Bannon's lawyer to withdraw, Girardi faces lawsuit, Clement adds Kirkland lawyers & Theranos' Balwani convicted of fraud and conspiracy ??
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???Good morning. A lawyer for Steve Bannon seeks to withdraw from representing the former Trump adviser in his criminal contempt case, plaintiffs' law firm Edelson sues attorney Tom Girardi’s estranged wife and former members of Girardi’s law firm, a Kirkland partner and two associates jump to Paul Clement's new firm and a jury convicts former Theranos President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani on two counts of conspiracy and 10 counts of fraud. Here is today's Legal File ??
Robert Costello, a lawyer for Steve Bannon, is seeking to withdraw from representing the adviser to former President Donald Trump in his criminal contempt case, citing the possibility of being called as a witness at trial, a court document on Friday showed.
Bannon was charged last year with two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued by a House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
His lawyer Robert Costello, in a court filing Friday, said he served as "Bannon’s sole basis of information about the facts and the law concerning this matter" and that while he could serve as his attorney before the trial it appeared less clear that he could represent Bannon once proceedings began. Costello asked to withdraw as trial counsel in the filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stating the following:
"Since it appears there will be a trial, and since it appears that at this point in time I might be called as a witness, I must reluctantly ask the Court to grant my request."
The plaintiffs firm that blew the whistle in December 2020 on?Tom Girardi’s?alleged theft of settlement money from the 2018 Lion Air crash victims is back with a new lawsuit raising unsettling questions about how Girardi’s once-dominant firm operated.
In a racketeering complaint in federal court in San Francisco,?Edelson PC?claims that?Girardi & Keese?relied on a case runner named?George Hatcher?to drum up personal injury clients in exchange for a share of the fees Girardi received when Hatcher’s referrals settled their cases. Edelson contends that fee-sharing deal was illegal — but, according to the complaint, Hatcher also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in “bonus” payouts from Girardi & Keese, even as he told Lion Air he was trying to get the firm to pay out their settlement money.?
Edelson name partner Jay Edelson?told?Alison Frankel?that he was “shocked” that Girardi and Hatcher didn’t even try to hide the case-running scheme. Hatcher did not respond to Reuters’ messages seeking comment.
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Former Kirkland & Ellis partner Bartow Farr, and former associates Nicholas Gallagher and Darina Merriam, have jumped to the new Washington, D.C.-area small law firm led by appellate veterans Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, who most recently joined a firearms industry challenge to a novel New York law.
A former law clerk to the late Justice William Rehnquist, Bartow Farr has argued 32 cases at the Supreme Court, according to his online law firm bio. Farr was a partner at the small firm Bancroft with Clement and Murphy prior to Kirkland's move in 2016 to hire lawyers from the firm.
A second Kirkland partner, Andrew Lawrence, is expected to join the firm next week, Clement told Reuters on Thursday.
Kirkland said in a June 23 statement it would "no longer represent clients with respect to matters involving the interpretation of the Second Amendment." At the same time, the firm also said Clement and Murphy would leave.
After a little more than five days?of deliberation, a San Jose, California, jury convicted former Theranos Inc President Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani?of defrauding investors and patients about the blood testing startup that was once valued at $9 billion. Sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 15.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who initially faced the same charges, was convicted on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy at a separate trial in January. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 26.
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