Lawyer - News

J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi discuss the Sotomayor nomination with Professor Jenny Rivera, Director of Center on Latino and Latina Rights and Equality and Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law, and Professor Stephen Wermiel, Supreme Court expert and adjunct professor at American University Washington College. Together they offer a unique perspective on this important nomination. No comments

Silicon Valley powerhouse Wilson Sonsini could be looking for a new chief executive now that the White House has tapped CEO John Roos to be its ambassador to Japan. A former Wilson Sonsini partner calls Roos' consensus-building political skills "rare" among law firm partners, but says Wilson Sonsini has a "deep bench" of management talent from which to draw if Roos' nomination is confirmed by the Senate. No comments

A federal district judge in Washington, D.C., has appointed a guardian ad litem to represent the interests of an architect who has battled her own lawyer for seven years in a copyright suit against a rival architectural firm and the United Arab Emirates, who she claims ripped off her winning contest design for the United Arab Emirates embassy. Elena Sturdza's suit has stalled since 2002 when her lawyer, Nathan Lewin, called into question his client's competency to make rational decisions regarding her case. No comments

Citing "current real estate market conditions," the trustee in charge of liquidating indicted attorney Marc S. Dreier's estate hopes to auction off the apartment where Dreier remains under house arrest as early as mid-July. Chapter 7 trustee Salvatore LaMonica and auctioneer David R. Maltz Co. have already received inquiries from a number of parties expressing a "strong interest" in buying the unit, which is subject to a $5 million mortgage held by Wachovia Bank, according to court papers filed Thursday. No comments

Family Court does not have jurisdiction to order a woman with no biological or legal ties to her former same-sex partner's son to pay child support, a New York state appeals panel has ruled. The 3-2 ruling turned on the fact that the only New York proceedings for determining parentage are paternity proceedings, which resolve controversies over the fatherhood of a child. No similar vehicle exists for determining a child's mother and, therefore, for the Family Court to order the woman to pay support, according to the panel. No comments

The Obama administration announced in April that it favors reform of a 20-year-old law that mandates a sentence of at least five years for possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine with intent to distribute and the same penalty for five grams of crack cocaine. Yet it is impossible to tell from the Justice Department's guidance whether anything has changed in the trenches. While the government decides what it wants to do, a request for adjournments of sentencings may be one defense strategy. No comments

A former real estate lawyer whose license had already been revoked in Virginia was disbarred by consent Thursday in an order handed down by a Washington, D.C., appeals court. The D.C. disbarment follows last year's arrest for trying to arrange sex with a minor over the Internet. According to court records, after engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with someone he thought was a girl under the age of 15, Ronald M. Cohen set up a meeting, only to find police officers waiting for him when he arrived. No comments

Georgia criminal defense attorney J. Mark Shelnutt says he is "ready to fight" a federal indictment that accuses him of joining in a drug conspiracy and laundering money from a drug ring whose leader he defended in federal court. A grand jury handed down a 40-count indictment against Shelnutt after what the lawyer describes as an extended whisper campaign of rumors and grand jury leaks. "You can't really fight a ghost," he said, but "you can fight an indictment full of bogus charges." No comments

For Drew Schaffer, a recent veteran of combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and now a first-year law student, any classroom jitters are relative: "Having been in some pretty stressful situations, you realize getting a low grade on an exam is not life threatening." The former Army Ranger applied to law school from Afghanistan, studied for the LSAT between combat patrols and took the test under threat of Taliban artillery fire. Now he's started a group to ease the application process for other overseas soldiers. No comments

The coming addition of five labor and employment attorneys from Ballard Spahr Andrews Ingersoll in Washington, D.C., is the latest indication that Eckert Seamans has been on a bit of a growth spurt. The firm has brought on 38 laterals so far this year through a combination of good timing and an environment in which it can offer parallel compensation, but a more flexible rate structure, says CEO Timothy Ryan, and it's focusing on expanding its Washington, D.C., and Boston offices through lateral hires. No comments