Category Archives: Law: Everything Else

Obama DoJ May Revive Anti-Trust Enforcement

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

I found this blog posting by Jamie Love to be very interesting — Knowledge Ecology Notes » Meeting at DOJ on the Ticketmaster /Live Nation merger — especially if its optimism turns out to be justified.

There were several interesting things that came out during the 90 minute meeting. One was that the DOJ clearly understood that the opposition to the merger would not be satisfied with a few divestitures, and this was really an up or down decision for the merger as a whole.

One early question put to us was, would consumers be better off with two vertically integrated companies, rather than one (a not too hypothetical case of TM and LN vertically integrating both promoting and ticket sales). This was not a difficult question for anyone.

My own take was the DOJ is willing to stop the merger, and is devoting resources to build a case against the merger.

This isn't anywhere near the most important merger in history, but could be a major sign of things to come.

Posted in Law: Everything Else | 8 Comments

Updates on Sex/Race Bias Suit Against UF Law

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Some updates to my previous post, UF Law Professor Files Sex/Race Discrimination Lawsuit:

  • Paul Caron has the most extensive updates, including a link to a public email from Florida Dean Bob Jerry, which says, among other things,

    At this time, I am at liberty to say that the allegations of discrimination in this case are unfounded. We will be responding vigorously to this complaint, and we will provide a copy of our response when we do. There are important facts with bearing on this case that will come out when we submit our response.

  • Earlier, in Former Florida Law Prof Comments on Racial and Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Against School and Dean Prof. Caron wrote, “Ms. Russell-Brown has sent me the following clarification:”

    I just wanted to clarify one point for your blog that was not covered by the National Law Journal article, but which is addressed in my complaint.

    I went on leave from the UF College of Law in August 2004, in order to meet the 2-year residency requirement for a DPhil in public international law at the University of Oxford (UK). It was while I was overseas that I felt more comfortable, as a “tenure-accruing” faculty member, speaking up about some of the statements and/or comments that I was hearing. I returned from leave back to Gainesville in January 2007, which is when I began to experience the difficulties resulting in my departure by the end of that year, December 31, 2007.

    However, while I was on leave and at Oxford for my doctoral studies, from August 2004 until December 2006, my “tenure clock” stopped, along with my publication obligation, and was “re-started” when I returned to academic service at the UF College of Law in January 2007. Consequently, my complaint does not allege that I was “passed over” for tenure consideration, in the sense of being denied tenure, but rather that I was not allowed to continue in my “tenure-accruing” position starting from January 2007, until the end of my “tenure probationary period” in 2009-2010 – that my “tenure clock” was unlawfully stopped on December 31, 2007, in retaliation for my disclosures, and I was not allowed to be considered for tenure in 2009-2010, as UF faculty regulations provide.

Other updates of note:

Posted in Law School, Law: Everything Else | 2 Comments

UF Law Professor Files Sex/Race Discrimination Lawsuit

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Paul Caron has the details in TaxProf Blog: Former Florida Law Prof Files Racial and Sexual Discrimination Lawsuit Against School and Dean.

The well-written complaint — yes, just one side of the story — makes for ugly reading.

Posted in Law School, Law: Everything Else | 9 Comments

TARP: Let a Thousand Lawsuits Bloom

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Alison Frankel writes in the Am Law Litigation Daily, Are Whistle-Blowers Lurking Under the Federal TARP?:

There were few regulations in place when the Treasury Department handed out the first $350 billion. Can the recipients be accused of making false claims when they hardly had to document their claims at all?

Yes, according to a new Fried Frank client alert. The three-page analysis by D.C. partners John Boese and James McCullough points to a letter that TARP special inspector Neil Barofsky recently sent to Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, outlining certifications and documentation that TARP intends to require of all those institutions that received funding. “False certifications,” the Fried Frank alert warns, “have been the basis for FCA claims when they were material to the government's decision to release funds or not to seek return of funds.”

Boese told us that the new paperwork requirements will impose post hoc rules for recipients, heightening their exposure. “Qui tam claims are almost a certainty,” Boese said. “Whether there's liability, that's a different question.”

Fried Frank's client memo also notes that the Treasury Department's interim conflict-of-interest and disclosure rules for contractors and financial agents may mean new False Claims Act exposure for businesses that provide TARP-related services, which are required to report any potential violations to the government.

It might be nice to see some of the hogs at the trough get…well trimmed at least.

Posted in Econ & Money: Mortgage Mess, Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on TARP: Let a Thousand Lawsuits Bloom

Thoughts on the Cabinet With Special Reference to Eric Holder

Posted on January 16, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

In Salon, Joe Conason offers his take on The real reason Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich. It's by far the most interesting thing I've read about the Holder nomination/confirmation process.

By and large Obama's appointees are smart-to-brilliant technocrats. A few of the nominations seem inspired — General Eric Shinseki to the VA, Steven Chu to Energy, Janet Napolitano to DHS. A few seem odd or high-risk — Dennis Blair as DNI, Hillary Clinton to State, Mary Schapiro to the SEC (huh?).

And then there is Eric Holder. Very smart. Very hard-working. Very experienced. Perfect for the Attorney General job in normal times. But these are not normal times: the AG in the coming administration is going to be faced with a number of unusual challenges involving cleaning up the messes of his predecessors. For example, and just off the top of my head:

  • Dealing with inescapable evidence of war crimes by members of the Bush administration
  • Dealing with strong evidence of perjury by members of the Bush administration
  • Cleaning up the mess in the Justice Department caused by politicized hiring
  • Restoring confidence in the politicized US Attorney's office — and re-examining possibly politicized prosecutions (and exonerations)
  • Reviewing shoddy and in some cases evil (and secret) opinions of the OLC
  • Prosecuting thieves who pillaged some of the other agencies and especially the war effort in Iraq

And lots more besides. These tasks require not just a technocrat, but someone with a strong moral compass, maybe even the capacity to feel outrage. Is that Holder? Some accounts suggest it could be. Others, focusing particularly on his involvement in the Marc Rich pardon, suggest it isn't always.

Conason's account of how the pardon came to be — a response to intense foreign pressure, a bargaining chip in the peace process — suggests that there might have been a reason why even a person of strong principles could have favored the deal. That gives me some hope. Hope is not a plan, but it's something.

Note: I give little weight one way or the other the Obama proto-administration's statements soft-peddling the chances of war crime/torture prosecutions. An administration planning on investigations with an eye to possible prosecutions would, if it were smart, say exactly what Obama has been saying now. A public posture of skepticism pays three related dividends:

  1. Signaling, prior to Inauguration Day, that prosecutions are unlikely reduces the chances of preemptive lame-duck pardons.
  2. Suggesting prosecutions are unwanted removes any defense of vendetta/political interference were there to be a trial.
  3. Suggesting prosecutions are unwelcome allows a hypothetical future Obama to allow the prosecutions to go forward more in sorrow than in anger, 'due to the overwhelming evidence'.

I'm not saying that I think this is in fact what they are planning; if you asked me, the odds are they actually mean what they say. Which is why the extent to which Holder is a man of steely principle as well as a great lawyer and an über-technocrat is so important.

Posted in Law: Everything Else | Comments Off on Thoughts on the Cabinet With Special Reference to Eric Holder

Mr. Dennis Webb Seeks Your Advice

Posted on November 20, 2008 by Michael Froomkin

When you have an online web presence, you get asked all sorts of things.

But this was a new one, which I reprint with the permission of Mr. Dennis W. Webb of Fort Worth, TX.:

I realize you're probably very busy, so I'll get right to my problem. Tomorrow I'm to begin writing summaries of a local lawyer's court cases. (Sorry, I'm not even sure what this is called.) I've read your “Legal Writing Tips,” which seems to be straightforward advice. Can you think of anything else that may be useful in my first day on the job?

Thanks.

Got any advice for Mr. Webb?

Posted in Law: Everything Else | 3 Comments