Help Buju Banton Pay His Lawyer (What's His Name Again?)

I always say lawyers should get paid for good work.

That's why like-minded citizens can band together and help Buju defend himself (wire instructions included!):

Markus told the Observer that the cost of the first trial has taken a huge financial toll on the artiste and asked fans, friends and supporters of the artiste to assist in any way they can.

Very true.  That's one advantage the government always has when they decide to retry a case -- they never run out of money.

On the other hand, does anyone else find it unseemly (obscene?) that Ken Feinberg has already collected $2.5 million for three months' work on the Deepwater Horizon disaster:

The $850,000 monthly payments to Feinberg’s firm will continue through year-end and then will be reviewed, a person familiar with the contract said today.

The money goes to seven professionals at Feinberg’s firm and is paid by BP separately from the fund to help victims, according to the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity about details not spelled out in today’s report. Among those being paid is Feinberg’s brother David, according to the report. David Feinberg is listed on the firm’s website as director of special projects.

The payments from BP help offset the “significant distortion” the project is causing to the Feinberg firm’s business, Mukasey said in the report today. Feinberg Rozen has turned away three mediation requests since June, according to the report. 

 Ok, three mediation requests but come on!

The last time I used Feinberg for a mediation he was billing well north of $1000 an hour, and that was quite a while ago.

How's that compare to the hourly rate of an Article III judge, like Judge Barbier who is presiding over the actual MDL litigation?

BTW, the Judge picked the steering committee to oversee the prosecution of the Deepwater Horizon litigation, and our own Ervin Gonzalez made the list, which you can see here.

Mitch Widom, Plaintiff's Lawyer?

I meant to say Mitch Widom, Plaintiff's Lawyer!

That's the takeaway for me from this Julie Kay article examining all the Florida lawyers who have applied for leadership roles in the BP Oil litigation:

Grossman is seeking a position as co-lead counsel for the state of Florida with Widom. The Grossman-Bilzin team already represents the Florida Keys stone crab industry. 

I like that -- the "Grossman-Bilzin team" -- good luck, you crazy knuckleheads!

(PS -- AAJ membership available here)

I kid, but these guys are highly qualified, as evidenced by Big Stu and Big Mitch's application for leadership here.

But you boys better hurry, because the 2010-11 Supreme Court term isn't looking too good for plaintiffs at the moment.

Darn you/bless you, Chamber of Commerce!

Welcome, Summer Associates!

Boy I remember a time when downtown was thick with young, fresh-faced, overeager summer associates, prepared at the drop of a hat to "sheperdize" a case or bring you an important "fax."

Now, according to the ever intrepid Julie Kay, not so much:

But one firm that completely eliminated its summer associate program in Miami now regrets it — especially since business has picked up. Jim Miller, litigation chair at Akerman Senterfitt, said the firm had no summer associates in Miami this summer but is already planning to resume the practice next summer.

“You don’t want to have summer associates unless you plan to hire them,” he said. “But we regret not doing it.”

 Yep.  Who in the world knew Providence would guide one of the world's worst environmental disasters right through our solid oak front doors?

Ca-Ching!

Meanwhile, the question of transparency in law school graduate hiring continues to simmer, with one 3L actually on a hunger strike to bring attention to the issue.  As ATL points out:

We’ve written about the Law School Transparency project before. It’s an organization asking entirely legitimate questions. LST wants law schools to provide accurate statistics about employment outcomes for graduates. It’s hard to understand why law schools aren’t willing to support the Law School Transparency group, other than a base desire to keep prospective law students in the dark about their post-graduate employment options.

Even incoming ABA President Steve Zack, in an otherwise full-throttled endorsement for going to law school, raised the question of transparency:

What advice would you give someone entering law school now, or thinking about going for a law degree?

I tell them that they are lucky to be in our profession because the law is going to change more in the next ten years than it has in the last 200 years. When I started practicing law, we hung up a shingle. Today, graduates register a domain name. The one area that I have real concern about is the cost. I think it’s time for there to be--and this will probably be pretty controversial--some truth-and-lending documents that go to applicants to law schools. There’s not enough information given to people considering the legal field.

So dear young ones, do enjoy the free lunches, the law firm "mixers," in addition to the desperate back-stabbing, rumor-mongering. brown-nosing, and win-at-all-costs mentality of your peers.

All that will change once you become an associate, I am sure.

Friday Morning Digital Dump

Let's see, what do people want to talk about this morning?

Ervin makes a pitch for bringing the Gulf Oil Disaster to Miami:

Ervin A. Gonzales, a Florida lawyer, argued that “clearly, Louisiana is the most affected state, but there may be appearances of conflict” for judges and jurors. He suggested Miami.

Note to NYT -- I know Hispanic names are tricky, but it's Gonzalez, not Gonzales.

(Doesn't anyone fact-check anymore?)

Big surprise -- people don't always understand contracts that they sign, especially when there's lots of fine print:

The agency says DIRECTV buried additional fees in small print in service agreements with customers. For example, it cited a $5 charge for a second receiver; a $19.95 fee for complex installation, handling and delivery; $6 per month for DVR service; and $10 a month for HD access. But the company's offers of free installation in up to four rooms and free HD DVR receiver upgrades didn't include information about these fees.

In addition, the suit says customers who thought they were signing a one-year contract based on ads that offered to lock in a price for a full year were actually signing two-year contracts.
And, the suit says, ads that claimed the service offers more than 130 HD channels, including local channels and exclusive sports packages, added in fine print ``eligibility for local channels based on service address. Programs not delivered in HD in all markets,'' and ``Blackout restrictions and other conditions apply.''

The consumer services department says these conditions didn't clearly explain to consumers that even with the most expensive programming packages, they wouldn't get all channels all the time.

Bit of a hodge-podge of a complaint if you ask me, but here's the important thing: the contract specified a pool of exactly 2530 feet! 

Karmic payback's a b@$ch:

Sam Wyly also funded the Swift Boat campaign that torpedoed Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

What else -- Thor trailer here (boo, it's been taken down), and happy birthday to Buddy Guy!

Gelber vs. Aronberg on BP Resignation

Here's an interesting video that puts together a point-counterpoint from the candidates on Dan Gelber's resignation from Akerman as that firm took on the massive BP Oil Spill defense work.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- Dan was slightly slow off the dime on this issue, and initially offered some weak tea in defense of his original argument that no conflict exists.

So David could certainly raise that as a legitimate issue.

But now that the issue has been resolved, I'm not following David in his continuing pursuit of it.

Could BP move to recuse Dan from the case if he is elected Attorney General?

Not likely in my view.

On the other hand, Dan has a slight case of exaggerated vapors in his reaction to it all, don't you think?

What strikes me, as I listen to Dan explain the timeline, is that it's pretty clear he didn't get much of a heads up from the firm as it aggressively (and successfully) sought out the business.

That's BigFirm life for you.

"We Seemed To Float Right Through the Air"

I've had this song stuck in my head the last few days (here in a beautiful arrangement set to the classic dance scene from Picnic), and it's impossible to not feel hopeful, romantic, and wildly optimistic listening to it.

Perhaps that's why I get such a kick from this story:

When asked to predict the outcome of civil and criminal cases, lawyers are often too optimistic.

That's the result of a survey co-authored by Elizabeth Loftus, a University of California-Irvine psychologist and law professor, along with other academics, published this month in the American Psychological Association's Psychology, Public Policy & Law.

The article is titled "Insightful or Wishful: Lawyers' Ability to Predict Case Outcomes."

“The higher the expressed level of confidence, the more likely lawyers were to fall short of their goals,” Loftus said in a UCI release about the survey. “In addition, male attorneys were found to be more overconfident than female attorneys.”

This strikes me as so empirically true.

How many times have you had to deal with a lawyer on the other side who is ridiculously overconfident of his chances of success?

Again, I recognize bluster serves a function and is part of the game, but at some point it actually enhances your cognitive decision-making process to realistically assess negative outcomes.

Oops, I'm getting all jargony again.

Remember we were discussing that magic 5000 barrels a day number?

Turns out it's probably total bullcrap:

Scientists said that the size of the spill was directly related to the amount of damage it would do in the ocean and onshore, and that calculating it accurately was important for that reason.

BP has repeatedly said that its highest priority is stopping the leak, not measuring it. “There’s just no way to measure it,” Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said in a recent briefing.

Yet for decades, specialists have used a technique that is almost tailor-made for the problem. With undersea gear that resembles the ultrasound machines in medical offices, they measure the flow rate from hot-water vents on the ocean floor. Scientists said that such equipment could be tuned to allow for accurate measurement of oil and gas flowing from the well.

Richard Camilli and Andy Bowen, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, who have routinely made such measurements, spoke extensively to BP last week, Mr. Bowen said. They were poised to fly to the gulf to conduct volume measurements.

But they were contacted late in the week and told not to come, at around the time BP decided to lower a large metal container to try to capture the leak. That maneuver failed. They have not been invited again.

Note to BP lawyers assisting in or facilitating this strategy: F^&K YOU.

Oh hail.

It must have been moonglow, way up in the blue
It must have been moonglow that led me straight to you
I still hear you sayin', "Dear one, hold me fast"
And I keep on prayin', "Oh Lord, please let this last"