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Fred Gray Sr. Speaks of Progress, Challenges
Law Firm News |
2008/01/05 10:05
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Civil rights pioneer attorney Fred Gray Sr. says black youth in the United States are at a crisis.
"The future of our next generation, while influenced by the past, must be defined by the actions of the present," Gray said. "... The time is now and the need is now. And we need to say young African-American children are at a crisis. And it's the truth and it's a fact."
Gray, 77, was speaking to a crowd of 300 Friday at the 33rd Annual NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet at the Columbus Convention & Trade Center. In a rousing 45-minute speech, the attorney recounted some of the landmark legal cases that were the backbone of successes won during the 1950s, '60s and '70s, but struck a cautionary tone that there are battles to be fought and victories to be won in the 21st century.
"I saw then a need to make a difference," Gray said, speaking of the days of the Montgomery bus boycott sparked by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Just 24 years old and fresh out of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Gray represented Parks in her case and appeal with the aid of the NAACP Legal Defense team.
"The fight then was for civil rights for a people, a deserving people," he said. "Now the fight is for human rights, social justice and the salvation of a dying people and yet a great people."
Gray described the plight of poor blacks as a "cradle to prison superhighway" and read the statistics that show prison populations have a disproportionate number of blacks to the number in the population of the United States. He said it was up to the older community to show youth that being good citizens and following a path away from crime is good and proper.
"As we enter this new year, one of our missions should be developing young people into positive, prepared and productive citizens," he said.
Gray is senior partner at the law firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray & Nathanson based in Tuskegee, Ala., and Montgomery, Ala. In a career that has spanned more than a half-century, Gray has been the leading legal figure in actions that integrated the buses in Montgomery; desegregated the schools of Alabama; and initiated the move for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
At Gray's urging, then-President Clinton made an official apology in 1997 to the men who were participants in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and was the moving force behind the establishment of the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center in Tuskegee, Ala.
Gray is currently president of the center, which will be reopening with new exhibits on black history in May. Named the first black president of the Alabama Bar Association, Gray has been honored nationwide and is the recipient of the American Bar Association's Spirit of Excellence Award and National Bar Association's C. Frances Stradford Award. |
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Stephen Abraham Argues Against Tribunals
Law Firm News |
2008/01/05 09:41
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Stephen Abraham, a Newport Beach lawyer and lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, hardly seemed like whistle-blower material.
A decorated intelligence officer, he served after 9/11 as lead counter-terrorism analyst at the Joint Intelligence Center at Pearl Harbor. He was a longtime Republican, a patriot devoted to protecting national security.
When he began a six-month tour of duty with the military tribunals reviewing the status of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he saw it as a "fantastic opportunity" to participate in a historic effort to help his country.
Instead, his account of the experience has become powerful ammunition for lawyers fighting for detainees' rights. In June, Abraham became the first insider to publicly criticize the tribunals created by the Bush administration as fundamentally unfair. His criticism, contained in an affidavit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, figured in a rare decision by the court to reverse itself and hear arguments about whether detainees had been given an adequate chance to plead their innocence. Arguments were held in December, and a ruling is pending.
"We give rights to the most reviled of accused criminals," Abraham said in an interview last month. It is "beyond the power that we give to government to say to anybody, 'Whatever notion of fair play we have, it won't apply to you.' "
Abraham's stand has made him a hero in the eyes of human rights groups and detainees' lawyers. And it has put him publicly at odds with the military.
"Lt. Col. Abraham was not in a position to have a complete view of the . . . process," said Navy Capt. Lana D. Hampton, a Pentagon spokeswoman. Tribunal procedures "afford greater protection for wartime detainees than any nation has ever before provided," she said.
Abraham's six-month tour began in September 2004. Among other duties, he served as a liaison between tribunals and defense and intelligence agencies with information on the captives. He said he was struck immediately by the general nature of the allegations against detainees. And he was concerned that information potentially favorable to detainees was not being submitted to the tribunals. When he requested written statements that no such evidence existed, "the requests were summarily denied," he said in his affidavit.
With two other officers, Abraham sat on the tribunal of a detainee held since early 2002. According to his affidavit, the case "lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence." His panel determined that the detainee should not be classified as an enemy combatant.
He learned later that a new tribunal had been convened and reached the opposite conclusion. The entire process was biased, he said.
As a result of 572 reviews by the tribunals held mostly in 2004 and 2005, 38 detainees were judged to have been improperly classified as enemy combatants.
Said Thomas Wilner, a lawyer who has represented 15 Guantanamo detainees: "Stephen was the first person from the government who said . . . the process was a sham."
"It's very easy . . . in times of hysteria to go along with the crowd -- particularly when your superiors are ordering it -- and shave your principles a bit."
Despite his conservative politics, Abraham's stand was not out of character, said Steven Fink, his law partner. Fink describes his friend as a highly principled man who does not suffer fools gladly.
As a student at UC Davis, where his father was a professor of French literature, Abraham joined the ROTC. He was commissioned an Army officer after graduating in 1981 with a degree in anthropology. Of his decision to join the military, Abraham said the country had opened its arms to his father, a Holocaust survivor, and he considered that "a debt worth beginning to repay."
Married and the father of an 11-year old daughter, Abraham is an avid musician who plays the viola and violin. His two-man law firm handles real estate and other matters for small to mid-size businesses.
When Abraham learned that officers with legal and intelligence backgrounds were needed to staff the tribunals, he said, he was eager to offer his services. In preparation, he reviewed legal rulings and treaties on prisoners of war going back more than 50 years.
His tour coincided with contentious debate over whether habeas corpus -- the right to challenge the legal basis for detention -- extends to foreigners held as enemy combatants in the war on terror.
The Bush administration argued that the detainees had no such right, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that there must be a process for reviewing whether they were being properly held. In response, Pentagon officials created the military tribunals.
The program faced a strict time limit, with more than 500 detainee status reviews to be completed in a few months. Detainees were not represented by lawyers before the three-member tribunals. They were not informed of much of the evidence against them. Nor was there a budget allocation for outside witnesses to appear on a detainee's behalf.
Midway through the six-month assignment, Abraham sent a memo to the unit commander, Navy Rear Adm. James McGarrah, seeking release from duty on grounds that it "may be in conflict with my obligations as an attorney." He said he did not get a direct response but was told informally that he would not be asked to serve on any more tribunals.
About three months later, Abraham returned to civilian life. There the matter would have ended but for the intervention of his sister, Susan J. Borschel, a lawyer in the Washington, D.C., suburban area.
Though she did not represent detainees, some of Borschel's colleagues did. In June, at her request, Abraham agreed to speak to those lawyers. At their request, he reviewed an affidavit that described the tribunal process.
Abraham said it reflected a "Pollyanna view" of the tribunal system that was "at best disingenuous."
Abraham responded June 15 with his own affidavit, which defense lawyers filed as part of their successful petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider a Kuwaiti captive's appeal of his detention.
Although they were once routinely described by U.S. authorities as "the worst of the worst," many detainees, according to their lawyers, were simply war refugees or other innocent bystanders snatched by bounty hunters and turned over for rewards. Most have been sent home -- without explanation or apology, their lawyers say.
Of 780 individuals held at Guantanamo, about 300 remain.
Among them is Abdul Hamid Al-Ghizzawi, the man cleared by Abraham's tribunal before a second panel restored his combatant status.
According to court papers by his attorney, Al-Ghizzawi has hepatitis B and tuberculosis, has not seen or talked to his family in almost six years and "is rapidly losing his mind as he sits in total isolation."
Abraham expresses some empathy for the man.
"He's about my age," mused Abraham. "He's got a daughter. He hasn't seen her in a long time. He's close to death." |
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Britney Spears too Much for Trope & Trope
Law Firm News |
2008/01/04 10:12
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The law firm representing Britney Spears in her custody battle over her two kids has quit, claiming the pop star was "impossible" to work with.
The law firm Trope and Trope was Spear's third legal team in her battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline, who has won custody of the couple's two children due to Spear's erratic behaviour.
There has been a breakdown in communications between Spears and the law firm, "making further representation of her interests impossible", the firm said in court documents.
A court hearing to decide whether Trope and Trope will be relieved of their duties has been set for Feb 4.
The next hearing in the custody battle for Britney's sons is set for Feb 19.
The legal resignation came after Spears missed another court-ordered deposition with Federline's lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan to undergo cross-examination about her parenting abilities.
Last month she called in sick to a similar meeting just hours after she was caught on camera at a nightclub. |
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GOLDBERG KOHN NAMES THREE NEW PRINCIPALS
Law Firm News |
2008/01/04 10:09
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The law firm of Goldberg Kohn recently announced the promotion of Anne Marie Pisano, 34, Brian D. Fagel, 38, and Jeremy M. Downs, 32 from associate to principal.
Anne Marie Pisano is a principal in the firm’s Commercial Finance Group. Her practice focuses on representing financial institutions in the documentation, negotiation and closing of loan transactions. Her work has included single lender and syndicated asset-based and cash-flow loans, workouts and restructurings, and working capital and acquisition financings. She has international lending experience, having worked on several transactions involving the laws of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Prior to pursuing her legal career, Ms. Pisano worked as a coordinator of international relations in Nagai, Japan. Ms. Pisano is admitted to practice in Illinois and Maryland. She received her law degree, with honors, in 1999 from the University of Chicago and her B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, in 1995 from Villanova University.
Brian Fagel is a principal in the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property Groups. His experience includes a broad range of commercial litigation. Mr. Fagel has represented Fortune 100 and 500 companies, small businesses, and individuals, and he has litigated matters before state and federal courts, arbitration panels, the United States International Trade Commission, and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Prior to joining Goldberg Kohn, Mr. Fagel worked as a researcher at a management consulting firm and as a publications attorney at an information technology law firm in Chicago. His writings on law and information technology have appeared in legal journals, newspapers, trade journals, and conference proceedings.
Mr. Fagel is admitted to practice in Illinois, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He is a member of the American and Chicago bar associations. Mr. Fagel received a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago in 2000, a master’s degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago in 1995, a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1994, and a B.A., with honors, from Stanford University in 1991.
Jeremy Downs is a principal in the firm's Bankruptcy & Creditors’ Rights Group. Mr. Downs primarily represents secured lenders in corporate bankruptcies and workouts, and a growing portion of his practice involves the representation of equity and creditor committees. Having successfully navigated several secured lending clients through automotive restructurings and liquidations, Mr. Downs has developed a particularly strong set of skills related to distressed manufacturing and supply situations.
His bankruptcy experience includes the negotiation, documentation and litigation of debtor-in-possession financing orders, cash collateral orders, orders authorizing the sale of assets, motions for relief from the automatic stay and various related procedural matters. His workout experience includes the negotiation and documentation of out-of-court restructurings and liquidations through forbearance agreements and UCC sales. Mr. Downs works closely with the firm's Litigation Group in connection with disputes that arise in the course of his practice, as well as with the firm's Commercial Finance Group related both to debtor-in-possession and non-distressed financing arrangements. Mr. Downs has taken a lead role in the negotiation of access and accommodation agreements in several recent automotive bankruptcy cases and workouts.
Mr. Downs is admitted to practice in Illinois and the United States District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois, the Western and Eastern Districts of Wisconsin, and the Eastern District of Michigan. He received his A.B. in Government, cum laude, from Harvard University in 1997 and his law degree from Northwestern University in 2000.
Goldberg Kohn Bell Black Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd. is a mid-sized commercial law firm located in downtown Chicago with principal concentrations in business litigation, commercial finance, creditors' rights and bankruptcy, corporate, federal and state taxation, intellectual property, Internet and e-commerce, labor and employment and real estate. The firm is the Chicago member of Meritas - an international alliance of 200 business law firms dedicated to providing business clients access to superior legal advice and exceptional services around the globe. Please visit www.goldbergkohn.com for more information. |
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Bonovitz Steps Down as Duane Morris Chairman
Law Firm News |
2008/01/04 09:45
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Sheldon Bonovitz is stepping down as chairman of Duane Morris after a 10-year run in which he tripled the size of the law firm, opened numerous domestic and international offices and doubled partner profitability, the firm announced Thursday.
He will be succeeded by longtime litigation department chairman John Soroko, who was named vice chairman and Bonovitz's likely successor two years ago.
From 1997 through 2006, Duane Morris, which has a Pittsburgh office Downtown, saw its profits per equity partner (PPP) rise from $273,000 to $730,000 and revenue per lawyer (RPL) grow from $325,000 to $600,000.
Bonovitz, 70, is a tax lawyer and has been with the firm since 1962. He is four years past the firm's mandatory retirement age from the partnership, but stayed on as chairman even though he holds the title of counsel. Soroko said Bonovitz will serve as chairman emeritus and will remain active in firm activities.
Soroko, 56, a native of Buckingham, Bucks County, has been with the firm since graduating from New York University Law School in 1977. He has led the nearly 300-lawyer litigation department since 2002. Matthew Taylor will become the new litigation department chairman. |
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Mark D. Pierce Adds Expertise to Slack & Davis
Law Firm News |
2008/01/04 09:23
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While the attorneys of Slack & Davis, L.L.P. bring years of legal experience to each personal injury case, the firm’s range of aviation expertise is what sets it apart. With the addition of attorney Mark D. Pierce, that range just got a little wider.
Mark Pierce, formerly of El Paso, is an experienced trial lawyer as well as an FAA-licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor who will add specific background in aircraft systems, piloting, regulations, navigation, weather, air traffic control, human factors, training and many other aviation disciplines. His other credentials include:
* Board certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
* Martindale-Hubbell AV-Rated
* Past president, El Paso Trial Lawyers Association, 1994 to 1996
* Graduate of The University of Texas at Austin (J.D., with honors, 1979)
“Slack & Davis’ hands-on aviation knowledge makes us the go-to team for aviation-related legal matters – not just in Texas but throughout the U.S.,” managing partner Michael Slack said, “but it’s our reputation for winning cases that seals the deal. Mark’s skills as an aviator and as a trial lawyer will boost our reputation on both fronts.”
In addition to plaintiffs’ cases, Pierce will offer legal services on the business side. The firm, founded in 1993, has seen a rise over the past two years in requests for legal representation related to aviation business transactions. Ladd Sanger, managing partner for the Dallas office, offers this reason for the growth: “We found that as more people choose private and corporate jet travel, they’re needing attorneys to help them navigate the aircraft acquisition and sales process. People know us as ‘the aviation lawyers’ so naturally they come to us for help. We’re simply staffing to meet the demand.”
ABOUT SLACK & DAVIS, L.L.P.
Founded in 1993, Slack & Davis, L.L.P. is known nationwide for its success representing families who’ve experienced loss as a result of an airplane or helicopter crash. The firm’s diverse legal expertise includes other complex personal injury cases that involve heavy trucks and defective automobiles, dangerous consumer products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Our team of attorneys, which includes aviators and aviation professionals, is also highly skilled at handling business disputes related to aircraft acquisitions and sales. With offices in Austin and Dallas, Slack & Davis has the track record, talent and resources to handle major cases throughout the U.S. – and achieve optimum results. Find out more at slackdavis.com |
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McGuire Woods Elects 15 Partners to Firm
Law Firm News |
2008/01/04 09:12
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McGuireWoods LLP is pleased to announce that 15 associates have been elected partners of the firm, effective January 1, 2008.
The newly elected partners for McGuireWoods include:
Lisa A. Atty, Real Estate Department, Los Angeles Office
Ilene A. Bailey, Real Estate Department, Baltimore, Md., Office
Robert A. Cox, Jr., Restructuring & Insolvency, Charlotte, N.C., Office
C. Simon Davidson, Government Investigations, Washington D.C. Office
Walter J. Dunn, Energy & Utilities Department, Richmond, Va., Office
William G. Fendley, IV, Tax & Utilities Department, Richmond, Va., Office
David E. Finkelson, IP Litigation/Patents Department, Richmond, Va., Office
John S. Hilten, IP Litigation/Patents Department, Tysons Corner, Va., Office
John A. Leja, IP Litigation/Patents Department, Chicago Office
Elena D. Marcuss, Labor & Employment, Baltimore, Md., Office
Perry W. Miles, IV, Products & Consumer Litigation, Richmond, Va., Office
Amy Miller, Labor & Employment, Tysons Corner, Va., Office
Derek A. Roach, Technology & Business, Chicago Office
Christopher J. Verstrate, International Department, Chicago Office
John R. Visconsi, Real Estate Department, Los Angeles Office
McGuireWoods LLP is a full-service law firm with approximately 750 lawyers in 15 offices in the United States, Europe and Central Asia providing legal counsel to clients around the world. For more information, visit www.mcguirewoods.com. |
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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