37 Selected For 2008 First Judicial District of Pennsylvania Honor Roll

Thirty-seven attorneys from Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP will be honored Thursday, January 22, for their 2008 pro bono work in the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, which comprises the courts in the Philadelphia County system.

The annual Pro Bono Publico Award Ceremony is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Alex Bonavitacola Law Library, City Hall. Ballard attorneys being named to the Pro Bono Roll of Honor are Raheemah F. Abdulaleem, Taimarie Adams, Sapna K. Anderson, Alexandra Bak-Boychuk, Aisha M. Barbour, Barbara R. Beckman, Tamar J. Cerafici, Frederic W. Clark, Colleen F. Coonelly, Katharine A. Crawford, Marc E. Davies, Eric Diaz, Shannon D. Farmer, Adiah I. Ferron, Adam M. Finkelstein, David S. Fryman, Farrah I. Gold, Henry E. Hockeimer, Jr., William B. Igoe, Cecilia Isaacs-Blundin, Leslie E. John, Edward I. Leeds, Melissa J. Lore, Aldie Jennings Loubier, Jeffrey Meyers, Donna D. Page, Eileen B. Quigley, Thomas D. Rethage, Charles L. Rombeau, Mary Gay Scanlon, Amy Shellhammer, Gina M. Smith, Mark S. Stewart, Marc J. Weinstein, Sandra Wintner, Dena Zakaria, and Lynn G. Zeitlin.

To be included on the annual Roll of Honor, a lawyer must be in private practice, not employed by an organization that provides free legal services, and have rendered legal services to a low-income client without any fee, or expectation of fee, in the First Judicial District.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that, despite the government's "constantly shifting positions," a coalition of historians and archivists were unable to prove that outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney and his office staff intended to illegally destroy records at the end of his eight-year term.
    U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she was "bound to apply the Presidential Records Act (PRA) as Congress enacted it, which provides only narrow areas of oversight relating to the Vice President's document preservation decisions."
    Plaintiffs, led by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, accused Cheney of changing the definition of vice-presidential records, which would allow his office to destroy records that were supposed to be preserved.
    Judge Kollar-Kotelly first determined that the PRA does not preclude judicial review of the plaintiffs' claims.
    "The court finds that it 'borders on the absurd' to believe that Congress statutorily defined Vice-Presidential records and required the Vice President to implement steps to preserve them, but denied any judicial review to prevent the Vice President from using a different definition for Vice-Presidential records," Kollar-Kotelly wrote.
    She then ruled that although the plaintiffs brought "legally cognizable" claims under the Mandamus Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act, she was required to rule for the defendants.
    The plaintiffs deposed a senior White House aide, who testified that Cheney and his office were fully complying with their obligations under the PRA.
    "Plaintiffs were unable to rebut this representation through their discovery," Kollar-Kotelly wrote. "The Court therefore has no basis on which to award Plaintiffs relief against the Vice President and the Office of the Vice President."
    She dismissed claims against the Executive Office of the President, because it was not in charge of document classification or preservation.
    "It is clear, as Defendants emphasize, that the Vice President has discretion concerning the decision to create or dispose of Vice-Presidential records, and even how he chooses to preserve them."
    Kollar-Kotelly also dismissed the plaintiffs' claims against the U.S. Archivist and the National Archives & Records Administration, because they have limited roles during the vice president's term in office.
    The decision vacates a September 2008 order requiring the defendants to preserve the records while the case was pending.

Ken Swindle received the Distinguished Service Award from the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce for the service he provided to them during his entire career in law enforcement.  Ken Swindle worked in law enforcement for 34 years and served as the Tuscaloosa Police Chief for 20 years before coming to work as an investigator with Prince Glover Law.

IN LIMBO: Explanation is not filed by attroney general.
Anchorage Daily News

The 5 p.m. eastern time deadline came and went Saturday and no explanation was filed by the Attorney General in U.S. District Court in Washington about how an Alaska-based FBI agent's complaint was handled by the Justice Department.

A Justice Department official said nothing was filed because the government appealed the unusual order on Friday by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan directing Attorney General Michael Mukasey to account for the agent's complaint. A stay of Sullivan's order was granted in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, said the official, who spoke on the condition of not being identified by name.

A copy of the appeal or the stay couldn't be obtained independently from the court on Saturday. With pre-inaugural plans and events taking over Washington, the normally difficult job of finding official information on a Saturday became nearly impossible.

Sullivan, the trial judge in whose courtroom former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted in October of felony disclosure violations, has been dealing with a number of post-trial issues, including the complaint by FBI agent Chad Joy. Joy, one of the agents investigating political corruption in Alaska, asserted that the lead agent in the case engaged in unethical and possible illegal activities during the investigation. He also charged that Justice Department attorneys intentionally withheld information that Stevens' lawyers were entitled to.

Sullivan said he was dissatisfied with explanations from prosecutors about how Joy's complaint was handled and demanded a sworn statement from Mukasey himself or one of his top deputies.

International law firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO) announced today the renewal of its office space lease at Denver’s iconic Wells Fargo Center. The new agreement with building owner Maguire Properties runs until 2022 and encompasses a total of 108,600 square feet of Class A office space on five floors.

"HRO is delighted to renew its commitment to the Wells Fargo Center, one of Denver’s most iconic business addresses," said HRO Chief Operating Officer Patty Fontneau. "The long-term lease renewal underscores HRO’s and the Wells Fargo Center’s shared commitment as driving forces in the Denver, and Colorado, business community. The new agreement will contribute to HRO’s healthy and competitive advantage for many years to come."

HRO also announced that the firm intends to modernize the five floors the firm currently occupies within the 52-story building and build a multipurpose communications center that will increase capacity for hosting best-of-class client service and educational programs.

Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP partner Joshua W. Martin III has been named by Governor-elect Jack Markell to chair the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council, the state’s revenue forecasting committee. DEFAC is responsible for estimating the state’s revenues and setting the limit the legislature must use to draft the next fiscal year’s budget.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to serve Jack and the State of Delaware. In these tough economic times, leadership must be particularly vigilant in managing the fiscal responsibilities,”  stated Mr. Martin.

Mr. Martin concentrates his law practice on mediation and arbitration and on business counseling, particularly in the areas of telecommunications, public utilities and governmental relations.  He serves as chair of Potter Anderson's Diversity and Inclusion Committee, charged with enhancing the firm's ongoing diversity efforts.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Martin was President and Chief Executive Officer of Verizon Delaware from 1996 until early 2005, where he was responsible for all aspects of its telecommunications business within the state of Delaware, including regulatory, financial and operational matters.  He first joined Verizon's predecessor (Bell Atlantic) in Delaware in 1990 as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.  Prior to that, Mr. Martin was a Delaware Superior Court Judge for eight years.  Earlier, he served on the Delaware Public Service Commission from 1978 to 1982, including three years as Chairman.  A physicist by training, Mr. Martin began his legal career as a patent attorney for Hercules, Inc. from 1974 to 1982.