$3,100 a Week for Summer Associates

Big Washington, D.C., law firms are paying summer associates as much as $3,100 a week while offering plentiful perks. The Washington Post writes about a dinner with a “Masters of the Universe ambience” atop the Kennedy Center, attended by summer associates at Steptoe & Johnson. Competition for top law grads…

Jul 24, 2007 4:45 PM CDT

‘Part-Time’ Partner Works 9 Hours a Day

Virginia Seitz is living proof that women lawyers can do it all, balancing a high-powered career with a family life. The Washington, D.C., appellate practitioner, 50, is a partner at Sidley Austin, yet leaves the office at 2:55 p.m. to pick up her two children from school, reports the New…

Jul 16, 2007 10:52 PM CDT

Desire to Help Hurts Ex-Prosecutor

A Washington, D.C., ethics committee is considering whether to recommend sanctions for a former federal prosecutor accused of giving improper vouchers to witnesses. G. Paul Howes is accused of giving 132 witnesses more than $140,000 in vouchers in two cases, Legal Times reports. Among those who got the vouchers were…

Jul 11, 2007 1:38 PM CDT

Dry Cleaners Seeks Fees

Owners of a dry cleaners that successfully defended a $54 million lost-pants lawsuit claim the plaintiff was out to destroy their lives and should pay their legal fees. The cleaners seeks nearly $83,000 in fees in a motion filed yesterday. It alleges that plaintiff Roy Pearson submitted “outrageous demands for…

Jul 6, 2007 6:04 PM CDT

Townsend Moves to D.C., Raids Rivals

A 200-lawyer California intellectual property boutique is establishing an East Coast presence in Washington, D.C., with seven lawyers raided from other firms. Townsend and Townsend and Crew has set up shop temporarily at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in a law office headed by Gary Morris, formerly of Kenyon & Kenyon,…

Jul 2, 2007 9:49 PM CDT

Law-and-Order Libby Judge Under Fire

The product of a strict childhood under an authoritarian father, U.S. Dist. Judge Reggie Walton expects those who do the crime to do the time. And that includes Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. But his two-and-a-half-year sentence for Libby in an obstruction…

Jun 27, 2007 11:20 PM CDT

More Missing White House E-mail; Official Cites ‘Extensive’ Violations

Far more e-mail than originally thought was sent and received by White House officials on Republican National Committee accounts, and records of many of those e-mails are missing. And that suggests there may have been “extensive” violations of federal open records law by the Bush administration, says the Democratic chair…

Jun 19, 2007 3:00 AM CDT

The Washington Web of Lawyers

Washington lawyers who represent corporate targets of government investigations are connected by financial and social ties. The personal connections often determine which lawyers get referrals in high-stakes, high-paying cases, the Washington Post reports. Among the elite is Robert Bennett, who has passed along business he couldn’t handle from big clients…

Jun 18, 2007 5:50 PM CDT

Proffered Pants Serve as Evidence

A lawyer for a dry cleaners sued for millions of dollars introduced a pair of proffered pants into evidence yesterday, saying the plaintiff was abusing the legal system. Custom Dry Cleaners contends the pants, found after they were initially lost, belong to plaintiff Roy Pearson, the New York Times reports.…

Jun 14, 2007 2:27 PM CDT

Tears Flow as ALJ Presses ‘Pantsuit’

The administrative law judge who filed a $67 million lawsuit against a dry cleaners that lost his pants cried on the witness stand yesterday.

Roy L. Pearson Jr., a former legal aid lawyer, testified that he wanted to dress nicely for his new job as an ALJ and became annoyed when the cleaners lost his expensive pants, according to the New York Times.

He began to cry as he testified that the business tried to pass off a cheaper pair of pants as his.

The courtroom was packed with reporters from media outlets in at least five countries, along with a tort reform lobbying handing out green buttons protesting the “pantsuit,” the Washington Post reports.

Jun 13, 2007 1:47 PM CDT

White House Counsel Hires 10 Attorneys

Ongoing investigations of the Bush administration by the Democrat-controlled Congress are good news for attorneys seeking work in the White House. White House Counsel Fred Fielding announced today that his office has hired nine lawyers, five of them for newly created positions, reports the Washington Post. A source says a…

Jun 9, 2007 4:35 AM CDT

Murder Case Based on DNA Database Find

A man identified as a murder suspect through a national DNA database is on trial in Fairfax County, Va., for a murder committed almost 19 years ago. Alfredo R. Prieto was on California’s death row for a rape and murder when a match was found between his DNA and that…

Jun 6, 2007 7:06 PM CDT

Lawyers Seek Leniency for Libby

Lawyers for the vice president’s former chief of staff argued yesterday that their client should be spared from prison because of his distinguished record of public service. Lawyers for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby said in a court filing that the prison term of 30 to 37 months requested by prosecutors…

Jun 1, 2007 5:06 PM CDT

The D.C. Power Web

With a new Democratic-controlled Congress warming up to exercise its investigative and oversight authority, the revolving door of lawyers moving between Washington’s K Street and Capitol Hill—and back again—is spinning fast.

Mar 1, 2007 5:37 PM CST

Hand It Over

Ethics Duties Conflict When Lawyers Receive Evidence From Clients in Criminal Cases

Dec 29, 2005 11:12 AM CST