes from a family of firefighters and cops. Naturally he took after his dad. His plan is to work his way up to be a police chief some day...The first gay police chief in the area. Thinking about that is one of the only things that makes him smile other than imaging his family. Ber is very attentive when it comes to small details. Cigarette ashes left at a scene, a smudge of gun powder on the wall, a hair on the floor...He sees everything. He’s not the best at interacting with victims/witnesses. He’s often told that he isn’t a very sympathetic guy. He is! Just...on the inside though. He tends to stay away from people and just conduct his work on his own...but Carriedo often bothers him with jokes in the middle of the crime scene. When he feels social, he shows off baby pictures of his son cause hey! He’s a proud dad!...okay back to work no more fooling around- quiet, Carriedo!

Detective Carriedo: Toni is very excited about his job, he’s always been nosy and loud. He’s great at digging into people’s pasts but when it comes to crime scenes, he isn’t exactly the best when it comes to small details. Berwald is his assigned partner! So Ber usually handles the small things and Toni usually interviews witnesses and stuff like that. He’s definitely a people person! Sometimes he gets people to open up...even if they didn’t want to. He’s persuasive but not intentionally. He became a detective because he dreamed of doing so since he was a young boy. His father is very proud of his career choice and brags about him to his buddies constantly “Mi hijo is just the best! He’s out there finding criminals! Ah! That’s my boy!” Toni has a picture of his dad on his desk too cause on his worst days, it’s nice to look up and see the one person you know is proud of you.

More soon.... :)

[juudgeblog]

Morning Docket: 07.11.18

* “We never once saw him take a shortcut, treat a case as unimportant, or search for an easy answer.” According to 34 of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s former clerks, the man is apparently not just a judge, but also a saint, and they wanted the Senate Judiciary Committee to know all of the details. [National Law Journal]

* Nice guys get confirmed fast? More on Judge Kavanaugh’s sainthood. The man coaches not one, but two girls’ basketball teams, he’s a superb “carpool dad,” and he takes a family friend’s daughter whose father died to the school’s annual father-daughter dance each and every year. He’s just so nice! [Washington Post]

* Damn, it’s not just Arizona Summit’s graduates who can’t practice law in Arizona. Three lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis — including Paul Clement, Viet Dinh, and Christopher Bartolomucci — were booted from the school’s case against the ABA for failing to comply with out-of-state attorney admission procedures. [Law360]

* Acording to the Boston Larger Law Firm Managing Partner Group, “much work needs to be done” when it comes to attorneys who have experienced inappropriate sexual behavior at work. Per a recent study, 60 percent of respondents had either received messages of a personal or sexual nature, been touched inappropriately, or witnessed a coworker being touched inappropriately. [Boston Business Journal]

* Lawyerly Lairs: Convicted Murderer Edition. The 80-acre ranch of Claud “Tex” McIver, the former Fisher Phillips partner who shot his wife in the back, is now on the auction block, and there’s a dispute over who will receive the proceeds. [Daily Report] Morning Docket: 07.11.18 syndicated from https://namechangersmumbai.wordpress.com/

[steven-heisler-law-firm]

Can You Sue For Getting the Coronavirus?

    Can you sue for getting the coronavirus? Yes, in some circumstances, but to win your case your attorney would have to show that there was some type of negligence, reason for a medical malpractice lawsuit , or a  wrongful death case linked to the coronavirus. In addition, it may be possible to file a coronavirus-related lawsuit in situations such as:

Coronavirus malpractice lawsuits against nursing facilities that failed to provide adequate protections for residents or staff against contracting the virus or took other negligent actions that contributed to someone getting the coronavirus.

Lawsuits against insurance companies that refuse to pay their obligations due to what they consider to be an “act of God.”

Lawsuits against companies that have not taken the situation seriously to protect their employees, customers or members of the public. These companies may fail to take precautions such as:

limiting business travel

protecting workers and clients from situations in which transmission is likely

encouraging employees to work from home

not making them participate in large industry conferences and gatherings.

Lawsuits against a government entity that failed to protect a captive population.

Do You Have a Coronavirus Malpractice Lawsuit?

The coronavirus epidemic is so recent and the situation is changing so rapidly, that legal obligations to protect patients, workers, clients, and the public is not yet clear. However, if you or a family member has become seriously ill or someone has died from coronavirus due to someone else’s negligence or fault, you should seek legal advice to see if you have a coronavirus malpractice lawsuit.

Attorney Steven Heisler specializes in representing victims in personal injury, medical malpractice, and wrongful death cases. Our team offers a free consultation to examine the facts of your coronavirus situation and evaluate whether you have grounds for a coronavirus malpractice lawsuit. Contact us today for more information at (410) 625-4878.

Can You Sue for Negligence in a Coronavirus Case?

To sue for negligence in coronavirus case, you and your attorney need to prove that another individual, corporation, or party was at fault for contributing to your illness. In some situations, there may be multiple defendants, such as doctors who failed to diagnose your illness or didn’t treat it properly, and the cruise line or nursing home that didn’t provide proper sanitation and disease-prevention techniques.

According to Fortune, victims are already bringing or looking to bring lawsuits for coronavirus- related problems. Fortune reports that a dozen passengers from the ship, the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined off Japan are exploring litigation against Princess Cruise’s parent company Carnival Corp. The issue is whether the company took reasonable and proper care to prevent the virus from spreading, especially when they had previously had experience with outbreaks of norovirus cases on their ships.

On the Grand Princess, claims have been made that ship personnel only asked boarding passengers to fill out a form about whether they felt sick, failed to inform them that at least two passengers on an earlier voyage on the ship later tested positive for coronavirus, and only gave a small number of the 3,500 people on board tests for coronavirus.

Suing for Negligence in a Coronavirus Case

In order to prove another party was liable for your contracting the coronavirus, your attorney must show that the party was negligent and failed to obey the legal obligation to act in a way that would reasonably be expected of a responsible party in similar circumstances. This means the other party:

Had a duty of care not to harm you,

Violated that duty through their actions,

This violation was directly related to harm you received, and

You suffered actual damages as a result.

If the harm from the coronavirus was death, you may be able to sue in a wrongful death case. These are cases when the person’s death was caused by another party’s negligence or unlawful action. Wrongful death claims related to the coronavirus can be filed on behalf of close family members who miss the company and support the deceased person would have given them.

Can You Sue the Life Care Center?

Many of the coronavirus deaths in the United States have so far occurred at the Life Care Center, a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington. While, according to the New York Times, it is still unknown how the outbreak started, coronavirus spread quickly throughout the facility. Family members have had visits restricted and have had difficulty getting basic information from Life Care’s leaders and public health officials. Families claim that many residents went days without being tested for coronavirus, even as they and started coughing and feeling sick.

If you or a family member contracted coronavirus while in the Life Care Center or other nursing facility, you may be able to sue if your attorney can show there was negligence, medical malpractice, or wrongful death involved. Contact Steve Heisler to find out more about your rights at (410) 625-4878.

Find Out if You Have a Coronavirus Malpractice Lawsuit

The Law Offices of Steven H. Heisler can help if you or a family member has gotten sick or someone has died from coronavirus due to someone else’s negligence. Contact us today at (410 625-4878 for a free consultation to discuss the facts of your situation and your options. There is never a fee unless and until we win your case.

The post Can You Sue For Getting the Coronavirus? appeared first on The Maryland Injury Lawyer.

[biofunmy]

Jeffrey Epstein: Seizure of Photos of Nude Girls Deepens Questions About Earlier Deal

[Read our previous coverage of the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein.]

A trove of lewd photographs of girls, discovered in a safe inside the financier Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion the same day he was arrested, is deepening questions about why federal prosecutors in Miami had cut a deal that shielded him from federal prosecution in 2008.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Mr. Epstein on Monday with sex trafficking, dealing an implicit rebuke to that plea agreement, which was overseen by Alexander Acosta, then the United States attorney in Miami and now President Trump’s labor secretary.

The indictment in Manhattan could prompt a moment of reckoning for the Justice Department, which for years has wrestled with accusations that it mishandled the earlier case and has faced a barrage of litigation from Mr. Epstein’s accusers. In February, the Justice Department opened its own internal review into the matter.

Attorney General William P. Barr said on Monday during a trip to South Carolina that he had recused himself from the case because Mr. Barr’s former law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, had represented Mr. Epstein.

Eric Holland, the deputy assistant secretary of labor for public affairs, said Mr. Acosta had no comment.

Accusations of sexual predation have dogged Mr. Epstein for decades. Until his arrest on Saturday, his case had been held up as a prime example of how insulated, powerful men can escape accountability.

Mr. Epstein, a hedge fund manager, avoided the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence, largely because of a secret agreement his lawyers struck with federal prosecutors in 2008. His social circle is filled with the rich and famous, including former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew of Britain.

Mr. Clinton’s office said in a statement on Monday that he knows nothing about “the terrible crimes” connected to Mr. Epstein.

In 2002, Mr. Trump described Mr. Epstein as “a terrific guy,” telling New York Magazine, “It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

As he unsealed an indictment charging Mr. Epstein with sex trafficking on Monday, the United States attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, made an appeal to other women who may have been abused by him to come forward.

“They deserve their day in court and we are proud to stand up for them by bringing this indictment,” Mr. Berman said.

He declined to say why his office decided to pursue charges against Mr. Epstein now, since federal prosecutors knew about his potential crimes in New York a decade ago. Mr. Berman said his office had been “assisted by some excellent investigative journalists,” an apparent reference to the Miami Herald’s reporting from November.

The indictment said that Mr. Epstein and his employees engaged in a sex-trafficking scheme, bringing dozens of vulnerable girls, some as young as 14, to his Upper East Side mansion and to his palatial compound in Palm Beach, Fla., between 2002 and 2005.

Mr. Epstein, 66, then engaged in sex acts with the young women during naked massage sessions, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash, prosecutors said. He also asked some of the girls to recruit other girls, many of whom prosecutors say were underage, and paid them for bringing in new victims, the indictment said.

“This conduct, as alleged, went on for years and involved dozens of young girls, some as young as 14,” Mr. Berman said. “The alleged behavior shocks the conscience.”

Mr. Epstein is charged with sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy, and faces a combined maximum sentence of up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

[Read the indictment.]

Mr. Epstein’s lawyer, Reid Weingarten, said the allegations in the indictment had already been settled in 2008. “To us this indictment is essentially a do-over,” he said. “This is old stuff. This is ancient stuff.”

Mr. Epstein, looking disheveled in a navy blue jumpsuit, pleaded not guilty. He stared silently ahead as prosecutors outlined the charges, never glancing at the packed courtroom behind him. He is expected back in court on Thursday.

The discovery of the photo trove was detailed by prosecutors as they argued against allowing Mr. Epstein to be freed on bail. His wealth and means — including six homes and two private jets — made him a significant flight risk, they said.

“He is a man of nearly infinite means,” said Alexander Rossmiller, a government lawyer.

Prosecutors said they seized hundreds, and possibly thousands, of “sexually suggestive” pictures of nude or partially nude young women and girls during a search of Mr. Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse on Saturday, conducted at roughly the same time the financier was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

The cache of photos, some of which were discovered in a locked safe that also contained CDs with labels like “Girl pics nude,” demonstrate the predatory attitude that Mr. Epstein continues to have toward young women, prosecutors said.

“This is not an individual who has left his past behind,” Mr. Rossmiller said.

In the hours since Mr. Epstein’s arrest, prosecutors said, several other women contacted them with complaints about Mr. Epstein. Some of those accusers had never previously spoken to the government, prosecutors said.

Several of Mr. Epstein’s accusers said they were relieved that authorities seemed to be taking their complaints seriously after many years.

“The news of my abuser’s arrest today is a step in the right direction to finally hold Epstein accountable for his crimes,” Sarah Ransome, who said she was forced to have sex with the financier in her 20s, said in a statement read by her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, outside federal court.

Two other women who have said they were abused by Mr. Epstein when they were teenagers, Courtney Wild and Michelle Licata, watched the proceedings from the back of the courtroom with their lawyer, Brad Edwards. “I was 14. I had braces on,” Ms. Wild told ABC News on Monday.

The charges unsealed Monday mirror those that federal prosecutors had prepared in Miami against Mr. Epstein more than a decade ago. In 2005, law enforcement officials there investigated Mr. Epstein after the parents of one of his accusers reported an incident to the police.

Florida prosecutors had prepared a 53-page indictment accusing Mr. Epstein of being a sexual predator. But those charges were shelved in 2008 after an 11th-hour deal was reached between the United States attorney’s office in Miami and Mr. Epstein’s lawyers.

The agreement granted Mr. Epstein immunity from federal prosecution and let him plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Federal prosecutors arranged for the plea deal to be kept secret from Mr. Epstein’s accusers until it was finalized in court.

The deal let Mr. Epstein avoid a possible life sentence in federal prison. Instead, he spent 13 months at a Palm Beach jail and was permitted to leave the facility six days a week for work. He was also required to register as a sex offender.

Mr. Berman made it clear that his office was not bound by the 2008 agreement that Mr. Acosta’s office had negotiated.

“That agreement, by its terms, only binds the Southern District of Florida,” Mr. Berman said.

The agreement has been examined in a series of articles in the Miami Herald and is being challenged in court. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that Mr. Epstein’s accusers should have been consulted about the deal before it was signed.

Mr. Weingarten, Mr. Epstein’s lawyer, said the agreement was approved at the Justice Department “at a very, very high level.”

The statement issued by Mr. Clinton’s office acknowledged that the former president had taken four trips on Mr. Epstein’s airplane. It also said Mr. Epstein had visited Mr. Clinton’s office in 2002 and Mr. Clinton had visited Mr. Epstein’s apartment in New York with a staff member.

Prosecutors are also seeking the forfeiture of Mr. Epstein’s home on East 71st Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, which has been called one of the largest townhouses in Manhattan. It has at least seven floors and covers 21,000 square feet.

The government also said in court papers that prosecutors have “real concerns,” based on past experience, that Mr. Epstein, if freed on bail, could attempt to “pressure and intimidate” witnesses, including his accusers and their families.

Over the last six months, detectives and agents with the New York Police Department-F.B.I. Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task force, working with the prosecutors, were able to identify and interview three victims, whose abuse formed the basis of the indictment, according to a law enforcement official.

The indictment said Mr. Epstein used employees to arrange sexual rendezvous with one of the victims at his New York residence and two others at his home in Palm Beach.

Mr. Epstein is accused of having the girls perform nude massages, at which point he would masturbate and touch their genitals with his hands or with sex toys.

The girls were paid hundreds of dollars in cash for each encounter and, once recruited, were asked to return to the mansion several times, where they were abused again, the indictment said. Mr. Epstein, the court documents read, “created a similar network of minor girls to victimize” in Florida.

“Too often, adults in our society have turned a blind eye to the type of criminal behavior alleged here,” William F. Sweeney, Jr., the assistant director in charge of the New York office of the F.B.I.

Katie Benner, Michael Gold, Edgar Sandoval, William K. Rashbaum and Glenn Thrush contributed reporting.

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[marymosley]

Gangland Lawyering? Featuring Pierce Bainbridge & Hecht Partners

Rudy Giuliani tied himself to Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP with a tweet announcing the firm would represent him for the Ukraine fiasco. The man formerly known as “America’s Mayor” made his chops taking on “The Five Families,” a New York City Organized Crime syndicate. The revelations coming out of Pierce Bainbridge have many opining that Pierce Bainbridge operations are more akin to a criminal enterprise than a reputable law firm. A bombshell accusation from an ex-firm associate has increased the already searing spotlight on the firm, as well as its current and former partners.  The accusations – which sound like something that could be found in Rudy’s bag of tricks – include alleged fraud on a federal court and related intimidation tactics.

 “Intimidation” & “Fraud on the Court” Accusations

A new outside lawyer for Pierce Bainbridge, Ed Altabet of Cohen Seglias, has been accused of attempting to “intimidate” the ex-associate from coming forward with accusations that ex-Pierce Bainbridge named-partner David L. Hecht (Hecht Partners) intentionally defrauded a federal court.  The issue arose in connection with a putative class action against Boeing and Southwest Airlines.  The story is covered by LawFuel.com here.

Hecht has been so loyal to Pierce, his ex-partner Christopher N. LaVigne (Withers Bergman) said “David would toss dogs off of cliffs,” if Pierce said it was a good strategy.  To be fair, LaVigne clearly has a low opinion of Hecht, LaVigne has also opined in writing:  “David is an embarrassment to lawyers everywhere.  Some of the worst lawyers I know are better than David.”  Similarly, Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com, referred to a complaint Hecht filed on behalf of Tulsi Gabbard as “laughable” and said Hecht should be “embarrassed.”

Notwithstanding these views, Hecht recently started his “own firm,” Hecht Partners LLP.  Oddly, seven (7) of the eight (8) lawyers are from Pierce Bainbridge, certain administrative personnel from Pierce Bainbridge have reportedly joined, and Hecht puzzlingly said in open court that while he is no longer a partner at Pierce Bainbridge, he still works with the firm.

This, as well as related events such as the Boeing Southwest fiasco, the reported $65,000,000 Pierce Bainbridge debt to litigation funder Virage Capital Management, and the at least six lawsuits currently facing Hecht’s former firm, has led to suggestions that the two firms, and perhaps a third-party, are involved in Gangland-like shell-game shenanigans.

The Bombshell Filing does nothing to help the image of the newly established Hecht Partners.  It has Gangland tactics written all over it.  The former associate took direct aim at Altabet and Hecht.

Altabet replaced long-time Giuliani ally, and a lawyer intricately connected to Donald Trump, Mark Mukasey. Even for Mukasey, the Pierce Bainbridge environment appears to have been unacceptable; he withdrew citing ethics concerns.  In came Altabet, and the unethical conduct did not skip a beat.

In a filing in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in front of the Honorable Judge Amos L. Mazzant, the ex-associate said:

“After reviewing the transcript from the May 13th hearing in this matter, I have confirmed what I believe are numerous statements of material fact by David Hecht which are inaccurate, and may have been made to intentionally mislead counsel and the Court.”

“[I]n light of an email I received from Pierce Bainbridge’s outside counsel, Ed Altabet, today, in which he made several baseless accusations against me in what appeared to be an effort to intimidate me and hamper my efforts to correct the record, I request an In-Camera ex parte hearing before the Court.”

The John Pierce, Keyboard-Fueled Gangland Tactics

Pierce’s bombast proclamations of global domination, and overwhelming lack of candor, have rendered the Harvard Law School graduate a laughingstock in many legal circles.

Pierce is still, however, commonly seen as the straw stirring Hecht’s actions, as well as the driving force behind the intimidation tactics.  Pierce, who claims to have been a tank platoon leader in the United States Army, takes his faux machismo passionately; for example, a report by Meghan Tribe in Law.Com, quotes Pierce:

“We are building an army of killers on a highly collaborative platform. In addition, we have a culture obsessed with winning and bringing maximum value to clients.” – John Pierce, January 3, 2019

Pierce subsequently attacked Tribe on LinkedIn in a falsehood-ridden post with his disciples lending support.  Former Pierce Bainbridge partners Michael Pomerantz, Thomas Warren (Warren Terzian), Johanthan Kortmansky (BraunHagey & Borden) and, you guessed it, David Hecht endorsed Pierce’s nonsense.

Indeed, the Pierce modus operandi seems to be to threaten by e-mail.

For example, Pierce threatened a former client by email, the client reported Pierce to the California State Bar and included an opinion that Pierce is a “menace to the legal society.”

Pierce threatened a lending company named Newtek by email in September 2018; in early October 2018, Newtek denied Pierce’s request for a $ 1 million SBA loan secured by a client’s $ 6 million home;  the denial was related to Pierce’s obligations to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as California state tax authorities.  (Public records show Pierce has around $1.5 million in tax liens, e-mails show he owes $21,000 month alimony, and Pierce claims to be the sole guarantor of a $65,000,000 Pierce Bainbridge debt to Virage Capital Management.)

To complete the trifecta, Pierce also threatened former partner and whistle blowing Don Lewis by email.  Lewis’s ex-partners, all who have been sued by him, were on the email. Lewis says, “despite their fiduciary duties of care, they all did nothing.”  (Denver G. Edwards pictured, joined after Lewis, but has been accused, along with Christopher N. LaVigne (Withers Bergman) of “lying under oath” to smear Lewis.)

The group are experienced attorneys who now practice at Armstrong Teasedale, Braunhagey & Borden, Withers Bergman, Hecht Partners, among other firms.  Their prior experience is at reputable law firms such as BakerHostetler, Baker & McKenzie, Browne George & Ross, Brown Rudnick, Covington & Burling, Davis Polk, Fish & Richardson, Gibson Dunn, Glaser Weil, Grais & Ellsworth, Grant & Eisenhofer, Kasowitz Benson, Kirkland & Ellis, Kaye Scholer, Kobre Kim, Margolis & Tinsman, McKool Smith, Murphy & King, Murchison & Cumming, Reid Collins & Tsai, Steptoe & Johnson, Sullivan & Worcester, Quinn Emanuel; White & Case, Wachtell Missry, Wilson Sonsini, and White & Case.

Next Stop Jail?

Many have speculated if Pierce may eventually wind up behind bars, consistent with a warning he received from Oscar De La Hoya’s long-time lawyer in the Fall of 2018.

Lots of Questions:  What Was Virage Told? 

As for the Virage $65 million, what convinced the litigation funder to risk such a large investment in Pierce Bainbridge remains a mystery. Pierce appears to be running a decent con, perhaps even Giuliani with all his Gangland experience was impressed.

The question persists:  What was Virage told?  What representations were made? Who made them? How could Virage get in so deep behind:

a $9.1 million declared default against the firm.

issues with paying creditors.

no track record of meaningful litigation success.

a “leader” – John Pierce – with “brutal credit”.

a “leader” – John Pierce – with issues with “substance abuse and other addictive behaviors.”

The Mysterious Richard Silverstein of Loan Annex

An individual who may have some answers, but to date has largely stayed out of the fray, is Richard Silverstein the Founder of Loan Annex.

Silverstein is pictured above with promotional material from his LinkedIn page.  The Loan Annex founder filed a sworn affidavit in federal bankruptcy court at the end of last year stating:  “Throughout 2019, I was engaged by Pierce Bainbridge as their consultant for the purpose of arranging financing for the firm.” 2019 is when both tranches of the $65 million Virage deal were struck.

Interestingly, Silverstein’s affidavit was filed to support the claims of a lender named Counsel Financial; Pierce Bainbridge was allegedly in discussions with Counsel Financial about financing in March 2019.  In line with the Gangland theme, the underlying debtor claimed in an affidavit:  “A colleague of mine derided these tactics as ‘Mafia-style’ intimidation, but even the Mafia had a code about attacking family members.”  The tactics had to do with alleged e-mail threats from a lawyer for Counsel Financial.

More Questions:  What’s Going on with Talon LF, LLC

Recently leaked solicitation materials for potential investors in a litigation fund intricately intertwined with Pierce Bainbridge may also shed light; the name of the fund is Talon LF, LLC.

Two ex-Pierce Bainbridge partners, Doug Curran (BraunHagey & Borden) and Thomas D. Warren (Warren Terzian), as well as Pierce are listed as closely affiliated.

The Talon investor solicitation materials appear to have several issues, but there are two glaringly puzzling representations.

“Vertically integrated with PB w/ a success rate on contingency cases of 97%”. (From cover e-mail accompanying the materials)

A chart which represents a positive investment rate of return (“IRR”) for litigation funder Pravati Capital, which apparently failing to indicate that Pravati declared a $9,157,072.95 default.

Are these representations true?  Are they materially misleading? Are they fraudulent?

Issues surrounding the clearing of the Pravati default raise more Gangland type flags.  A former firm client, Gustavo Escamilla, President of Greenway Nutrients, says he “has strong reason to believe that Mr. Piece and his firm Pierce Bainbridge accepted bribes ”from individuals with “criminal backgrounds” and  “used this bribe money to pay down some, or all, of an over $9.1 million [Pravati] default.”

Escamilla has also developed a compelling timeline, which suggest his claims may be valid.

The General Counsel & Blind Eye:  Carolynn K. Beck

On the issue of Pravati, ex-firm General Counsel, Carolynn K. Beck, now a partner at Goldstein & McClintock, was intricately connected to Pravati.  She is alleged to have misrepresented, with Pierce, a case value to Pravati by well over $900,000,000.00, and documents appear to support the same.  In addition, a Philly lawyer has sued Beck individually, the other named partners and Pierce Bainbridge claiming the case value presented to Pravati was wildly overinflated. The Philly lawyer worked the same case for 16 months before Pierce Bainbridge took over.

Beck joined her new firm with Craig Bolton; the duo reportedly worked very closely together at Pierce Bainbridge. Bolton was apparently involved in litigation funding efforts, including the alleged discussions with Counsel Financial in March.

A cavalcade of severe misconduct happened under Beck’s watch:  lies under oath, violations of ethical rules, deletion of evidence, misogyny from the top, potential double-pledging of firm collateral, Pierce siphoning funds from firm accounts, the list goes on.

Beck as General Counsel for the firm, appears, at best, to have done nothing to stop it.  A type of Gangland consigliere who seems to have made an internal oath to never get in the way.

As an example, written communications indicate Beck was aware of Pierce using firm accounts as a personal piggy bank back in October 2018.  A text that Lewis received from the firm’s bookkeeper, just days before being banished, strongly suggests the Goldstein & McClintock partner was in the know.

Subsequent to this October 2018 message, the Firm, under Beck’s watch, would go on to rack up a $65 million debt from April 2019 – April 2020, find itself a defendant in three cash advance lawsuits (where upfront cash was provided in exchange for alleged firm receivables) and see a mass exodus of attorneys starting in October 2019.  Beck’s apparent willful turn of a blind eye is not consistent with the role of a General Counsel.

Camille Varlack, Kevin Cash & The Future

Beck left the firm around a month ago; a Law360 article said Chief Operating Officer and Deputy General Counsel Camille Varlack and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Cash were running Pierce Bainbridge while Pierce was on a forced leave of absence. Both Varlack and Cash are not part of the original Pierce Bainbridge inner circle; but their role in leadership positions, with apparent visibility into the firm’s finances is noteworthy.

With a firm boasting so many red flags, the possibility of a wide-ranging Pierce Bainbridge bloodbath seems more likely by the day. Cash and Varlack may be subjected to some hard questions about what they knew, when they knew it and what they did about it.

Giuliani, some would say, has learned from the mobsters he used to prosecute and has pulled off Gangland tactics for years, while remaining relatively unscathed.  It remains to be seen if this brat pack of attorneys Rudy hired have what it takes to keep ahead of the tsunami of severe issues that are closing in on them.

The post Gangland Lawyering? Featuring Pierce Bainbridge & Hecht Partners appeared first on Legal Desire.

Gangland Lawyering? Featuring Pierce Bainbridge & Hecht Partners published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[wherearemyglassesbro]

Omg omg omg omg everyone be quiet right now thank you @heyheyjay for THIS

For starters, it would absolutely have a very negative effect on Fran’s relationship with Arthur. He’s aware it’s irrational and his feelings are based on personal issues but having his rival/friend/lover defend a murderer? And have that murderer get away? Oh no, Fran would probably not talk to him for awhile after. Not because he’s mad AT Arthur, he just has to sort out his own feelings. He’s a complex guy and his feelings are like balls of colored yarn all tangled together. He has to take time to sort it all out and come to a conclusion. “I am not upset with you. I am upset with the outcome of that trial. I would like for us to go back to being friends again...If that’s alright...” he’s still closed off for awhile but eventually, he’ll open back up and go back to normal, the incident not forgotten but forgiven

The first two times Arthur saw Francis in a murder trial setting were VERY different. The first time, he was still somewhat of a rookie. He had gone up against Francis twice now in court and won both times. Now he wanted to study his way of speaking, his organization, his body language, that kind of stuff. So he sat in the crowd, off to the side out of the field of vison for the prosecutors booth.

Francis carried himself the same as usual. Confident and proud, speaking passionately on behalf of the victim, appealing to the jury. He did everything by the book and to be honest? Arthur was impressed. It was different watching him from the crowd than it was from the defense booth.

When Francis lost the trial, even Arthur was shocked. He watched him stiffly pack his papers away and leave the courtroom in a hurry. It was strange behavior for sure, something that he’d never seen before. Instead of his classic smile, he sported a frown and a look in his eyes that Arthur couldn’t place. To be nice, he caught up with him in the hallway “Look, I know I’m probably the last person you want to talk to but I want to let you know, you did fantastic in there. I don’t know how on earth you lost that-“ “Leave me alone, Kirkland” Francis all but shoved past him, making a beeline for his car. Arthur could hear the squeal of his tires from inside the courthouse

That was not the loud, extravagant Francis he knew. That was someone else, someone sad and angry...Maybe Francis was more complex than he thought (Spoiler alert: Yes. He is)

The second time he witnessed a loss, he was far closer with the Frenchman. He knew his mannerisms and his body language. The two were teetering on the edge of being in a relationship or just being super close friends. Francis didn’t want Arthur to go to this trial but he insisted “It’s my day off. I’ll come support you and we can go to lunch afterwards. No big deal. I like seeing you in court” Francis was reluctant but had him sit in the second row anyways for moral support

Again, he did everything right. Arthur was criticizing the defense in his head ‘you dolt, you’re talking too much. It’s giving Francis the upper hand’. Of course he wanted Francis to win. Even as a defense attorney himself, he knows a guilty face when he sees one. He’s once again shocked when Francis loses

This time he notices how his hands shake, clenching and unclenching. There’s tension in his shoulders, the mask of confidence gone from his face. He was fighting to suppress a frown, swallowing around the lump of guilt in his throat

Francis apologized to his clients when the court was released, hugging them and shaking their hands, promising paperwork in the mail....yadda yadda. Arthur noticed how tired he looked, the way his shoulders now sagged in defeat

“You did great out there love” “I don’t need your pity, Arthur” “I’m not pitying you. You did everything right” “Apparently not”

Arthur led him to the parking lot, cupping his cheeks when they were out of the public eye “I know how it feels to lose something big like this. It stings, I know. However, it isn’t the end of the world”

“‘It isn’t the end of the world’? Are you kidding me? You’ll never-! Forget it. I’m going home” “Francis? We were-“ “I don’t care about lunch” and with that, he got in his car and sped off, tires screeching once again

Arthur is invited over for dinner later on, Francis apologizes for the way he reacted and Arthur assures him that it was no big deal. He expresses his emotions differently than Arthur does and he is still getting used to it! And this is Francis’s first relationship since Jeanne so he’s still re-learning how to open up about more serious or intense feelings. There’s a learning curve for them both.

So I also I think I’m gonna talk about Jeanne again cause I WAS gonna have a single post dedicated to her effect on Fran and Art’s relationship but I think lll....Just go over it here. There is a small fic at the end but I can’t even really call it that, it’s 2 paragraphs of text lol so yeah :)

More under the cut cause this is getting long and I feel bad clogging your dashes :0

So Art knew about Jeanne before he really knew Francis personally. Before he goes up against prosecutors, he asks Eliza about them and their argument styles, stuff like that. She advised him to stay away from murder trials if Fran managed to get his hands on one and since he didn’t know about Jeanne he was like ‘pfftt what? You think I can’t take him?’ And she was like ‘No...He can’t take you’ oh...

Eliza told him like...The bare minimum. Francis’s girlfriend was killed behind a small party store and he was the one who discovered her body. That’s all he knew about it

But when he and Fran started to get serious relationship-wise Francis decided to sit him down to have a talk with him, pouring his heart out to him after a long, draining day at the courthouse:

// Uhhhh tw for the rest for death mention and description of finding Jeanne after her death. Like...blood and all so if that makes you uncomfortable: this is your warning :0 //

“We dated for five years. From eight grade to twelfth...It was like we were joined at the hip. We were always together wether it be baking in the kitchen, studying at the library, going to the movies or attending church camp. We did it all together. Hell...In highschool, we were voted ‘cutest couple’ every year. She was my date for every school dance and she would have been my prom date too if... If she had lived” Francis choked out a sad laugh “She had the most beautiful dress picked out and I had a suit to match. She was so excited about it...”

“That day was my nightmare. I relive that day over and over again in my dreams, thinking about everything I could have done to prevent that outcome. I should have taken her to the store earlier. I should have gone in with her. I shouldn’t have answered the phone and gotten distracted when my friend called. She was in there for forty minutes just to grab some streamers and a bag of candy for a piñata... When I went in to look for her she wasn’t there. I looked around, called her name, called her phone...no answer. The cashier helped me look too as I started getting worried. In the bathrooms, the stock room, the janitors closet, behind the refrigerators...All that was left was the rear exit. She didn’t go out there right? No...that was unlike her...” tears started to slowly make their way down his cheeks “When we pushed the door open, I remember seeing the pool of blood right there on the ground and thinking it was just a puddle. How wrong was I. My legs moved on their own, I rounded the corner and there she was. Her hair was covered in blood from the gash across her temple, her favorite floral blouse ripped and dirty. Her purse was gone. She was just laying there on the dirty, cold asphalt” Francis shook his head, rubbing his face as the memory replayed once more

“Out of the corner of our eyes, the cashier and I saw the perpetrator and he chased him down, catching him and sitting on him until the police arrived. I called them...I don’t even remember making the call but I distinctly remember them telling me not to touch her- not to mess with the ‘evidence’. I didn’t listen. I sat in the pool of blood and held her until the ambulance arrived, petting her hair as she slowly went cold in my arms...Praying that just maybe she’d make it. They were too late. I was too late.”

“What was it all for, you ask? That evil son of a bitch wanted her money. She only had $10 on her that day. He killed her over $10! And after all of my pain, her family’s suffering, that fucker got to walk free after two years? Two years! It isn’t fair at all. I don’t mean to ramble too much but before you and I become anything too serious I just- I need you to know about her. She made me who I am today, she’s the reason I practice law, she’s always here with me” he clutched his cross necklace in his shaky hand “Just because I still love her does not mean I love you any less, Arthur. I will always be here for you but at the same time, I will be there for her. I’ll still visit her grave and her parents...I’ll have her picture on the mantle...”

Arthur reached out to rest a hand on the blond’s arm. This was a new side of Francis he hadn’t seen before. Sure he knew about Jeanne by now, he had seen her picture in Francis’s apartment. He knew the other took the two hour trip up north to visit Jeanne’s grave and her family every other month. He knew she was important to him but he had never heard the full story like this before. He truly didn’t know the extent of the damage that day had done “I understand, dear. If Jeanne is important to you, she’s important to me. She’ll always have a place here with us” he assured, pulling Francis in to hug him against his chest to let him cry “I don’t think I can begin to express how badly I feel for you. But you can always confide in me, I’ll be here because I lo-like you a lot. I want you to be open with me. This...is a lot to bottle up” Francis nodded and wiped his eyes as Arthur brushed his curls out of his face “If it isn’t overstepping any boundaries, maybe I could come up north with you next time you go to visit her?”

“I...I think I’d like that. I’ve already told her and her family about you. I’m sure they’d love to meet you”

———

Well I hope that wasn’t bad! I haven’t written in a fic format in uhhh hehe a year or so so...yeah! Anyways! Yup! That’s all for now :) ❤️ thanks for reading this far if y’all did!!!!

((Looking back I hate the formatting of the ficlet thingy but tbh there’s not much I can do about it now :) ))