With many thanks to those who served our country.
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Category: About This Blog
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Check out this new blog by Susan Bozorgi titled, Women Criminal Defense Attorneys here.
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Prominent white collar litigator Abbe David Lowell will receive the 2013 White Collar Criminal Defense Award during the NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College program at Stetson University College of Law in Tampa Bay, Fla. The award, which honors individuals who have made a profound impact on the field of white collar criminal defense advocacy, will be presented on Jan. 12, 2013.
Mr. Lowell, a partner at Chadbourne & Parke LLP and head of the firm's White Collar Defense, Regulatory Investigations and Litigation Group, is one of the nation's leading white collar defense and trial attorneys. He has successfully tried cases in 17 states and argued in more than a dozen courts of appeals, including the Supreme Court. He advises clients in their dealings with the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, and federal and state regulatory agencies. Mr. Lowell has defended notable high-profile public and political clients, most recently former U.S. presidential candidate Senator John Edwards, whose four-week trial ended with an acquittal and hung jury counts, resulting in the Justice Department dropping the case on June 13, 2012.
"I am honored and humbled to receive this award from my peers, and want to thank both the Stetson University College of Law and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for selecting me," said Mr. Lowell. "I am proud to work with my white collar defense colleagues around the country to maintain the balance between government and the rights of those charged with crimes."
Mr. Lowell also served as chief minority counsel during impeachment proceedings against former President Bill Clinton and as special ethics counsel to the House Committee of Standards of Official Conduct. He was special counselor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the investigation and prosecution of human rights violations and war crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia from 1994-96. Mr. Lowell teaches criminal law, evidence and trial practice at Georgetown Law Center and Columbia Law School and has written extensively on criminal law and procedure issues in legal and non-legal publications.
He has been recognized as one of the most influential attorneys and best white collar defense attorneys in the U.S. by publications including The National Law Journal as well as Chambers and Best Lawyers in America.
The NACDL White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson is a legal education program for practitioners wishing to gain key advocacy skills and learn substantive white collar law from masters in the field. The program is scheduled for Jan. 9-13, 2013. For more information, contact Stetson Law Professor Ellen S. Podgor at 727-562-7348 or epodgor@law.stetson.edu or NACDL Meetings Manager Tamara Kalacevic at 202-872-8600 x641 or tkalacevic@nacdl.org. You can learn more about the program, and access a registration application by clicking here.
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Check out A. Brian Albritton's, False Claims Act & Qui Tam Law Blog – Recent news and cases concerning the False Claims Act, Qui Tams, whistleblowers, and other related collateral proceedings.
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2011 White Collar Crime Awards
Each year this blog has honored individuals and organizations for their work in the white collar crime arena by bestowing "The Collar" on those who deserve praise, scorn, acknowledgment, blessing, curse, or whatever else might be appropriate. I welcome comments from readers who would like to suggest additional categories or winners (or losers?).
With the appropriate fanfare, and without further ado,
The Collars for 2011:
The Collar for Best Waste of Time - To those trying to redraft honest services legislation that will comply with footnote 45 in the Skilling decision.
The Collar for Most Important Piece of Legislation Not Enacted this Year - New laws to assure discovery is provided by prosecutors to assure a fair judicial system.
The Collar for the Hottest Potato - The Unreleased Report on discovery violations in the Stevens case.
The Collar for the Gun Used Most Often in Corporate Hold-ups – The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.(two years in a row)
The Collar for the Least Likely to Survive – A FCPA case that goes to trial
The Collar for the Case Most Needing Review – Sholom Rubashkin's 27 year sentence. (two years in a row)
The Collar for the Shame on You for Doing That – Prosecutors who asked for 24 years in the Raj Rajaratnam case
The Collar for Most Likely to Miss an Iceberg in Alaskan Waters - AUSAs who fail to provide Brady material to defense counsel despite new rules issued by DOJ
The Collar for the Most Baffling Media Relations – tied this year between Blago and Sandusky
The Collar for Dereliction of Duty – to the Department of Justice for failing to seriously investigate the biggest financial meltdown since the Great Depression
The Collar for Recidivism – to the Department of Justice's Fraud Section for Lindsey Manufacturing
The Collar for the Best Moment of Silence – To the Solyndra execs who recognized the importance of the 5th amendment constitutional right
The Collar for the Best Effort to Prolong his 15 Minutes of Fame – Joseph Amendola, the attorney for Jerry Sandusky, who conducted a highly-criticized press campaign with his client
The Collar for the Wildest Pitch – To the prosecutors in the Roger Clemens case that put it into extra innings
The Collar for the Misplacement of Funds – Tied – legislators for failing to give the SEC more funding so that we can avoid future Ponzi schemes like Madoff, yet giving funds for environmental raids like the one against the Gibson Guitar factory here
The Collar for Most illegitimate Prosecution - To the prosecutors who are proceeding against John Edwards
The Collar for Sentencing Sanity – To Hon. Ellen Huevelle for consistently rejecting DOJ's draconian sentencing recommendations
The Collar for the Best Willful Blindness – To the DOJ for not filing a brief in the Global Tech case where the Supreme Court reformed criminal willful blindness law in a civil case — you mean they really didn't know about this case
The Collar for the Lowest Box Office Hit - The denial of Wesley Snipes Cert petition that went almost unnoticed in the media
The Collar for Most Qualified Judge for American Idol - Tied- To Hon. Roger Titus for voting off the government's case in the Lauren Stevens case and Hon. Howard Matz for voting off Lindsey Manufacturing
The Collar for the Best Portrayal of Casablanca's Captain Reynaud – Jon Corzine, who was "stunned" to hear of apparent diversions at MF Global.
The Collar for the Best Parent – retired years ago and renamed the Bill Olis Best Parent Award – unawarded this year since no one comes even close to Bill Olis, may he rest in peace.
The Collar for Best Performance of "The Good Wife," old style – Anne Sinclair, Dominique Strauss-Kahn's wife, who supported him financially and publicly through it all.
The Collar for Best Effort to Support the Legal Profession – New York State Assemblyman William Boyland, who while under indictment for bribery allegedly sought an unrelated $250,000 bribe to pay his lawyer.
The Collar for Making a Mountain out of a Muffin — The DOJ Inspector General for issuing a report criticizing the department for excessive charges for program meetings (and then backtracking on its findings).
The Collar for Declinations – to the Department of Justice for failing to indict anyone in the Robo-signing cases
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The passing of Professor Larry Ribstein is being noted on many blogs (see here, here, here, and here)(See also University of Illinois College of Law notice here). As it should be. He was an extraordinary scholar and a welcomed and strong member of the academic blogosphere. His Ideoblog housed some of the best entries on overcriminalization and the injustices of sentencing in white collar cases. He was the master at analyzing and speaking about agency costs in the white collar arena. I had the pleasure of being a co-organizer of the Overcriminalization 2.0 Symposium that was presented and published by George Mason's Journal of Law, Economics & Policy, along with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where Larry presented an incredible paper. Larry was never afraid to speak up against injustices, even when it was unpopular to do so. He will be missed – RIP, Larry.
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Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday.
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Vacancy Announcement for the position of Deputy Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia – Download PDS Deputy Director FINAL
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Just wanted to take a moment to thank all the readers of the white collar crime prof blog for stopping by and reading this blog. Your readership is truly appreciated. Also wanted to especially thank co-bloggers Lawrence Goldman and Solomon Wisenberg for their wonderful entries. Happy Thanksgiving.
(esp)(blogging from Atlanta)
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2010 White Collar Crime Awards
Each year this blog has honored individuals and organizations for their work in the white collar crime arena by bestowing "The Collar" on those who deserve praise, scorn, acknowledgment, blessing, curse, or whatever else might be appropriate. I welcome comments from readers who would like to suggest additional categories or winners (or losers?).
With the appropriate fanfare, and without further ado,
The Collars for 2010:
The Collar for the Least Read Piece of Legislation By Congress - The Dodd-Frank Act.
The Collar for the Most Read Piece of Legislation By Corporate Counsel– The whistleblower provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act.
The Collar for Best Legislating from the Bench – The Supreme Court Justices who held in the Skilling decision that the honest services statute of mail fraud should be read to include bribery and kickbacks.
The Collar for the Best Rube Goldberg Maze - The Supreme Court Justices who failed in the Skilling decision to explain what will constitute bribery and kickbacks.
The Collar for Recognizing the Best Invention of the Year - To Justice Scalia for his concurring opinion in Skilling.
The Collar for the Gun Used Most Often in Corporate Hold-ups – The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The Collar for Second Chances Sometimes Don't Make A Difference– To Greg Reyes who was convicted in a retrial.
The Collar for Wanna-Be An Economic Stimulus to the Legal Profession – To the defendant formerly known as Sir Allen Stanford.
The Collar for "You Want It When?" – To Lloyd's of London for successfully avoiding further payment of defense costs to the criminal defendants in U.S. v. Stanford, et al. Note to corporate executives and boards: Remember to read the fine print before purchasing that D&O Policy.
The Collar for Missing the Boat – To the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for dragging its feet on the robo-signing fraud. The OCC gives new meaning to the term "light-touch."
The Collar for Better Late Than Never – To the prosecutors who finally dismissed charges in the Enron Barge prosecution
The Collar for Singing the Best Version of Going In the Right Direction – To AG Holder for his memo that recognizes that sentencing should be based on an individual assessment
The Collar for Shirley Jackson Traditonalism – To the Department of Justice for thwarting all efforts to reform Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 16. The new DOJ has improved considerably under Mr. Holder, but still finds it hard to jettison a rigged system.
The Collar for Boosting the Incomes of Former AUSA & US Attorneys – BP
The Collar for Most in Need of Hearing Aid Batteries– To all of the federal circuit court judges who continue to reverse district court downward variances on dubious procedural and substantive grounds. Hey folks! Haven't you heard about Apprendi, Blakely, Booker, Gall, Kimbrough, and Spears?
The Collar for the Most Likely to Have its Theme Song "I Won't Back Down" - The Department of Justice, for trying to "fix" honest services.
The Collar for Being Fired Twice – To Rod Blagojevich for being impeached and fired on Celebrity Apprentice.
The Collar for US News WannaBe– To the ABA for its method of selecting best blogs. (two years in a row)
The Collar for Least Likely to Appear Together in "Dancing With the Stars" - President Obama and Justice Alito.
The Collar for Invited Error – To Justice Alito for his comments during President Obama's State of the Union address.
The Collar for the "Best Offense may NOT be a Defense" – To Steve Rattner for writing a book about his tenure as President Obama's car czar while under investigation by New York Attorney General Cuomo. Rattner still got slapped with a lawsuit by the state.
The Collar for Much Ado About Nothing – To the Department of Justice for devoting precious prosecutorial resources to insider trading and so-called foreign corrupt practices–activities that arguably shouldn't be illegal in the first place–while ignoring financial institution accounting irregularities that helped fuel the biggest recession since the 1930s.
The Collar for Most Likely to Star In A Prison Picture titled "Watch Our Government Waste Funds"– Wesley Snipes
The Collar for the Case Most Needing Review – Sholom Rubashkin's 27 year sentence.
The Collar for Least Likely to Appear on the T.V. Show "I've Got a Secret" – The U.S. State Department.
The Collar for Getting it Right – To SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz for his hard hitting, spot-on report detailing the SEC's failure to adequately investigate or regulate R. Allen Stanford.
The Collar for the Best Parent – retired years ago and renamed the Bill Olis Best Parent Award – unawarded this year since no one comes even close to Bill Olis, may he rest in peace.
(esp & slw)
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