Law Firm News

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Law Firm News

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Wade, Clark & Mulcahy, Attorneys At Law

WCM Wins Summary Judgment in Hudson County, NJ Recreational Liability Case
Counsel Denise Ricci was awarded summary judgment in a Hudson County, NJ recreational liability case. In the case of Frazier v. USA Softball, et al., the plaintiff, a recreational softball player, tripped while running to catch a fly ball. He alleged that his fall was the result of defective field maintenance that lef to a hole in the outfield in which he caught both feet as he pursued a fly-ball. Our clients, the County that owned the field, the Division of Parks administrative personnel, and the organization that sponsored the softball league, were plaintiff's target defendants.

At the close of discovery, we moved for summary judgment. In respect of our softball league client, we argued that New Jersey's Charitable Immunities Doctrine barred plaintiff's lawsuit. In respect to our municipal clients, we argued that New Jersey's Tort Claims Act barred plaintiff's lawsuit on sovereign immunity grounds. In opposition, the plaintiff argued that there were significant questions of fact that should preclude the grant of summary judgment.

The trial court agreed with our analysis and dismissed the plaintiff's lawsuit.

05-08-2007

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Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, LLP

Stroock’s Eva Talel Named Chair of City Bar Cooperative and Condominium Law Committee
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, a national law firm with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, announced that Eva Talel, Real Estate and Litigation Partner, has been named Chair of The New York City Bar Association’s Cooperative and Condominium Law Committee. Her term is for three years and begins on September 1, 2007.

The Cooperative and Condominium Law Committee addresses issues relating to cooperatives and condominiums. It’s activities include, sponsoring a mediation program to resolve disputes, reporting on proposed legislation at the local, state and federal levels, monitoring litigation impacting cooperatives and condominiums and interfacing with the NY State Attorney General’s office and New York Courts.

Ms. Talel counsels and litigates on behalf of cooperative housing corporations and condominium associations – Stroock represents over 200 co-ops and condos. She is a member of the faculty of the New York State Judicial Institute, a columnist for The New York Law Journal and a regular contributor to The New York Times Real Estate “Q & A” column. Stroock serves as counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York, and advises REBNY’s Resident Management Council on cooperative and condominium issues.

Her experience (at the trial and appellate levels as well as in arbitration and mediation forums) includes: proprietary lease interpretation, expiration, extension and adoption issues; director breach of fiduciary duty claims; shareholder derivative suits; Board of Directors proxy contests; commercial lease issues; unit transfer and transfer tax disputes; the Cooperative and Condominium Abuse Relief Act; “bonus” plaza spaces; liability and directors and officers insurance coverage disputes; mold and lead paint issues; and real estate tax certiorari matters. Stroock is recognized as a leader in real estate law and the only firm of its size with a substantial practice representing co-ops and condos, and its representations include: luxury apartment houses in Manhattan; residential and mixed-use condominium associations, and large hotel cooperatives (such as The Carlyle, The Pierre and The Sherry-Netherland).

The New York City Bar Association ( www.nycbar.org) was founded in 1870, and since then has been dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of the profession, promoting reform of the law, and providing service to the profession and the public. The Association continues to work for political, legal and social reform, while implementing innovative means to help the disadvantaged. Protecting the public's welfare remains one of the Association's highest priorities.

05-08-2007

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Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP

SGR LAW MAGAZINE WINS PUBLISHING AWARD Trust the Leaders Takes Gold in Gammas
Trust the Leaders, the quarterly law magazine produced by Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP, has been honored with the 2007 Gold Gamma award for best custom publication.

The Magazine Association of the Southeast (MAGS) bestows the Gamma awards each year on publications that demonstrate excellence in content and design, a keen understanding of core audiences, and success in delivering on intended goals. The award in the custom publishing category goes to a magazine that delivers valuable and persuasive editorial content from a sponsoring company to its target audience.

“I am personally gratified by how many clients have told me that they read each issue of our magazine from cover to cover,” said Trust the Leaders editor-in-chief Dana Richens, a partner in the corporate litigation section of Smith, Gambrell & Russell. “Hopefully, that means we’re doing something right!”

Trust the Leaders is written by top legal experts in SGR’s numerous legal practice areas. The corporate law firm distributes the magazine to its clients as an educational resource to keep corporate executives updated on current legal topics and trends. The magazine is published by Atlanta Magazine Custom Publishing.

“We take a great deal of pride in the work we do on our custom books,” said Lynne Palmer King, Atlanta Magazine director of creative services.

Smith, Gambrell & Russell started the quarterly magazine in 2002 by combining several newsletters into one high quality publication. Trust the Leaders offers articles of interest in a variety of substantive areas of the law. The current issue, for example, includes articles on electronic discovery, stock option backdating, health insurance portability, patent infringement, industrial development bonds and environmental sustainability.

05-08-2007

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Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP

Former Fiduciary Trust General Corporate Counsel Joins K&L Gates’ Investment Management Team
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP (K&L Gates) welcomes Edward G. Eisert to its investment management practice. Eisert joins the firm from Franklin Templeton Investments, where he served as General Corporate Counsel, Senior Vice President and Corporate Secretary of its subsidiary, Fiduciary Trust Company International. Prior to Fiduciary Trust, Eisert was a partner at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP.

At Fiduciary Trust, Eisert advised senior management and the private wealth management, institutional and investor services lines of business on matters relating to strategic initiatives, investment and banking mandates, products and services, securities and banking regulatory compliance and litigation. Eisert’s practice at K&L Gates focuses on investment management, securities regulation, joint ventures/mergers and acquisitions and capital markets/structured finance.

Woody Collins, Administrative Partner of K&L Gates’ New York office, said: “The diverse industry background of our investment management lawyers is one of the most distinguishing aspects of our practice. Ed is no exception. Our clients in New York and other markets around the globe will benefit from his multifaceted knowledge of the financial services sector. We are thrilled to welcome Ed to the firm.”

K&L Gates’ Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter J. Kalis said: “One of the hallmarks of our investment management practice—which now spans three continents—has been its ability continuously to adjust to the marketplace. Ed's broad experience and international focus takes another major step in solidifying our position among the world's leading investment management law firms.

05-08-2007

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Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP

K&L Gates’ Paul Ridley Named Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year
The Housing Crisis Center (HCC) has named Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP (K&L Gates) partner Paul E. Ridley its 2006 Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year for his dedication to advancing the HCC’s mission and assisting its clients.

The organization presented Ridley with the award at a lunch in his honor in late April.

The HCC was founded in 1978 to prevent homelessness and to assist the elderly, the disabled and families with children obtain decent, affordable housing. The HCC also offers a variety of programs, including regular clinics through which volunteer lawyers advise and educate tenants about their rights, and a volunteer lawyer program that matches pro bono counsel to low-income tenants in need of representation in eviction proceedings and other litigation against landlords.

For several years, K&L Gates’ Dallas office has supported the HCC by staffing a monthly clinic and by representing low-income clients in landlord-tenant matters.

Robert E. Wolin, Administrative Partner of K&L Gates’ Dallas office, said: “All of our Dallas lawyers involved with HCC are inspired by the people we serve there. We are likewise inspired by Paul’s dedication to the organization and its mission. We applaud his work as he receives this recognition.

05-08-2007

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Wiggin & Nourie, P.A.

Duke defense lawyers deserve fuller tribute
Now that the Duke lacrosse case has slipped from the front pages, it is worthwhile to consider what can be learned from it.

What occurred appears to be straightforward: A cynical prosecutor, hoping to win a contested election, brought charges against defendants whose race and status made them attractive targets. He obtained grand jury indictments with no evidence.

But the defense was able to show that the prosecution did not comply with legal and ethical rules. A trial judge found that the prosecutor suppressed evidence that showed the defendants' innocence. After taking over the case, the North Carolina attorney general declared that the defendants were innocent, and the prosecutor is now facing ethical charges.

The abuses that occurred could occur because of our adversary system of justice. Yet in the wake of the case, no one seriously claims that our system is flawed.

True, the district attorney, Michael Nifong, was an elected official and brought charges to curry favor with part of the electorate. But there are good reasons to have prosecutors responsive to the public so that the public can have some control over what kinds of cases are or are not prosecuted.

Here in New Hampshire, county attorneys are elected to two-year terms, and even the attorney general is subject to appointment by the governor and Executive Council for a five-year term. This responsiveness to the public is necessary if public confidence in criminal justice is to be maintained.

The grand jury that indicted the three innocent defendants operated in total secrecy. We now know it was given either no evidence or false evidence. But grand jury secrecy is important.

In the words of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, grand jury secrecy protects jurors from persons who "may be affected by the outcome of grand jury proceedings, encourages witnesses to testify freely and may save an innocent person for whom charges have been considered from the infamy of having been accused of committing a crime." It can protect not only defendants, but victims, from intimidation.

In this case, the prosecutor's case crumbled once it was determined that exculpatory evidence - evidence showing the defendants were innocent - was not turned over to the defense lawyers by the prosecutor. Ironically, nowhere in the press account was there much discussion about the prosecutor's obligation to provide exculpatory evidence to the defendants.

In fact, however, it was not until 1970 that the U.S. Supreme Court finally decided in Brady v. Maryland that a prosecutor has a constitutional duty to produce such evidence. That imperative, which appears nowhere in the explicit text of the Constitution, was asserted by lawyers to protect the rights of their clients. They convinced the court that the constitutional guarantee of due process of law requires a prosecutor to turn over evidence showing a person is not guilty.

Therein is an important point.

Professor Randy Barnett of the Georgetown Law School recently noted: "Our criminal justice system does not rely solely on the fairness of the police and prosecutors to get things right. In every criminal case there is a professional whose only obligation is to scrutinize what the police and prosecutor have done. This professional is a lawyer."

The lawyers who represented the innocent defendants in the Duke lacrosse case worked within the constraints of the law to fulfill their obligation to their clients. They were also subjected to the scorn heaped on their clients by the media and some in their community at the beginning of the case, despite the constitutional presumption of innocence. But these attorneys persisted, forcing the prosecutor to release exculpatory evidence. Their investigation showed that the prosecution's case could not be true. They did their job, protected their clients as well as the constitutional rights that protect us all.

Determining the truth is a difficult process. The Duke defendants had the advantage of capable private attorneys. In New Hampshire, our constitution provides that any person charged with a crime is entitled to a lawyer at state expense. The Duke case reminds us of the importance of ensuring that a poor defendant, guilty or innocent, is entitled to capable legal representation to make sure our adversary system operates fairly.

The Duke case reminds us of the role of lawyers in a free society.

Maybe the next time someone tells you a lawyer joke, you can think of the lawyers who represented these three defendants, in the face of public scorn and death threats to their clients, and who saved them from perhaps the most terrible punishment of all - years in jail for crimes they didn't commit. Maybe the lawyer joke won't seem so funny.

05-07-2007

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Stinson, Morrison & Hecker, L.L.P.

Brad Hartman Elected to the Board of Directors of The Amblyopia Foundation of America
Bradley P. Hartman, chairman of the firm’s Business division in the Phoenix office, was recently elected to the board of directors of The Amblyopia Foundation of America (AFA). The AFA, founded by pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. James W. O’Neil and engineers Charles D. Tardibuono and Richard S. Tirendi, all of the state of Arizona, is the nation’s only nonprofit health organization dedicated solely to establishing a nationwide vision screening program for schoolchildren. It’s mission is to protect our nation’s children and their families from the devastating effects of undetected visual disorders.

Amblyopia (am-blee-OH-pee-uh), commonly known as lazy eye, is a serious public health problem affecting 4% of children and is the leading cause of monocular blindness in America. Amblyopia can typically be corrected with early detection and treatment. Without vision screenings, many children are left susceptible to the devastating academic, psychosocial and physical effects of undetected vision problems, estimated at 20% of elementary school-aged children.

“We are delighted that Brad has joined the board of directors of The Amblyopia Foundation of America and believe he will make a valuable contribution in supporting and promoting the efforts of the organization,” said Alison J. Rapping, executive director of the AFA.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve on the board of The Amblyopia Foundation of America and support its important work,” said Hartman. “By serving on the board, it is my hope that I will be able to make a difference in the lives of children and families struggling with the effects of amblyopia and support AFA’s efforts to ensure that all of America’s children are vision screened.” Hartman and his wife are personally very passionate about the efforts of the AFA and the work of Dr. O’Neil. One of Hartman’s daughters was born with no vision in one eye and Dr. O’Neil has been providing treatment to her for several years in the effort for her to achieve some usable level of sight in the eye. “After many surgeries and dozens of office visits over the years, I’ve had a first-hand opportunity to learn about Dr. O’Neil’s efforts and his passion for protecting children from blindness. I’m glad to lend a hand to those efforts.”

Giving back to the community is important to Hartman. Hartman, along with his wife, recently founded Arcadia Kids, a community service group for kids that teams together neighborhood families to create year-round giving opportunities.

Hartman focuses his practice on intellectual property law, business transactions and commercial litigation. With more than 10 years of legal experience in Arizona, he has provided extensive counsel in the acquisition, protection and exploitation of intellectual property rights and assets. He is a member and past chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, and was the founding chair of the Technology Law Section of the Maricopa County Bar Association.

05-07-2007

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