21.4.08

"Green" Lawyer Seeing Red over Environment

The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970. Today, more than half a billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns.

My travels take me to beautiful downtown Valparaiso. At Valparaiso High School, Kim Ferraro's eldest daughter wears a green singlet for the Viking track team.

Kim E. Ferraro Esq. is a "green" lawyer -- not green as in inexperienced. She is the founder and executive director of Legal Environmental Aid Foundation of Indiana Inc. (L.E.A.F.). She also started the Northwest Indiana chapter of "Green Drinks," where "eco-freaks" meet once a month to let their hair down and discuss environmental issues.

Ferraro, 44, was born and raised in Austin, Texas. She and her husband moved to the Midwest 22 years ago so she could attend the Valparaiso University School of Law. Her husband also is a lawyer.

They live in Valpo with their two daughters, ages 16 and 12. In October, Ferraro opened her not-for-profit law practice in Valparaiso.

"I've been an environmental activist for more than a decade," Ferraro begins. "That is the sole reason I went to law school and opened my law practice. Before I went to law school, I was a paralegal. I was very unchallenged and unhappy at work, but certainly recognized how lawyers can effect societal change for the good or bad, depending on the types of cases they're involved in and what side they're on.

"There are laws in the books that are not being enforced because most environmental lawyers go to work for companies like BP."

You work for PB -- pro bono.

"Yes, I don't charge my clients for the cases I take on. My funding comes from private donations and grants. The only way you can really do effective public-interest law is to make your services available to those who need it, not based on whether or not they can afford it."

Typical clients?

"Most are the local activist organizations such as Save the Dunes Council. For years, they have been trying to do good things to protect the environment on a legislative level, but they have not had good access to low-cost attorneys. So I'm filling that need for them."

You represent urban and rural communities. You go up against Davids and Goliaths. Let's start with a giant -- BP. Jobs versus the environment.

"That is a very false choice. Regarding the BP air permit, they framed that very issue. We don't want to stop the BP air permit. All that we want is for that air permit to have the most stringent standards, as it's supposed to under the Clean Air Act. This is not about stopping the Whiting expansion project.

"So, for the people of BP to come out at the hearing and say, 'This is for national security and our jobs are going to be lost' -- no. You can have your jobs and we can have environmental protection.

"Study after study shows that when you have a clean environment, the economy benefits. We'll have green jobs. You can have people working on projects that are good economically and environmentally; get me off of my soapbox."

You got my attention.

"How is a multibillion-dollar company like BP going to be put out of business just because it has to put in stringent environmental pollution controls at its new plant? Look at the price of oil. They are raking it in. They are making record profits."

Counselor, to paraphrase the late, great Carl Sagan, "BP's makin' billions and billions of bucks. Why 60 clams to gas up our trucks?"

"Sagan really said that?"

No, but I saw a chance to speak in rhyme and took it. An idiosyncrasy some find annoying -- editors in particular.

"I have a case fighting a local ethanol plant from being built in San Pierre. Ethanol is not a renewable energy source; in fact, it's very polluting to the surrounding communities. Ethanol made from corn is a horrible thing. Even the small plant that we're fighting uses 250,000 gallons of water per minute. Significant toxins end up in the local well-water supply.

"That's an example of a case where I'm representing the local community. They do not want the plant there, so we are challenging the Board of Zoning Appeal's decision to grant the plant a conditional use. The land where they want to build the plant is zoned for agriculture. An ethanol plant is industry, so you have to get it re-zoned or get a conditional use permit."

Kim, the ethanol plant would probably mean jobs for people living near San Pierre. It also could be a source of income for local farmers.

"The (company) is basically saying (it) will hire 32 people. Ethanol production seems like it would benefit local farmers, but the truth is, the corn that would be brought in for this plant would not come from local farmers. In fact, they'd also burn wood supply, old tires and garbage.

"OK, it might create a few jobs, but it's also going to cost the community in health problems and water issues. The water the plant uses is going to suck up the water the local farmers need for their crops.

"I represent more than 200 people in San Pierre as a community-action group. Not as sexy as BP ... ."

It is to the folks of San Pierre.

"The behemoths go out and spend millions of dollars and hire big-time lawyers to fight the things I'm bringing. We want to slow them down and raise awareness. And, if the judge agrees with what we're doing, that's great, too.

"We can go to meetings and (complain) all day long about the way things are, but to effect change against the powers that be respecting the environment, you need to educate yourself, know what your politicians' views are on environmental issues and support organizations like mine that do legal work for the environment. The only way to hold corporations accountable is to bring them into a court of law.

"At some point, we have to look at how we have become consumers at our own expense. At what point do we recognize that what we are doing is not sustainable? At what point do we say enough is enough?

"At some point, we're going to run out of oil. And we will have ruined the Earth in the process, so that our children's children's children have no place to live.

At what point do we say we can still have a good way of life and we can still maintain our existence on this Earth? We have to do it in a way that is not just for the for the almighty dollar; the environment always loses and, ultimately, we all lose."

One small planet, trashed by billions.

Detroit Takes Crime Stats Online

Detroit Police, long criticized for not keeping track of crime and having outdated statistics, has launched an interactive crime map on the agency's Web site that allows users to map every type of crime within a half-mile of an address.

The site maps crimes that occurred as recently as a week ago.

Police Chief Ella M. Bully-Cummings launched its CrimeView Community program to share crime data with residents, said Detroit Police spokesman James Tate.

"We understand it's important for us to have informed community," he said. "An informed community is the best type that can assist us in crime prevention."

Crime experts say, however, there haven't been any studies to show whether systems such as CrimeView have an impact on crime prevention.

"If we really wanted to know the impact, we have to take a bunch of cities and test what the impact was over time," said Christopher Maxwell, an associate professor of criminal justice at Michigan State University.

To use the system, users plug in an address or cross street, select the type of crime they want to view and the distance within a half-mile radius. Information on the site will be updated daily, Tate said.

The biggest users of crime mapping programs are business owners or people looking to purchase homes, Maxwell said. "Crime is pretty regular," he said. "You can pretty much predict where the high areas are going to be if it's been that way for a fair amount of time."

Resident Austin Black, a real estate agent who lives in Midtown, said he plans to use the system.

"It's good for residents to know what's going in their neighborhood," he said.

Virigina Offering Gift Certificates for Those Who Buckle Up

Law enforcement in Wise County will be stepping up its patrols on a dangerous road, in an effort to get more people to buckle up.
According to the Wise County Sheriff's Department, here's been three fatal crashes in a ten mile stretch of Route 58.
Police say none of the drivers who were killed were wearing a seat belt.
To get people to start wearing their seat belts, officers in Wise County, Coeburn, and the Virginia State Police will be conducting checkpoints.
And they will reward drivers who buckle up with gift certificates to area restaurants.
The first Operation 58 checkpoint will be held Monday at the Banner Bridge Intersection, just east of Coeburn, from 3:00 to 5:30pm.

Skype Launches Global Calling Plan

Skype on Monday launched an aggressive $9.95-a-month international calling plan for U.S. customers that includes landlines and some cell phone calls to 34 countries.

The action by the eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) unit comes just days after eBay's chief executive John Donahoe indicated the auction company will seek to find and improve synergies between the VoIP calling unit and eBay's core auction operation. The Financial Times also reported that Donahoe indicated that eBay would "reassess" Skype if its "synergies" with the auction company aren't strong.

"This move is a natural step for Skype," said Stefan Oberg, Skype's VP and general manager for telecoms, in a statement describing the new calling plans. "We're making it even easier for the Skype community to call their friends and family who are not yet on Skype." It was not immediately clear, however, whether the new calling plan will represent a direct synergistic relationship between Skype and auctions.

When eBay acquired Skype, the auction company envisioned sellers and buyers on its popular auction site calling each other over Skype. That activity never gained traction and eBay subsequently wrote off $1.4 billion of the $4.3 billion it paid for Skype.

Skype has continued to thrive and grow with more than 309 million global subscribers using the system for VoIP phone calls, instant messages, and now video calls.

"We're building a great business," said Donahoe after eBay reported first quarter financial results last week. He cited Skype's "strong growth trajectory." Even so, Skype stands out in bold relief against eBay's PayPal electronic payments system, which is heavily integrated in its auction business.

Josh Silverman, who was named chief executive of Skype last month, praised the support eBay is giving to the VoIP calling service. "I am delighted with the support we get from eBay," Silverman told the Reuters news service. "Synergies are not an end in and of itself, just a means to help us achieve our full potential."

Skype built its success on undercutting the prices of established telecom providers, and the VoIP business is continuing that policy with the $9.95 plan it announced Monday along with a variety of other calling plans among 34 countries.

The plans cover most European countries, North America, and many Asian countries. For U.S. subscribers, a $5.95-a-month plan covers all of North America as well as major Mexican cities. Skype currently offers a $3-a-month plan for North American calls.

4.4.08

Akin Gump Recruiter Law Suit Thrown Out

A New York state judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought against Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld by a legal recruiter who claimed the law firm stiffed him on a partner placement commission.

In a suit filed in October 2006, New York headhunter Eric Sivin of Sivin-Tobin Associates claimed he was entitled to a fee because he first introduced Akin Gump to Korea specialist Chang-Joo Kim, who joined the firm's New York office as a lateral partner from Dorsey & Whitney in April 2006.

The dispute highlighted the difficulties that can arise in a market for lateral partners that can be as competitive for recruiters as for the lawyers they represent.

In a decision granting summary judgment to Akin Gump, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jane Solomon ruled that, even if Sivin was first to submit Kim's resume to the firm, that fact alone did not make him the "procuring cause" of the partner's placement.

Akin Gump had credited another recruiter, Phil Morimoto of Boston Executive Search Associates, with the placement, paying him a commission of $227,500 for both Kim and one of his associates.

Solomon agreed and contrasted the two recruiters' approaches in her decision.

Sivin had e-mailed Kim's resume to Akin Gump's then-New York office head, Stephen M. Vine, on Dec. 19, 2005. The recruiter also attached to his e-mail a personalized letter and a term sheet stating Sivin Tobin's fee for the placement would be 25 percent of the candidate's total compensation in his first 12 months at the firm.

The judge noted that Vine stated in an affidavit he did not recall receiving Sivin's e-mail and that he would not have been interested anyway because the firm did not have a Korea practice in New York at the time.

Morimoto, on the other hand, sent the resume on Dec. 28, 2005, to Sukhan Kim, the Washington, D.C.-based head of Akin Gump's Korea practice, who met with Chang-Joo Kim barely a week later.

Sukhan Kim told Morimoto on Jan. 13, 2006, that he wanted Chang-Joo Kim to join Akin Gump's New York office, pending approval by firm chairman R. Bruce McLean, also resident in Washington.

Following that approval, Sukhan Kim and Morimoto held further meetings and continued to discuss Chang-Joo Kim's salary as well as Morimoto's fee. The judge said Sivin's relative inactivity meant he had no reasonable expectation of payment.

"[P]laintiff, admittedly, sent Chang-Joo's resume unsolicited and did nothing else to secure Chang-Joo's placement at Akin Gump, save for a few telephone calls and one subsequent e-mail to a man who, as plaintiff admits, never returned them," the judge wrote in Sivin-Tobin v. Akin Gump, 107123/06. "As such, it cannot be said that defendant accepted the alleged 'services' plaintiff performed."

Sivin Thursday expressed disappointment in the decision and said he would appeal it.

"It doesn't reflect the reality of the industry," he said. Most headhunters and firms follow a "first-come, first-served" approach, he added.

Sivin also took issue with the judge's characterization of his work on the placement. He said he spent a considerable amount of time working with Kim and getting him interested in Akin Gump, which he knew had a Korea practice. Sivin said he would have expected Vine, as head of the New York office, to forward the resume internally.

Law Firm Deals Down by a Third

Noting that the deals market has experienced “something of a ‘death rattle,'" MergerMarket reports that the volume of global M&A work has dropped substantially at the largest global firms.

Data released Thursday shows that U.K. and U.S. firms touched a third fewer M&A deals in the first quarter of 2008 than a year earlier.

At several top firms, including the high rankers in The American Lawyer’s 2008 Corporate Scorecard, M&A dropped by half as compared to the first quarter of 2007: Latham & Watkins went from 81 to 41 deals; Skadden from 69 to 32; and Sullivan & Cromwell from 44 to 26. Wachtell, which ranked second in U.S. M&A last year, according to the Corporate Scorecard, did not even make MergerMarket’s global top 20.

Not only were firms signing on fewer clients, but the value of the work was less: Only two deals on the list topped $100 billion. Each of the remaining deals were valued at no more than $19 billion.

The $100 billion spin-off of Philip Morris International Inc. announced in January skewed U.S.–sided deal counsel listings ranked by value, lifting some unlikely firms—Hunton & Williams, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, and McCarthy Tetrault—over their Wall Street competitors. If the Philip Morris deal is excluded, the same Wall Street firms that dominated the tables last year lead the current ranking.

The current credit freeze took the heaviest toll among the U.S. firms on global buyouts. While seven of the ten largest global deals in the first half of 2007 were leveraged buyouts, none was in the top ten this last quarter. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, longtime counsel to KKR, was the sole U.S. firm among the top five in value of global buyouts, with just $5.6 billion in deals. Linklaters and Lovells took second and third in deal value, up from twenty-third and forty-third a year ago, respectively.

Los Angeles Health Care Attorney Michael Khouri Featured on The Insider Exclusive

Well known attorney Michael Khouri will be featured on the Insider Exclusive Show which regularly features prominent lawyers and business executives. This is a description taken from the Insider Exclusive TV show site:

America’s Best TV Legal Commentators. Mike is a former Deputy District Attorney in Orange County, California, and an insightful expert concerning the criminal justice system. He concentrates his practice on the defense of licensed professionals, mostly health care providers, charged with criminal offenses. Mike has also defended numerous health care defense matters including, Medi-Care and Medi-Cal fraud matters, sexual assault cases and narcotics and other substance abuse matters. When a prosecutor, he personally briefed and argued the case of People v. Bravo before the California Supreme Court which resulted in the Supreme Court establishing guidelines regarding the search of repeat narcotics offenders. His approach to major legal issues makes for riveting commentary that is eloquent and highly informative.


Mike has a BA from Loyola Marymount University, a MPA from California State University, Long Beach, and a JD from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Mr. Khouri recently started his own practice which can be found here: Health Care Attorney Los Angeles