On Tuesday, May 3, the Deutsche Bank was sued by the federal government, represented by US Attorney Preet Bharara.  The bank has been accused of committing fraud and getting undeserved income by repeatedly lying so that it could benefit from insured mortgages provided by a government program.

The lawsuit, which is taking place in US District Court in Manhattan, seeks to get back insurance claims that the government had to pay to homeowners that defaulted on their mortgages.  These claims are worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and according to the government, between 2007 and 2009, Deutsche Bank was able to reap large profits from the reselling of mortgages that were risky, which left the Federal Housing Administration to pay for all of the loans that defaulted.  In total, the US is seeking for more than $1 billion in the suit, including fines and punitive damages.

According to the lawsuit, the fraud was carried out by Deutsche Bank through MortgageIT, its subsidiary, which was acquired by the bank in 2007.  MortgageIT had branches in all 50 states and had more than 2,000 people working for it.

Bharara said in a news conference that the bank and company it acquired “…indulged in the worst of the industry’s reckless lending practices.”  He went on to say, “They often seemed to treat red flags as though they were green lights.”

Deutsche Bank is determined to fight the lawsuit, according to a statement by Renee Calabro, spokeswoman for the bank. She went on to say that about 90 percent of what was described in the lawsuit happened before MortgageIT was acquired by Deutsche Bank.

According to Calabro, “We believe the claims against MortgageIT and Deutsche Bank are unreasonable and unfair, and we intend to defend against the action vigorously.”

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Prior to his move to Venable in 2002, Wilkins, per the BLT, was chief of the Public Defender Service’s special litigation section from 1996 to 2000.   Currently, he is a trial and appellate lawyer in the firm’s corporate defense/white collar, technology and commercial litigation practice groups.

Venable LLP is a law firm, formerly known as Venable, Baetjer & Howard LLP. It was founded in Baltimore in the post-Civil War period. Today the firm maintains six Northeastern US offices and specializes in patent litigation, labor and employment law and white collar investigations. Venable employs nearly 600 attorneys.

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The suit charges Pfizer with violations of the Federal Securities and Exchange Act.  The crux of the suit is that Pfizer falsely marketed or promoted a varied series of drugs and failed to notify shareholders of the purported tortious conduct.

The Brualdi Law Firm, PC is based in New York City and specializes in mergers and acquisitions and shareholder derivative litigation. It also extensive experience prosecuting antitrust lawsuits, consumer and employment discrimination cases, as well as cases involving all aspects of securities litigation.

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Jackie Hosang Lawson and Jonathan Zang were former employees at Fidelity who witnessed what they saw to be improper actions by Fidelity.  Upon notifying their supervisors of the problems, they perceived that they were treated poorly and unfairly.  Lawson and Zang filed separate suits against Fidelity, but the two were combined in U.S. District Court.

Lawson’s attorney, Indira Talwani, is quoted by Reuters as saying, “”This is a critical case because Sarbanes-Oxley was designed to protect investors.  Mutual funds are the major way that Americans invest their money.”

Judge Douglas Woodlock did not rule for the plaintiffs in their wrongful discharge suits.

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Cinquegrani told Judge Sidney Stein during the proceeding that “I knew what I did was wrong and I did it anyway.” He cited a need to be “a big shot” tax lawyer and apologized. In giving Cinquegrani only probation, the judge cited his cooperation with the government, which included explaining the PICO shelter to investigators.

In the scheme, Cinquegrani and employees from Ernst & Young combined forces from 1998 to 2001 to sell bogus PICO tax shelters for wealthy clients along with a legal opinion that supported its legality. According to prosecutors, Cinquegrani charged as much as $100,000 per letter. The Associated Press reports Ernst & Young sold 96 PICO transactions to 150 wealthy individuals. Four Ernst & Young employees were convicted for their roles in the scheme and another former employee also pleaded guilty in the case.

Cinquegrani had two stints at Arnold & Porter. First, from 1986 through 1993 then again from 1997 through April 2007, at which time he made partner in 2002.

According to the AP, Arnold & Porter participated in the sale of three of those shelters and paid an unspecified civil penalty for its failure to comply with tax-shelter registration requirements

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According to the New York Law Journal, an internal investigation by Cold Springs into why the application was denied led them to find that 11 pages of the application produced by former Ropes & Gray partner Matthew Vincent was taken directly and without attribution from one filed by Andrew Fire, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine.

Ropes & Gray filed a motion to dismiss on Tuesday, citing the fact it is common practice to copy text from other patents.

“Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory’s lawsuit lacks merit because the determination of the (Patent and Trademark Office) to reject the patent applications is based on the existence of prior work with other respected scientists and not on our firm’s efforts,” the firm said in a statement.

Vincent was fired by Ropes & Gray last year, according to the NYLJ, for allegedly owning a secret patent database company that billed the firm and its clients for more than $730,000.

Ropes & Gray has over 1,000 lawyers with offices in Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Tokyo and Washington D.C.

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Havrilla is represented by Arlington, Virginia based  solo practitioner Nils Peterson. Both Peterson and a spokesman for Drinker Biddle have declined to comment on the case.

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Coakley argues that the regulation of marriage has traditionally been left to the states and that a conflict exists between federal laws treating heterosexual and homosexual couples differently and Massachusetts law. For example differences exist when determining Medicaid benefits and when determining whether a spouse of a veteran can be buried in a Massachusetts veteran’s cemetery.

Coakley said the law forces her state, “to engage in invidious discrimination against its own citizens in order to receive and retain federal funds in connection with two joint federal-state programs…Massachusetts cannot receive or retain federal funds if it gives same-sex and different-sex spouses equal treatment, namely by authorizing the burial of a same-sex spouse in a federally funded veterans’ cemetery and by recognizing the marriages of same-sex spouses in assessing eligibility for Medicaid health benefits.”

Coakley made the filing in response to a U.S. Justice Department motion to dismiss the lawsuit and to support Coakley’s request to declare the law unconstitutional without holding a trial. The Obama Administration had acknowledged the discriminatory nature of the law and wants Congress to repeal it but the Justice Department says it has an obligation to defend laws enacted by Congress. The Department argues that there is no fundamental right to marriage-based federal benefits in asking for a dismissal of the Massachusetts lawsuit.

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Tim Howard is the coordinator of the group, known as the Attorneys Toyota Action Consortium. Howard is a professor of law and policy at Northeastern University and an attorney at Howard Associates, P.A. in Tallahassee, Florida.

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Reid was upset by the ABA’s rating of Gloria Navarro, nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. “I think the ABA should get a new life and look at whether people are qualified, not whether they have judicial experience”, Reid said during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he introduced Navarro. Reid also said, “The ABA says she hasn’t had judicial experience. That is upsetting to me…I asked President Obama, ‘Let’s get someone on the court that hasn’t been a judge. I think we need people on the bench who have been out there, like Gloria…She has had experience in the real world of government and in the real world of the law.”

Navarro has never been a judge but she has worked as a government lawyer handling civil litigation, a public defender and a lawyer in private practice.

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The NCBE argued that federal disability law doesn’t require testing organization to provide disabled examinees with their preferred accommodations. The NCBE also argued that putting test questions on a computer disk would expose them to “hackers and thieves” The examiners wanted Enyart to accept the usual accommodations consisting of a pencil and paper test with questions displayed on an enlarged screen, a human reader and twice the normal testing period.

Enyart said that she needed her software specifically to have a fair opportunity to pass the exam. Breyer agreed and said the organization could provide its own computer to deal with security concerns. Enyart is a 32 year old graduate of UCLA School of Law and a law clerk at Disability Rights Advocates in Berkeley. She will take the exam beginning February 23. The NCBE could ask the federal appeals court to block Breyer’s order.

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Edward Chen has been nominated for the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Chen currently serves as a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California. He was a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, Northern California Chapter. His law degree is from the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law.

Dolly Gee has been nominated to the US District Court for the Central District of California. She is a managing partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Schwartz Steinsapir, where she practices labor and employment litigation. She received her JD from the UCLA School of Law.

Richard Seeborg has been nominated to the US District Court for the Northern District of California. He is currently a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California, and previously worked at Morrison & Foerester, in both Palo Alto and San Francisco, where he was an equity partner. Seeborg also served as an Assistant US Attorney in San Jose, California. His JD is from the Columbia University School of Law.

The 94 United States district courts are the general trial courts of the US federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty.

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US District Court Judge Bruce Kauffman is stepping down next week, and will join Philadelphia’s Elliott Greenleaf law firm. Kauffman will co-chair the firm’s executive committee. He is a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice.

Paul Battaglia joins Williams Kastner in Seattle as of counsel. He handles real estate, leasing, and collections matters. Battaglia earned his JD from the University of Washington School of Law in 1991.

Anthony F. Newton joins Seyfarth Shaw in Houston, from Franklin Cardwell & Jones. He joins as of counsel to Seyfath’s Corporate & Finance Practice Group. He earned his JD cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, and his LL.M in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center.

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In 2006, the firm and two of its named partners, David J. Bershad and Schulman, were indicted in US District Court on various counts, including racketeering, mail fraud, and bribery. Prosecutors claimed that Milberg paid portions of $251million in legal fees to plaintiffs to induce them to sue.

The firm agreed to pay $75 million to settle charges last year.

Schulman, who pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge, was sentenced to six months in prison. Vogel, who served as a plaintiff in 40 of the firm’s cases, will serve three months.

Bershad recently began serving six months in prison. Last year, former partners William Lerach and Melvyn Weiss began serving separate sentences of 24 months and 30 months, respectively. Another defendant, Steven G. Cooperman, who served as a lead plaintiff for Milberg, recently began a sentence of four months.

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In October 2007, as much of the country began turning its attention to a new and promising presidential showdown, Nader filed suit against the defunct ’04 Democratic ticket, accusing it of launching “a massive, nationwide unlawful litigation assault” on his campaign. The suit, originally filed in D.C. Superior Court, was eventually removed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where it was finally dismissed this May on jurisdiction grounds.

Nader, represented by Center for Competitive Democracy founder Oliver Hall, filed a second version of the suit with the District Court. But in an opinion released today, Judge Ricardo Urbina determined that Nader’s second try was too similar to his first and dismissed the updated complaint.

According to Nader counsel Carl Mayer:

…this was the most massive anti-democratic campaign to eliminate a third-party candidate from the ballot in… recent American history. Not content with having all these laws and statutes on the book that make it difficult for third-party and independent candidates to run, the Democratic Party and their allies in over fifty-three law firms, with over ninety lawyers, were engaged in filing litigation in eighteen states. They were to remove Ralph Nader from the ballot. It was an organized, abusive litigation process.

The core of the lawsuit is that these lawyers, led by Toby Moffett and Elizabeth Holtzman, and something called the “Ballot Project,” which was a 527 organization, systematically went around the country and filed lawsuit after lawsuit, twenty-four in all, plus five FEC complaints, to try to completely remove the Nader campaign from the ballot and to, in effect, bankrupt the campaign, which they succeeded in doing. Not content with that, one of the defendants, Reed Smith, which is a large corporate law firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they are now going after Ralph Nader’s personal bank account to make him pay some of the cost of this litigation.

Ralph Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and perennial candidate for Presidency, as an independent candidate for President in 2004 and 2008, and a Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000.

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Husband Yoichi Shimamoto says he became so inebriated “that he could not manage himself,” according to a lawsuit filed US District Court in Tampa. The couple is represented by Carl Hayes of Tampa.

Shimamoto was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct & battery after he struck his wife, Ayisha, injuring her face, while in US Customs.

The lawsuit will likely hinge on whether Chicago-based United operated what was in effect a “flying bar” subject to the same legal liabilities as terrestrial drinking establishments.

At issue is the question of whether laws that hold bars and restaurants responsible for harm caused by intoxicated patrons apply when the bartender and drinker are flying at 40,000 feet across international territory.

“United’s first defense will be there’s no tort action like this in international airspace,” said James Speta, of the Northwestern University Law School.

Although Yoichi Shimamoto was charged and sentenced to 18 months’ probation, the couple contend that United Airlines ultimately was responsible for his violent outburst.

Shimamoto, a native of Japan, was barred from returning to his home country while his case wound through the San Mateo County courts.

The couple wants United to pick up the $100,000 tab for Shimamoto’s bail, and defense & Immigration attorneys’ fees, as well as the costs they incurred to have his probationary sentence transferred to Florida, where his wife had a home.”

Airlines are frequently sued for the acts of drunken passengers, typically by flight attendants or passengers who suffered harm from an unruly traveler during a flight. What makes this case unusual is that it was brought by the person drinking the airline’s alcohol.

“The idea that the server should have stopped serving is often accepted when the injury is to a third person, such as in a drunk driving situation,” Speta said. “Generally, the courts have not been receptive to people saying, ‘I asked for the drink and you gave it to me.’”

Via Chicago Tribune via Sports Boards.

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Filed in US District Court in Manhattan, the suit alleges recklessness, gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duties by Merkin; the fund, Ascot Partners; and its auditor, BDO Seidman LLP.

New York Law School, through its endowment entity, invested $3 million in Ascot in 2006 and the investment is now worthless, according to the lawsuit.

The complaint is seeking class action status for persons and entities who invested in Ascot between 2002 and 2008. It was filed on the law school’s behalf by law firm Abbey Spanier Rod & Abrams LLP.

The complaint alleges Merkin abdicated his responsibilities and duties as Ascot’s general partner and manager in entrusting substantially all of its assets – $1.8 billion – to the Madoff firm, and that Seidman failed to recognize “red flags” at the Madoff firm.

BDO Seidman insists that its audits of Ascot Partners “conformed to all professional standards,” and they intend to “vigorously defend ourselves against these unfounded allegations.” BDO Seidman says it “is not and has never been” the auditor for the Madoff firm.

“Mr. Merkin and his family are personally among the largest victims of the massive fraud confessed by Bernard Madoff,” said Andrew J. Levander, a lawyer for Merkin. “Like the other victims and the entire financial community, Mr. Merkin is shocked by these events. He intends to defend the lawsuit vigorously while seeking redress for himself and his investors from whoever perpetrated this fraud.”

Since Bernard Madoff’s arrest last week, dozens of investors, charities and companies have emerged as victims, including the foundation of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and a charity of Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg.

Via CNN Money.

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The ruling today overturned a decision by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Hasan, an Indian and a Muslim, alleges in the 2004 lawsuit that certain partners at the law firm pushed to fire him on the basis of his race, religion, color and national origin after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The US District Court granted summary judgment to the law firm, saying that Hasan hadn’t created a “convincing mosaic” of evidence of the discrimination.  The appellate court disagreed and said there was sufficient evidence.

Hasan had been an associate in the business law department until he was asked, in December 2002, to leave within six months because of “deficiencies in his performance.”

Hasan’s attorney, Tom Crooks, said he was “very pleased” with the decision that expressed “exactly the theory we had put forth in our summary judgment response.”

Via The National Law Journal.

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This image from the law firm’s web site has been replaced
with this photo of a monkey, to prevent litigation.

I would like to tell you the name of the of the law firm, but apparently Judge John W. Darrah of the Northern District of Illinois believes it’s possible that just mentioning [Law Firm Name Deleted] on your web site constitutes trademark infringement. (The name of the law firm rhymes with “Bones Flay.”)

BlockShopper applied to dismiss the frivolous case, but Darrah has denied the motion, and rejected the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s amicus brief.

Blockshopper lists the names, faces and jobs of new tennants of high-value properties in various cities, using only publicly available information. When the site mentioned the names and employer of two Ones-jay Ay-day associates, the firm decided to sue, under the fascinating theory that just linking to the law firm’s web site implied an affiliation with or sponsorship by the law firm.

And they’re spending actual money to pursue this. In an economic meltdown. On the other hand, they’re generating work!

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McDonald, 25, dodged a stiffer sentence in federal court after he made a teary plea for leniency, and told a judge he deeply regretted looking at pictures of young children being sexually abused on the Internet.

McDonald was in his second year at Western New England Law School when FBI agents raided his apartment and found illegal pornography on his computer. In July, he admitted to one count of possession under a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Under advisory federal sentencing guidelines, McDonald faced a minimum of 24 months in prison. US District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor told the defendant that judges are under increasing pressure to hand down onerous penalties to anyone involved in the distribution of child pornography – particularly over the Internet, where it proliferates.

“There is no question that Congress wants us to clobber child pornographers,” Ponsor said. “Sentences have been ratcheted up and up and up, and messages to judges have gotten louder and louder and louder.”

According to court filings, McDonald was a standout student who made the Law Review, was engaged to be married and aspired to hold public office when agents raided his house.

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