LAW

San Diego sues former lawyer, law firm after losing $3.9 million wrongful-termination case

Months after losing a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by one of its longtime prosecutors, the San Diego City Attorney’s Office has sued the outside law firm and one of its then-lawyers for malpractice and other alleged lapses.

City Attorney Mara Elliott is suing lawyer William Price and Burke, Williams & Sorensen, the firm she hired to defend against a case brought by former assistant city attorney Marlea Dell’Anno.

The lawsuit, filed last week in San Diego Superior Court, accuses the firm and its former partner of mishandling the case, which earlier this year ended with a $3.9 million jury verdict against the city.

“Defendants breached the duty of an attorney to discharge duties faithfully to the best of their knowledge and ability,” the suit says. “As a direct, foreseeable and proximate result of defendants’ conduct, the city has suffered substantial economic losses.”

Neither Burke nor Price responded to requests for comment on the allegations.

According to the suit, Price was defending the city in

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August 1, 2022 by LAW

Three Big Law Firms Aid Amazon $3.49 Billion One Medical Buy (1)

Amazon.com Inc.‘s bid to buy One Medical and break into the US health care market is getting help from three Big Law firms.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is advising Amazon while Cooley and Ropes & Gray are representing San Francisco-based 1Life Healthcare Inc., parent of primary care company One Medical.

One Medical operates 182 medical offices in 25 markets in the US. Customers pay a subscription fee for access to doctors and 24-hour digital services. Amazon’s purchase of One Medical for $3.49 billion in cash would be the third-largest deal in the Seattle-based company’s history.

Paul Weiss corporate partners Krishna Veeraraghavan and Kyle Seifried are counseling Amazon. Paul Weiss recruited Veeraraghavan last year from Sullivan & Cromwell in a high-profile lateral move.

Steven Tonsfeldt leads the Cooley team. Cooley hired him in 2016 after the Silicon Valley dealmaker led the mergers and acquisitions practice at O’Melveny & Myers.

Other Cooley lawyers representing One Medical include corporate partners Matthew Hemington and Annie Lieberman, as well as associate Gaël Hagan.

Ropes & Gray health care partners Jennifer Romig and Christina Bergeron are working with a half-dozen associates for One Medical.

Cooley’s Tonsfeldt and Hemington and Ropes & Gray’s Romig

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July 31, 2022 by LAW

AG Paxton Announces Forrest Brumbaugh as New Deputy AG for Legal Counsel

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced the appointment of D. Forrest Brumbaugh as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel. Mr. Brumbaugh comes to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas with over 28 years of experience in the private sector. Forrest was named shareholder at one of Texas’s leading law firms, Winstead Sechrest & Minick less than seven years after graduating law school.  In 2004, he became a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, now Norton Rose Fulbright, one of the 15 largest law firms in the world. 

“I have known Attorney General Ken Paxton and his values for over 30 years,” said Mr. Brumbaugh. “I am honored that Attorney General Paxton has given me the opportunity to serve as the Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel. I look forward to carrying out our common goals of serving Texans.” 

“I have always been impressed with Forrest’s intelligence and creative approach to solving complex issues,” said Attorney General Paxton.  “I am excited that he is bringing those skills to our Agency as we continue our fight to protect all Texans.” 

Mr. Brumbaugh’s private practice included corporate, securities, and mergers and acquisitions, including representing some of the world’s largest institutional

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July 30, 2022 by LAW

Ex-Trump DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark hit with legal ethics charges over post-election role

Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department attorney at the center of former President Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election results, was hit Friday with ethics charges alleging that his role in the post-election effort amounted to a breach of legal ethics.

The charges, filed by the District of Columbia Bar Office of Disciplinary Counsel, sets in motion disciplinary proceedings over allegations that Clark engaged in dishonest conduct and sought to interfere with the administration of justice and will culminate in findings that could affect Clark’s D.C. law license.

Clark, who specialized in environmental law at the Justice Department, clark-draft-letter.html”attempted to send a letter to Georgia officials pushing the state to suspend certification of its 2020 election results until the Justice Department investigated fraud claims, despite agency leaders saying such claims were without merit.

After former Attorney General William Barr resigned in December 2020, Clark pushed Trump to nominate him to lead the Justice Department and pursue the president’s false election claims.

Clark said that if selected as acting attorney general he would send the letter to state legislatures, despite warnings from fellow Justice Department lawyers about incorrect information.

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July 28, 2022 by LAW

Trump PACs paid $2 million this year to law firms representing January 6 witnesses

The biggest recipient of payments from Trump’s political committees is Elections, LLC, a firm that employs several former Trump campaign lawyers and former White House lawyer Stefan Passantino, who at one point represented a key hearing witness, Cassidy Hutchinson. Passantino hasn’t answered CNN’s previous questions about his representation of Hutchinson.

Elections LLC has received more than $1.6 million this year, including $1 million that Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC paid in May to an entity called, E LLC Iolta, which shares a Washington, DC, address with the firm, a recent filing shows.

The Daily Beast first reported the $1 million May payment to E LLC Iolta. CNN has requested comment from Elections, LLC.

The CNN tally examined legal fees paid in this calendar year by the Make America Great Again PAC and Trump’s main political vehicle, Save America PAC. The filings do not show which specific lawyers in the firm received payments, and the filings don’t explain what the law firms did for the Trump committees beyond the broad description of “legal consulting” or “legal expenses.”

It’s impossible to tell from the filings with the Federal Election Commission whether payments to these firms specifically covered work representing witnesses before

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July 27, 2022 by LAW
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