District of Columbia

Retired partner sues Patton Boggs, says firm discriminated by cutting his pay when he hurt his back

A retired income partner of Patton Boggs has sued the law firm for alleged disability discrimination, contending that the firm treated him less favorably than other attorneys after he suffered a disabling back injury that limited his ability to work. Although he was called a partner, Roy P. Lessy Jr.,…

Jun 14, 2013 1:45 PM CDT

See the video: Crowell & Moring makes way for ducklings

In a classic children’s book, Make Way for Ducklings, Boston police officers serve as the protectors of a mother mallard duck as she leads her offspring through busy city streets to a new home in the Boston Public Garden. But in the real-life case of a mallard mother in the…

Jun 7, 2013 5:05 PM CDT

Lawmakers: US has gotten cellphone info for 7 years, ‘lawful’ program prevented terrorist attack

Responding to news reports about a secret federal court order under which the U.S. government apparently collected cellphone records for tens of millions of Verizon customers, federal lawmakers said Thursday that the National Security Agency program has been ongoing for seven years and thwarted at least one terrorist attack. Sen.…

Jun 6, 2013 6:30 PM CDT

Nesting mallard lays 8 eggs at Crowell & Moring, gets royal treatment

Crowell & Moring is rolling out the red carpet for a mallard duck that has laid eight eggs in a nest it built in a terrace flower planter outside the law firm’s ninth-floor conference room in Washington, D.C. A contractor working on other Crowell renovations has constructed a wooden access…

May 30, 2013 5:13 PM CDT

Lawyer who didn’t pay additional lawsuit sanction remains in jail

A Washington, D.C., judge sent a lawyer back to jail on Tuesday after a hearing on the lawyer’s failure to pay an additional $123,000 in sanctions imposed in a civil lawsuit. Judge Gregory Jackson said lawyer George Crawford, a former administrative law judge, “holds the key to his jail cell,”…

May 29, 2013 1:48 PM CDT

Reports: AG Eric Holder vetted search of Fox News reporter’s personal email

The decision to issue a federal search warrant for a Fox News reporter’s personal email account was made by a magistrate judge. However, the Department of Justice said it was vetted at the highest levels, including by Attorney General Eric Holder, leading Republicans in Congress to object Sunday to having…

May 28, 2013 4:46 PM CDT

IRS official took Fifth in House testimony, but did she waive right to do so?

After invoking her Fifth Amendment right not to testify Wednesday, when she was called before a House committee looking into special Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of tax exemptions sought by conservative groups, an IRS official was put on administrative leave Thursday. But some observers are questioning whether Lois Lerner, who…

May 24, 2013 12:20 PM CDT

8 protestors arrested outside Holder’s former firm

Eight individuals were arrested Wednesday as they protested the U.S. government’s lack of prosecution of bank mortgage foreclosure activities in the lobby of Covington & Burling’s office building in Washington, D.C. Seven were charged with unlawful entry and one was charged with assaulting a police officer, reports NBC4 Washington. The…

May 23, 2013 2:47 PM CDT

Feds secretly got warrant for Fox reporter’s email, claimed news-gathering was likely a crime

News that federal authorities had apparently looked at the personal email of the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News under a search warrant secretly obtained in a criminal investigation of his 2009 news-gathering activities elicited outrage Monday from media organizations and others. The warrant, which was both issued and unsealed…

May 21, 2013 11:50 AM CDT

AP complains of ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’ by DOJ into reporters’ phone records

In a letter Monday to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Associated Press complains of a “massive and unprecedented intrusion” by the Department of Justice into its reporters’ newsgathering activities, contending that the feds secretly obtained two months of phone records on 20 lines used by AP journalists, including home and…

May 13, 2013 10:05 PM CDT

DC chief judges celebrated Law Day with tweets

The chief judges of Washington, D.C.’s superior and appeals courts marked Law Day by answering questions on Twitter for an hour. The judges fielded questions on topics ranging from jury duty to legal careers, according to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. The questions were submitted using the hashtag…

May 2, 2013 6:55 PM CDT

DC insurance boutique opens in NYC’s Chrysler Building, is looking for associates

A Washington, D.C.-based international insurance boutique has opened in New York City, where it signed a four-year lease for nearly 4,000 square feet of space in the Chrysler Building. Lewis Baach has been operational there for roughly a month, with partners Adam Kaufmann and Arthur Middlemiss already at work, according…

Apr 10, 2013 7:40 PM CDT

Judge OKs pro se prisoner’s libel suit over legal publication’s recap of his case

Sentenced to a life prison term in 1983 after being convicted of second-degree murder in the slayings of two U.S. marshals, Yorie Von Kahl has apparently honed his litigation skills in the meantime. Unhappy with a summary of a judge’s sentencing ruling published by a Bureau of National Affairs Inc.…

Apr 3, 2013 5:14 PM CDT

Quinn Emanuel launches new health care fraud practice, forsees ‘exponential’ growth

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has launched a new health care fraud practice group. It is headed by Sam S. Sheldon, 43, who started work Monday as a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of the the 600-attorney business litigation firm, reports Reuters. He formerly worked for the U.S. Department…

Mar 26, 2013 3:46 PM CDT

Due to hunger strike, suspect is found unable to stand trial in murder of his wife

Albrecht Muth was scheduled to go to trial Monday for the murder of his socialite wife, Viola Drath, 91, whom he said he found beaten and strangled to death in the bathroom of their townhome near the nation’s capitol in 2011, after the two had been married for more than…

Mar 22, 2013 5:17 PM CDT