Who Represented Jackson?

A side note to the reader who found our humble blog through a Google search for "bra padding" -- we're flattered and hope you found what you are looking for.

On to this great John Dorshner article about Jackson Health System settling a lawsuit that was arbitrated before former Chief Judge Davis:

Under a court-ordered arbitration agreement, International Portfolio of West Conshohocken, Pa., is getting $310 million in billings that Jackson has never asked the patients to pay. Whatever money the company collects, it keeps. Jackson gets nothing.
The arbitration agreement -- revealed recently to The Miami Herald -- settled a lawsuit filed by International Portfolio that alleged Jackson had reneged on a 2006 contract. Under the contract, the company paid Jackson $5.7 million to get $1.8 billion in billings that the health system had tried but been unable to collect on.

Coming on the heels of a grand jury report earlier this month that called Jackson ``a colossal mess,'' Sal 
Barbera, a former hospital administrator who teaches at Florida International University, found the new revelation ``unacceptable . . . an example of mismanagement on the part of Jackson. . . . I can only hope the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County are not paying for this due to the incompetence of Jackson.''

Barbera noted some uninsured patients could be extremely lucrative. Besides the poor who have no coverage, ``Jackson also attracts wealthy, self-pay international patients that are more than capable of paying their healthcare bills. . . . What about patients that come to Jackson for cosmetic surgery that is not covered by insurance?''

Ted Shaw, Jackson's interim chief financial officer since March, said hospitals frequently sell off old, uncollected bills, but giving away billings that a hospital has never tried to collect on was highly unusual. He said this was a bad deal that Jackson was stuck with because of actions before his time.

So who was the superstar who litigated this case against Jackson?  That one's easy:

The company's Miami attorney, Joel Hirschhorn, told about criticism that the deal was bad for Jackson, responded: ``That means I did a good job.''

Indeed he did.

But who represented Jackson and possibly did the opposite of a "good job"?

John doesn't say.

Scott Rothstein -- Your "Criminal Defense Lawyers Welfare Relief Act"

Joel Hirschhorn makes a wise observation:

“It’s sort of like the Criminal Defense Lawyers Welfare Relief Act,” he said. “Basically, anybody who has had a position above a secretary ought to be lawyered up. And even secretaries ought to be cautious of speaking with authorities without counsel.”

Joel, don't leave us civil litigators out -- there's plenty of work to go around with this putz.

So reporters went on a grand tour of Scott's inner rectum, I mean sanctum, and the results were not pretty:

Outside Rothstein's personal office: a painting of Al Pacino as his character Michael Corleone in The Godfather.

The walls of Rothstein's office and other hallways are lined with framed photos of the lawyer with politicians including Gov. Charlie Crist, former U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, U.S. Senator John McCain and Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti.

In one photo, Rothstein and Crist are blowing out the candles together on Crist's birthday cake. In another, they are standing together at the Versace mansion at a Rothstein-hosted fundraiser, where he served Kobe beef carpaccio, imported cheeses and chocolate soufflé. Rothstein was part owner of the South Beach mansion.

The photos depict a man about town, sporting a huge grin with his arm around powerful figures, sometimes chomping on a cigar.

Let me stop you right there -- if you have an elaborate and highly conspicuous "Wall of Me" then you're a di@k.

(Note to those who thought it was neat to have your name branded upon a personal wine cabinet at Capital Grille -- same impulse, fellas.)

And get a load of Scott's wiretaps and whatnot:

Anyone entering Rothstein's suite of offices had to use an intercom. If Rothstein wanted to leave without being seen, he could exit through a second door. In the hallway, what appears to be an ordinary looking brown door is actually the elevator door.

Coffey described that elevator as ``an extraordinary feature not seen in any law firm.''

Dozens of surveillance cameras and microphones hang from office ceilings. They were turned off a few days ago, and federal authorities were given access to whatever had been previously recorded, Coffey said.

The firm thinks that this proves how Scott kept everything from his partners and no one could have possibly suspected anything was wrong.

I'm not so sure.

If someone asked me to go work with Rothstein and I was told he has iron-clad, top-secret control of all the finances of a seventy-person firm, bizarre intercom greeting rituals, hidden wiretaps and elevators and an office that resembles the vault where Jack Benny kept all his money, my own personal reaction would be "WTF -- this guy is some nutjob or worse."

The apparent reaction of some -- "Oh well, that's Scott!"

You can see a photo collage of what was once considered possibly eccentric but otherwise normal South Florida lawyer behavior here.