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Alex Jones attorney suspended from practicing law in Connecticut

A lawyer for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been suspended from practicing law in Connecticut for six months for improperly giving other Jones’ attorneys in Texas confidential documents, including the medical records of relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The ruling by Judge Barbara Bellis on Thursday afternoon came in the families’ lawsuit against Jones for repeatedly calling the shooting a hoax on his Infowars show, which resulted in Jones being ordered to pay more than $1.4 billion in damages after a jury trial in Connecticut last year.

Bellis said New Haven-based lawyer Norm Pattis failed to safeguard the families’ sensitive records in violation of her order that limited access to the documents to attorneys in the Connecticut case. She called his actions an “abject failure” and “inexcusable.”

YEAR IN REVIEW: THE FIVE WILDEST COURTROOM DRAMAS OF 2022

“We cannot expect our system of justice or our attorneys to be perfect, but we can expect fundamental fairness and decency,” the judge wrote. “There was no fairness or decency in the treatment of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive and personal information, and no excuse for the respondent’s (Pattis’) misconduct.”

Pattis said Friday in a text message that he

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January 9, 2023 by ATTORNEY

As more senior executives quit, Musk warns of Twitter bankruptcy

In a latest update, Twitter Inc’s new owner Elon Musk on Thursday cautioned that there is a possibility of the social media platform going bankrupt, closing a chaotic day that included a warning from a U.S. privacy regulator and the resignation of the company’s trust and safety head.

Elon Musk at Twitter Headquarters

Elon Musk at Twitter Headquarters

Bloomberg news reported that the billionaire-investor on his first mass call with employees said that he could not rule out the chance of bankruptcy, two weeks after taking over the company in a $44 billion deal that, according to credit experts, has left Twitter’s finances in an uncertain position.

In his first company-wide email, earlier in the day, Musk said that Twitter would not be able to “survive the upcoming economic downturn” if it did not succeed in boosting subscription revenue to compensate for the falling advertising income. This was informed by three people who have seen the message to Reuters.

Yoel Roth

Two people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Yoel Roth, who has headed Twitter’s response to counter hate speech, misinformation and spam on the service, resigned on Thursday.

In his Twitter bio on Thursday, Roth described himself as “Former Head of Trust &

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November 18, 2022 by ATTORNEY

California Bar Details 205 Complaints Against Tom Girardi

Tom Girardi speaks to the press in 2014 as a lawyer for Bryan Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan who was severely beaten during a 2011 Dodgers game.

The California State Bar announced Thursday that it has received 205 complaints about prominent lawyer Tom Girardi in the last 40 years, acknowledging in a letter to the public that the agency’s handling of them “brought to light serious failures in the State Bar’s attorney discipline system.”

“There is no excuse being offered here; Girardi caused irreparable harm to hundreds of his clients, and the State Bar could have done more to protect the public. We can never allow something like this to happen again,” wrote Ruben Duran, chair of the bar’s Board of Trustees.

The letter includes a summary of each complaint and its disposition, with 136 complaints received between Aug. 10, 1982, and Dec. 17, 2020. Another 69 were received after a petition was filed on Dec. 18, 2020, to force Girardi’s law firm Girardi Keese into bankruptcy.

Of the 205 complaints, 120 alleged violations involving client trust accounts. Those accounts are where lawyers keep client money, and they’re subject to strict regulations that the court-appointed trustee for

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November 5, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Limiting ‘preference’ liability exposure in bankruptcy
Foster Joe

Joe Foster

As the saying goes, what goes up, must come down. After years of robust growth, the U.S. economy appears to be hitting a rough patch. In the coming months, it is likely that some businesses will not survive the challenges that lie ahead, and will be forced to file bankruptcy.

As bankruptcy attorneys, we find that one of the most difficult issues to explain to a client is receipt of a demand letter from a bankruptcy trustee seeking return of payments from a customer received months or years before. To add insult to injury, the customer, now a debtor in bankruptcy, often still owes the client. In addition, the letter typically includes a threat that if the payment is not returned, the trustee will file a lawsuit.

This claim by the trustee is referred to as a “preference” action. The intent of the law is to prohibit insolvent companies from playing favorites or preferring a particular vendor over another. Preference claims force the so-called “preferred” vendor to return the payment so that all general creditors can enjoy equality of treatment.

A preference claim is, unfortunately, very simple to bring and very easy to prove. To successfully assert the

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September 5, 2022 by ATTORNEY

What NYC’s Pay Transparency Law and Its Delayed Implementation Mean

​Despite delays and uncertainty about its implementation, one thing is for certain about New York City’s new pay transparency law: A lot of lawyers are going to get paid exploring it and its fluid, dynamic nature.

Earlier this year, the city enacted a law that requires employers to list the salary range in any job advertisement. Then, just as the law was about to go into effect in May, the city delayed its implementation to November with new amendments. This delay was implemented in part to allow both advocates of the law and those with concerns to continue discussing how this law can work in practice. 

The reason? The original version of the law left some terms undefined—including key ones for a law like this, such as “advertising” and “salary”—and the law was unclear on how hourly workers would be affected.

The May amendment signed by Mayor Eric Adams clarifies a few issues. There is now no financial penalty for a first violation if the employer resolves it within 30 days. And the law now specifically applies only to jobs that are performed at least in part within the city.

It’s likely that the mayor will sign another amendment

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June 24, 2022 by LAW
May 2024
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