“A well-known Waco, Texas defense lawyer, who once ran for county district attorney, sat behind bars on Saturday after a local police sting allegedly caught him plotting to kill a colleague’s ex-husband using a hitman,” reports Blake Montgomery and Olivia Messer in MSN News’ Crime.

“Seth Andrew Sutton has long held an upstanding reputation in Waco as a criminal defense lawyer, successfully defending clients in high-profile cases.”

“The would-be killer … was actually an undercover policeman all along, and police arrested Sutton and Tijerina on Friday under felony charges of conspiracy to commit capital murder.”

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Police arrested a Staten Island lawyer in the middle of international drug-smuggling investigation, reports Jeff Bachner in New York Daily News’ NYC Crime.

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Please join a NYC Bar webinar on June 1st from 6:30 to 8:30PM EST to hear Jennifer Brown moderate a panel with Diane Brayton, General COunsel of The New York Times, Kimberly Chainey, General Counsel of Panasonic Avionics, Jung-Kyu McCann, General Counsel of Druva and Beth Levine, SVP & Chief Compliance Officer of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.

Description:
From trade wars to #fakenews to global pandemics to cybersecurity breaches—economic, political and social changes have upended business as usual. A general counsel’s ability to navigate and manage in these turbulent times is critical to the viability of her organization. This panel discussion with leading women GCs and Chief Compliance Officers will explore the GC and CCO roles in managing risk while adapting to the pace of change. We will hear how successful women lawyers at the forefront of their organizations navigate the winds of change.

Registration in advance is required.

Perkins Coie is pleased to announce that Alison Watkins has joined the firm’s Litigation and Privacy & Security practices as a partner in the Palo Alto office.

Watkins is a veteran privacy litigator and counselor and her experience includes guiding clients on compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Watkins has also counseled clients under government investigation and served as a lead advisor on matters before federal and state courts and the U.S. International Trade Commission.

In addition to her extensive privacy and security practice, Watkins has deep experience with intellectual property litigation, including patent infringement, unfair competition, trade secret, and breach of contract matters. She represents companies in the virtual reality, mobile communication, technology startup, biotechnology, software, and semiconductor industries.

Watkins earned her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and her B.A., cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her practice, Watkins serves as pro bono counsel on matters related to human trafficking, sanctuary policies, and police reform.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Jacob Hanson has joined the firm’s Tampa office as an associate in the Litigation Practice Group.

“We are pleased to welcome Jacob to our growing team of attorneys in Tampa,” said Bradley Tampa Office Managing Partner Craig Mayfield. “Jacob brings valuable litigation experience that will benefit our clients throughout Florida. We are excited to continue building with lawyers of Jacob’s quality at any time, but particularly proud to be successfully adding his strength during the current environment.”

Mr. Hanson defends clients in first-party property, coverage, and bad faith actions throughout Florida. His experience includes advocating at motion hearings, drafting pleadings and motions, propounding and responding to discovery, negotiating settlements, and advising clients on their legal options while also considering the business ramifications of those options.

Before joining Bradley, Mr. Hanson served as a law clerk to the Hon. James S. Moody, Jr., on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. He earned his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Stetson University College of Law and his Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida.

The Litigation Practice Group is Bradley’s largest practice and includes nearly half of the firm’s more than 500 attorneys who represent clients in litigation and arbitration in every U.S. state and federal district court across the country, as well as internationally. Attorneys handle matters in nearly every substantive area of business law and in a wide range of industries, including high-stakes and complex cases.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

“Lucid Motors, which seeks to set new standards for sustainable transportation with its advanced luxury EVs, today announced that Jonathan Butler has joined the company as Vice President, General Counsel, leading all aspects of Lucid’s legal, compliance, and public policy functions,” was reported in Cision PR Newswire.

“With 17 years of legal experience in the automotive, technology, and global resourcing industries, Mr. Butler has vast expertise with commercial transactions, corporate governance, litigation, compliance, risk management, and issues related to intellectual property. He most recently spent eight years with Tesla as Deputy General Counsel. Prior to that, he spent over eight years with international law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in its litigation practice and its global sourcing & technology transactions practice.”

“Butler joins Lucid at an exceptionally exciting time as the company prepares to unveil the Lucid Air. In addition to the vehicle’s final interior and exterior designs, new details on production specifications, available configurations, and pricing information will also be shared in the near future.”

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Lawyer, Robert Theofanis launched his estate planning practice in mid-2019. His “plan was to start off with below-average fees and by the end of the first year increase them to the high end of the market,” discusses Theofanis in ABA Journal’s Your Voice.

After working his way through those clients, he started charging his published fees, which were about average for the area.

He was hitting his stride at the start of 2020 and felt it was time to increase his fees. “At the time, I was in the middle of a marketing program and decided to hold off on increasing fees until after I updated my website with new marketing content.”

“Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.”

In the end, he decided to raise his fees for two reasons.

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ATLANTA – Barnes & Thornburg has added Sarah J. Hawk as a partner in the firm’s Labor and Employment Department in the Atlanta office. Hawk brings nearly two decades of experience advising organizations on their immigration policies.

Employing an extensive knowledge of immigration rules and regulations, Hawk helps organizations obtain visas and permanent residence status for executives, managers, and other critical employees. She advises clients on immigration petitions, consular processing, outbound placement, and waiver cases, as well as complex I-9 and E-Verify compliance, audits, investigations, and trainings. Hawk also oversees the preparation of virtually every kind of employment-based immigration petition.

Hawk is a member of the Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN) Advisory Board.. She earned her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law, a M.A.T from Agnes Scott College, and a B.A. from Agnes Scott College, magna cum laude.

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Robert A. Cox Jr., a partner in the firm’s Charlotte office, has been recognized as a Board Certified Specialist in Business Bankruptcy Law by the North Carolina State Bar.

“We congratulate Rob on earning distinction as a North Carolina board-certified Business Bankruptcy Law attorney,” said Bradley Charlotte Office Managing Partner Christopher C. Lam. “This certification is proof of his leadership, skills and high standards of commitment to the practice.”

The North Carolina State Bar certifies lawyers as specialists in designated practice areas as a service to the public. To be certified as a board certified specialist in a practice area, a lawyer must be an active member in good standing with the North Carolina State Bar for at least five years, devote at least 25% of his or her practice to the specialty during the past five years, attend continuing legal education (CLE) seminars in the specialty, be favorably evaluated by other lawyers and judges, and pass a written examination in the specialty practice area. Certification is granted for a period of five years and may be renewed if the lawyer meets the same requirements at the time of renewal.

A member of Bradley’s Bankruptcy Practice Group, Mr. Cox focuses his practice on financial restructuring and insolvency, including bankruptcy, creditors’ rights, commercial workouts, bankruptcy related litigation, and distressed asset acquisitions. He represents corporate debtors, secured lenders, unsecured creditors, asset acquirers, lessors, equity holders, and other parties in interest in bankruptcies and out of court workouts in matters throughout the United States.

About Bradley
Bradley combines skilled legal counsel with exceptional client service and unwavering integrity to assist a diverse range of corporate and individual clients in achieving their business goals. With offices in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, the firm’s nearly 550 lawyers represent regional, national and international clients in various industries, including banking and financial services, construction, energy, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, real estate, and technology, among many others.

“An Iowa lawyer described as a ‘superb advocate’ has been suspended for overbilling the state public defender for her legal services and car mileage,” reports Debra Cassens Weiss in ABA Journal’s Daily News.

“Lawyer Jennifer Meyer was well regarded, but her billing practices require a one-year suspension, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in a May 15 opinion.”

“Meyer provided services to the state public defender as a contract attorney. She billed the agency for more than 24 hours in a day on 30 different days, according to an audit spanning four years. During the same period, Meyer had duplicated reimbursement requests for mileage, attributing trips to a location to multiple clients 147 times.”

“Before the grievance commission, Meyer consistently argued that she did the legal work and was entitled to payment, despite billing irregularities. She often worked beyond customary hours and on weekends, she said.”

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“A former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and late Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. has been named general counsel to the Libra Association, a Geneva-based group founded by Facebook to launch the social media company’s digital currency, the organization announced May 19,” reported in PYMNTS’ Personnel.

“Robert Werner brings regulatory, financial crime compliance and enforcement experience from his work in the public and private sectors, Libra said. Before joining the association, Werner was founder and CEO of Green River Hollow Consulting and held leadership positions at several financial institutions, including HSBC and Goldman Sachs, where he served as the enterprise executive for policy, privacy and regulatory relations. He also headed financial crime compliance for Merrill Lynch.”

“Previously, Werner worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, senior counsel to the Under Secretary of the Treasury, Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and assistant general counsel for Enforcement and Intelligence in the Office of the General Counsel, Libra said.”

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“Santander Consumer USA will pay $65 million to states and forgive hundreds of millions more in consumer debt as part of a settlement with a group of attorneys general over practices in its subprime auto lending business,” reports Laura Alix in American Banker.

“The attorneys general, representing 33 states and the District of Columbia, said the Dallas-based lender had exposed borrowers to unnecessarily risky loans with a high chance of default. In addition to paying $65 million in restitution, Santander Consumer has also agreed to forgive nearly $500 million in car loan debt to borrower nationwide.”

“Santander defrauded desperate consumers by placing them into auto loans the company knew these customers could never afford to pay, resulting in defaults and negative ratings on consumers’ credit reports.”

“The agreement announced Tuesday caps an investigation the attorneys general launched early in 2015 into the U.S. consumer lending unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander. The coalition said its investigation revealed Santander Consumer knew that certain groups of consumers had a high risk of default, but still steered them into loans with high loan-to-value ratios, significant backend fees and high payment-to-income ratios.”

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“The state’s highest court issued an order permanently disbarring a once popular Tampa attorney now accused of withholding his clients’ settlement money,” reports Jackie Callaway in ABC Action Taking Action for You.

“The Florida Supreme Court issued the order disbarring Jose Toledo as of May 14.”

“Toledo practiced personal injury and immigration law in the Tampa Bay area for two decades.”

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“An Ohio lawyer crossed a border and also a line, leading to a two-year suspension and a restitution order under an opinion the state supreme court handed down this week. The suspension was based on ethics violations as to numerous clients, but one involved the prohibitions against unauthorized practice and sexual activity with clients. The opinion continues the disciplinary trend in the Buckeye State to treat all forms of lawyer-client sex harshly — even in the absence of physical contact. It also shines a light on the perils of unlicensed cross-border practice,” reports Karen Rubin in The Law for Today’s How Not to Practice.

“The client’s divorce action was already pending in Monroe County, Michigan when she retained the lawyer, who practiced in Toledo, Ohio, just across the border from Michigan. The lawyer advised the client that he was not licensed to practice in Michigan, but would file a motion for pro hac vice admission and affiliate himself with an Ohio lawyer he knew who was licensed in both states.”

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Redgrave LLP, the national law firm focused on addressing complex legal challenges that arise at the intersection of the law and technology, has formed one of the only Restructuring Discovery teams in the country. In this space, Redgrave works closely with law firms and turnaround advisors on all types of restructurings, acting as subject-matter professionals in the areas of discovery and information governance.

The Redgrave team handles all aspects of restructuring discovery, both pre-petition and after a bankruptcy has been filed, and advises both debtors and creditors, as well as consultants and judicial groups. As discovery counsel, Redgrave works hand-in-hand alongside merits counsel, handling all of the data identification, preservation, collection, review, and production efforts. Discovery in and around restructurings also requires complex privilege analyses. Redgrave attorneys have unique knowledge in the area of attorney-client and other privileges and protections for which clients have relied on for years.

Discovery counsel in restructuring matters sits in between the client, merits counsel, and the eDiscovery vendor to develop an overall discovery strategy and provide legal advice during the process. The Redgrave team focuses on key areas, including preservation strategies, document and data collection, negotiation of discovery issues, compliance with applicable privacy laws, appropriate and e-active privilege determinations, education for judges and special masters on complex discovery issues, and special master and expert services for appropriate cases.

Davis Wright Tremaine is pleased to partner with LaborLess and SHRM to bring you the webinar “COVID-19’s Impact on the H-1B Visa Process.” The COVID-19 pandemic has forced employees all around the US to work from home, which has had real implications on employers who hire H-1B visa workers.

This panel will go over how COVID-19 has impacted the H-1B visa process, walk through some of the issues around LCA posting and public access files, offer some practical tips and solutions, and discuss opportunities for streamlining processes going forward.

Register for this webinar.

As U.S. businesses face daunting decisions while they return to regular operations, Akerman LLP, a top 100 U.S. law firm serving clients across the Americas, is helping them reintegrate their employees into the workplace and implement new policies and protocols set forth by federal, state and local authorities with the launch of the Akerman Return to Work Resource Guide. Offering a library of key reference materials and procedures, the Akerman Return to Work Resource Guide provides employers with best practices in facilitating a safe and orderly transition to a “new normal” in a COVID-19 era.

In addition to 24/7 live support from Akerman’s employer-focused Return to Work team, the Resource Guide includes a variety of tactical guidance, available for access through a personalized, secure online portal. Akerman’s resource library includes more than 60 downloadable documents, such as questionnaires, checklists, policies, and procedures to help provide direction, context, and clarity as businesses return to regular operations, including:

• Employee requests for ADA accommodations, letters addressing the need to return to work, and health screenings for employees and visitors
• Protocols for prevention of COVID-19 exposure, limitations of non-essential business travel policy, and employee temperature screenings policies
• Trainings for managers in the COVID-19 environment to be tailored to employer requirements, including in the areas of workplace privacy and security, employee benefit plan impacts, and union and non-union concerns
• A deeper dive into return to work issues, such as OSHA and workplace safety, special considerations relating to on-site medical clinics, and workplace configuration and scheduling consideration
• Contract considerations for vendors, including the purchase or implementation of on-site medical clinics, telehealth, IT services, benefit plan services, and payroll services

The launch of the Akerman Return to Work Resource Guide comes at a time when the firm has been singled out by clients for its leading services and unfailing commitment to help during these unprecedented times. Akerman was named on BTI Consulting’s Mad Clientist list as one of 37 Midsize Law Firms Punching Way Above Their Weight. Clients who participated in the Mad Clientist survey look to firms like Akerman “for a wide variety of risky, delicate, and thorny matters – including highly customized advice about reopening [business] and related issues.”

“In a letter addressed to Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Treasury indicates its intention to revise the rules governing the deadline for construction of wind and solar projects to qualify for the production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC). The expected revised guidance would provide much needed relief to projects struggling with construction delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” reports in White & Case’s Publications & Events.

“Pursuant to current rules, consistent with several IRS notices, in order to qualify for either the PTC or ITC, wind and solar developers need to “begin construction” by a specific date, either by beginning “physical work of a significant nature” or by paying or incurring capital expenditures of at least 5 percent of the total cost of the project.”

“Once construction has begun, developers must further satisfy an additional “continuity” requirement by making continuous efforts to complete the project (in the case of the five percent safe harbor) or by maintaining a continuous program of construction until the completion of the project (in the case of the physical work test).”

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