JD Journal » state attorney general

CA Attorneys Leave Public Life for Private Firms

Erik Even — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:23:55 +0000

Former Los Angeles, California City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is joining Goodwin Procter as counsel. He still plans to run for state attorney general in 2010.

Delgadillo is joining the firm’s 400-attorney litigation department. He will work out of the firm’s Century City and downtown LA offices.

Meanwhile, US Attorney Thomas O’Brien will be step down from his post on September 1st, to join Paul Hastings. O’Brien led the prosecution of Missouri mother Lori Drew in the MySpace “cyber-bullying” case. He also oversaw a grand jury investigation of alleged molestation by priests in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Connecticut AG Shuts Down ‘Illegal’ Law Firm

Erik Even — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:55:58 +0000

Connecticut’s Democratic Attorney General, Richard Blumenthal, is shutting down the Nationwide Home Relief Law Group, an “illegal” law firm Blumenthal says bilked 200 Connecticuters of more than $750,000.

Blumenthal says that the firm, which offered mortgage foreclosure rescue services to Connecticut consumers for up to $4,000 a pop, was in fact selling an arbitration service that the state courts offer for free. Furthermore, none of the lawyers working at the firm were licensed in Connecticut, according to Blumenthal.

Criminal charges against the firm, also operating as First Legal Group, may be pursued. There is no word on how many employees of the firm have lost their jobs.

Detroit Lawyers Found Muslim Law Firm

Erik Even — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:46:58 +0000

Three Detroit lawyers have founded Hafeez & Youssef, a new firm to serve the city’s Muslim community.

Managing Partner Tariq Hafeez was previously at Dickinson Wright, handling business law and real estate. He was also an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan. His JD is from the University of Michigan.

Managing Partner Mona Youssef is a certified civil mediator, and was was an Assistant State Attorney General; she also got her JD at Michigan.

Chris Crawford joins as Of Counsel, handling civil litigation in the areas of insurance defense, insurance coverage, personal injury, family law and appellate practice. His JD is from New York Law School.

The firm has locations in Ann Arbor and Northville.

Arizona AG Lays Off 30 [Update]

Erik Even — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 18:40:13 +0000

Arizona’s State Attorney General, Terry Goddard, has announced the layoffs of 29 employees from the Attorney General’s Office.

Goddard blamed the state budget crisis. The Arizona legislature still has a $3 billion deficit to close.

Those affected were notified this morning. It is not clear how many of the layoffs affected attorneys.

If you have any details about layoffs at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, please — send us a confidential tip!

The Attorney General’s Office is the largest law office in Arizona, with approximately 400 attorneys and 1,000 employees.

UPDATE

A JDJournal tipster points us to a local media report that the AG layoffs affected 12 lawyers and 17 staff, for a total of 29. Many of the layoffs are of people who work with the Child & Family Protection Division of the Department of Economic Security.

Thanks for the tip!

New Jersey Offering Unpaid Work to Unemployed Lawyers

Erik Even — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:10:25 +0000

New Jersey state Attorney General Anne Milgram’s new Volunteer Associates in Public Service Program will offer unemployed lawyers part-time work at no pay.

Volunteers must work 20-hour weeks for at least three months.

While it’s certainly not optimal to ask lawyers to work for free, membership in the program might look better on a CV than not working at all.

In the past three years, New Jersey’s legal workforce has been cut 20%, mostly due to attrition. It currently employs 500 attorneys.

Law Firm Hirings & Firings

Erik Even — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:24:12 +0000

Recent laterals and layoffs in the legal sector:

Stephanie Heilborn joins Fulbright & Jaworski in New York as a partner in its trusts and estates practice. Most recently she was a solo practitioner as Heilborn LLC; and she was an associate at Milbank. Heilborn received her AB cum laude from Harvard University, her M.Sc from The London School of Economics, and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center.

Former Florida assistant attorney general William Haselden joins KamberEdelson as a partner in Tallahassee, to found the firm’s new office there. As an assistant AG he was Section Chief of the CyberFraud Section, which he helped found.

Robert Morad joins Miller Canfield as senior counsel in the Troy, Michigan office. He was previously assistant prosecuting attorney for Oakland County, Michigan, and assistant state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida. At Miller Canfield he will specialize in criminal and civil defense and litigation. Morad received his JD from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

Law Firm Hirings & Firings

Erik Even — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:34:44 +0000

Recent laterals and layoffs in the legal sector:

Tom Reilly joins Cooley Manion Jones in Boston, from Greenberg Traurig. He joins the firm as of counsel. Cooley is a former two-term Massachusetts state attorney general

Gordon Peilow joins the City of London’s Cubism Law, where he will advise on trademark & copyright matters, IT contracts & litigation, and employment law issues in the IT sector. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford.

Denton Aud joins Carmi, Illinois’ Endicott, Finch & Barnhart from private practice. He earned his JD at Southern Illinois University School of Law. He was recently appointed the conflict public defender for White County, meaning when regular public defender Jerry Crisel has a conflict that precludes him from taking a public defender case, Aud is called upon by the court.

New York to Recover Exhorbitant Fees From Scrooge Attorney

Erik Even — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:51:09 +0000

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is to reopen 170 estates of deceased people, in order to reimburse heirs who were gouged by a greedy Brooklyn lawyer Louis Rosenthal.

Rosenthal piled up millions of dollars in fees with the approval of his former law school pal, disgraced ex-Surrogate Court Judge Michael Feinberg.

On December 4th, the state Appellate Division disbarred Feinberg, and suspended Rosenthal from practicing law for two years.

From 1992 to 2002, Judge Feinberg awarded Rosenthal nearly $9 million in fees. He regularly awarded his buddy 8% of the estates’ assets, while lawyers in other boroughs typically received 6% or less.

Instead of filing the required affidavits, Rosenthal submitted fee requests on Post-it notes.

Illinois Legislature to Consider Blagojevich Impeachment

Erik Even — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 22:01:40 +0000

The speaker of the Illinois house is convening a special panel to determine if Governor Rod Blagojevich should be impeached on corruption charges.

Also, an internal review by the Obama transition team concluded there was no improper contact between the President-elect’s camp and Blagojevich’s office. Blagojevich is accused of trying to barter Obama’s vacated US Senate seat for political and personal favors.

Blagojevich was charged Dec. 9 with trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama. The governor also was charged with trying to force the Chicago Tribune to fire editorial page editors who opposed him, in exchange for help with the sale of properties by the company, which entered bankruptcy protection last week.

In recent days Republican operatives have speculated publicly, without evidence, about the role Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s incoming chief of staff, may have played in hypothetical negotiations over the disposition of the Senate seat.

Persons speaking on Emanuel’s behalf have acknowledged that he discussed who might be appointed to the Obama seat, but insist that nothing untoward had taken place.

At a news conference last week, Obama said he had no dealings with Blagojevich about whom to appoint to the Senate. He also said his staff had not had any inappropriate contacts, but Obama ordered the internal investigation.

Meanwhile, at a televised news conference, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan said he has formed a committee of senior legislators to examine whether Blagojevich should be removed from office.

Depending on the committee recommendation, the full House will decide whether to file impeachment charges, the speaker said. Madigan said the committee will work every day except holidays.

Blagojevich’s top aide, also charged in the scandal, resigned last week.

“We have given the governor six days to resign,” said Madigan, a Chicago Democrat who has frequently clashed with Blagojevich. Madigan’s daughter, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, has asked the state’s top court to rule that the governor is unable to carry out his duties, thus clearing the way for Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn to take over the post. Lisa Madigan is considered a potential candidate for governor.