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Tag: Law
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Jose Cabranes Was an Early Mentor to Sonia Sotomayor
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Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling defends against another lawsuit
The estate of a dead writer who created a fictional wizard named Willy wants $50 million from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, claiming she stole passages from their man’s book and infringed on his – and now the estate’s – copyright.
The estate also says it intends to sue Rowling individually.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)The showdown – Rowling’s second plagiarism lawsuit – will take place in London and invoke the ghost of Adrian Jacobs, author of The Adventures of Willy the Wizard, published in 1987. The book was first rejected by Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, more than a decade before it gave Rowling’s her start.
Jacobs died about the time the first book in Rowling’s hugely lucrative series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, hit the market.
Tuesday, Bloomsbury responded to the plagiarism accusation in the London Daily Mail, calling it “unfounded, unsubstantiated and untrue,” dismissed Jacobs’ book as “a very insubstantial booklet running to 36 pages which had very limited distribution,” and said the claim was first made in 2004 – years after the first several Potter books were published – and the publisher was “unable to identify any text in the Harry Potter books which was said to copy Willy the Wizard.”
Rowling, who prevailed in an unrelated 2002 plagiarism suit after that writer was found to have changed evidence to bolster her own claim, had no comment about the latest clash of wizards.
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Mark Walsh gets another crack at Lehman fundsJune 21, 2009 at 10:10am
The man some blame for the investments that brought Lehman Brothers Holdings down is getting a second chance to profit from those investments.
Lawyer Marc S. Dreier awaits sentencing after plea
But for Bernard L. Madoff, Marc S. Dreier might be a household name.
Accused of money laundering, wire fraud, securities fraud and other charges, Dreier pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Manhattan. He had been charged with selling nearly $700 million in fake promissory notes. Investors may have lost as much as $400 million.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)He faces a sentence of 20 years to life on each of the most serious charges against him.
“I understand that everything I was doing was illegal,” Dreier told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff on the day before his 59th birthday, Bloomberg news reported.
Rakoff allowed Dreier to remain under house arrest until his July 13 sentencing.
By a purely monetary standard, Dreier’s offenses did not match those of Madoff, who took investors for as much as $68 billion.
However, Dreier beats Madoff on style points, according to Robert Kolker of New York Magazine.
“Dreier took a starring role in his own financial drama,” Kolker wrote. “Where Madoff was outwardly quiet and self-effacing, Dreier was openly egotistical, even smug. He seemed to think he could lie to his victims’ faces and get away with it, to thrill, even, in the art of deceiving people.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Dreier was the founder of Dreier LLP, a 250-member firm that had offices in New York City and Los Angeles before it fell apart after Dreier’s arrest.
Seemingly successful, Dreier lived the high life before his troubles became public. He collected cars, art, celebrity friends. He gave to charities; dated beautiful women.
He also created a financial house of cards that began to tumble last year as some investors asked for their money back.
Scrambling for funds, Dreier flew to Toronto in December. While there, he represented himself to a hedge fund executive as an official with the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Something seemed wrong to the hedge fund guy; the police were tipped off. Dreier was arrested for impersonation. He spent a few days in jail and then was released on $100,000 bail.
Unshaven, looking like someone coming up for air after a binge, Dreier headed back to the U.S. Authorities welcomed him a LaGuardia Airport with an arrest warrant.
He stayed in jail until February when he was released on a $10 million bond.
Under the terms of his bail, Dreier, who is represented by defense attorney Gerald L. Shargel, can’t leave his Upper East Side apartment without court permission.
He has to pay for security guards and can’t have a cell phone. (The apartment is now for sale for $10 million.)
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GM considers move from Detroit’s Renaissance CenterMay 14, 2009 at 8:08am
When GM CEO Fritz Henderson raised the possibility that the automaker could vacate the Renaissance Center, it raised the threat of both real and symbolic devastation for Detroit.
Henry Schuelke brings history of probes to Stevens case
Henry F. Schuelke III, a lawyer with links to a wide variety of high-profile cases, has taken on the task of investigating the bungled prosecution of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan gave the job to Schuelke, whose resume includes an in-house investigation of Jack Abramoff, the corrupt lobbyist.
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MAP HINTS: Boxes with + signs can be expanded by doubleclicking. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For more options, right-click on a box or click on the map tools to the left. (Requires Flash)Schuelke will try to determine if six government attorneys committed possible crimes in their handling of the corruption trial that led to Stevens’ conviction last year a few days before Election Day.
Stevens, 84, a Republican who had served in the Senate for 40 years, lost by fewer than 4,000 votes, his defeat at the polls attributed by many to his loss at trial.
The Justice Department withdrew the indictment against Stevens last week. Sullivan threw out the conviction on Tuesday, citing prosecution misconduct that included the failure to turn over to the defense evidence favorable to Stevens.
The Justice Department is investigating the prosecution, as well. However, Sullivan said an outside investigator was needed.
“The events of this case are too numerous and serious to leave to an internal inquiry by the Justice Department,” Sullivan said.
Schuelke, 66, a partner in the Washington firm of Janis, Schuelke & Wechsler and a former assistant U.S. attorney, has taken on the investigation of government officials before.
In 1981, He served as special Democratic counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when it was considering the nomination of Alexander Haig to be secretary of state in the Reagan administration.
In 1989, he acted as special counsel to the U.S. Senate committee looking into allegations against then-U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato of New York. After a long process, the committee chose not to censure D’Amato.
In 1996, During the Clinton administration, Schuelke represented Carolyn Huber, the special assistant to the president who found some missing papers related to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s work while at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas.
Later Schuelke represented Betty Currie, President Clinton’s personal secretary, during the investigation of the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Away from government, Schuelke has represented Ben F. Glisan Jr., the former treasurer of the Enron Corporation, and Jack L. Williams, a former lobbyist for Tyson Foods.
In 2004, Greenberg Traurig LLP hired Schuelke to conduct an internal investigation into the conduct of Abramoff, a lobbyist with the firm who later pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion.
Fellow attorneys said this week that Schuelke brings the right blend of experience and temperament to the task of looking into the handling of the Stevens prosecution.
“He’s somebody who is scrupulously balanced, which I think is what you are looking for,” W. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a litigator with Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, told the Associated Press.
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Commerce Secy Gary Locke is longtime advocate of Boeing, MicrosoftApril 10, 2009 at 8:49am
From the outset of his political career, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was bullish about business.
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