Legal Pad

Fenwick Sued for Fraudulently Claiming Fraud

A tiny and slightly fishy smelling Web site called Rent a Cert is fuming at lawyers from Fenwick & West for shutting it down. Now, a federal judge will decide the outcome of the fight.

Rent a Cert had caused a stir in the tech world with its offer to “rent out” Cisco certified engineers and technicians as a way to boost the profile of middleman companies that sell Cisco products. These middle men need a certain amount of certified professionals to qualify as “Gold” or “Silver” Cisco partners. Critics said Rent A Cert was juking the system by pimping out credentials, while the company defended itself as a legitimate recruiting agency.

Cisco hired Fenwick late last year to crush the Web site in the way that big firm lawyers do. Fenwick sent a lawyer letter to Rent A Cert’s Internet host asking it to take down the site. The Fenwick lawyers wrote that Rent A Cert was committing fraud with its scheme and trademark infringement by using the Cisco logo.

The plot thickens … after the jump:

Panel Backs Sex Offender Whose Lawyer Lied

Convicted sex offender Mark Grunau must have thought the wheels of justice were not only turning slowly in his case, but had ground to a stop altogether. And in a way they had.

It seems that for his first eight years in prison, Grunau thought his case was working its way through the appeal courts. But, alas, his lawyer, identified by San Jose’s Sixth District Court of Appeal as one Dan J. Foley, did nothing right after he filed an appeal on Sept. 6, 1996. In the meantime, Foley kept assuring Grunau’s dad that the appeal was proceeding “in due course.”

Today, the Sixth District — which dismissed Grunau’s appeal way back in 1997 after no opening brief was filed — removed the remittitur that terminated the case and reinstated Grunau’s appeal.

Lies, all lies, after the jump ...

Attorney's Resignation Gets Client's Verdict Reversed

Charged with beating his girlfriend and ramming her car with his own, Manuel Vigil got more bad news when his attorney mysteriously gave up his license to practice law in mid trial early last year.

Vigil wound up getting convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. But his luck turned around today when a state appellate court reversed his conviction, saying his attorney’s resignation deprived him of his constitutional right to counsel.

“Here, counsel was totally absent, for state constitutional purposes,” Justice Richard McAdams, of San Jose’s Sixth District Court of Appeal, wrote, “for the simple reason that [the attorney], after his resignation with charges pending, was no longer an attorney eligible to practice law in the state of California.”

Attorneys: important in court cases, after the jump.

Contra Costa Prosecutor Charged in Rape Case

The Contra Costa County prosecutor arrested on suspicion of rape will face state charges, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Jerry Brown said this morning.

Spokeswoman Dana Simas said she could not detail the charges that will be filed against Deputy District Attorney Michael Gressett, but that there will be a complaint.

Gressett was due to be arraigned in Martinez this morning at 8:30 a.m. His attorney, Michael Cardoza of Walnut Creek’s Cardoza Law Offices, did not answer a call to his cell phone.

The rather unpleasant list of charges and other case details, after the jump:

Remorseless Prosecutor Says Bar Should Back Off

If nothing else, embattled Santa Clara County prosecutor Benjamin Field has chutzpah.

Accused by State Bar prosecutors of abusing his authority by ignoring judges’ orders, concealing evidence and attempting to intimidate witnesses, Field filed court papers recently arguing that at worst he should be given a public reproval. And that amounts to a hard slap on the wrist.

This even after the State Bar in late September stated in court documents that it wouldn’t seek disbarment, but rather a three-year suspension.

“There was no venality or corruption here. There was a very able lawyer doing his job,” Allen Ruby, a partner with San Jose’s Ruby & Schofield, wrote in a post-trial brief filed Oct. 31 in the State Bar Court in San Francisco. “If there is a finding by this court that Mr. Field should have done his job better, or differently, that ought not to transform him into a menace to the public, deserving of ruin.”

Lerach Story Heats Up (But It's A Dry Heat)

More on the Bill Lerach front: according to the Bureau of Prisons, the famed former securities class action lawyer has been transferred to a medium-security institution in Phoenix. Though BOP officials don’t comment on disciplinary transfers, it’s safe to assume Lerach’s reassignment stems from an incident reported at Cal Law last week: Lerach offered a guard the use of his San Diego Chargers season tickets, which is a big no-no in prison.

Rather than transfer to a low-security prison, the Arizona institution is two notches of security above where Lerach had been originally assigned: the fence-less men’s camp at Lompoc, outside Santa Barbara. Medium-security prisons “have strengthened perimeters (often double fences with electronic detection systems)” and “mostly cell-type housing.”

Lawyers at Keker & Van Nest, as well as Lerach’s wife, did not immediately return e-mail seeking comment.

—  Dan Levine

Bingham, Beveridge Overbilled in Crap Suit

Two law firms who successfully represented the city of Los Angeles got their fees trimmed last week by a judge who used basic math and words like “shockingly excessive" to make his point.

The aptly named federal Judge Gary Feess knocked $200,000 from the $660,000 Bingham McCutchen was seeking and cut out $700,000 from the $1.3 million Beveridge & Diamond was seeking, according to an order filed Wednesday.

The two firms won L.A.’s suit against Kern County over, literally, some crap. Kern had enacted laws against using "biosolid" byproducts of wastewater treatment in farming, a law that mostly affected a farm owned by the city of Los Angeles. Upon winning,  L.A. passed its legal bill onto Kern County, which then complained it was excessive. Enter Judge Feess.

Malpractice: More of it, and more costly

Legal malpractice claims have gotten more expensive. We think.

The claims that result in the highest of indemnity payments appear to be on an upward march, according to an ABA study unveiled this morning at the ABA’s national legal malpractice conference in San Francisco.

It’s just not clear how vigorous a march.

Field Case Features 'Expert' Verbal Scuffle

Alright, a street fight almost broke out in State Bar Court this week during the trial of Santa Clara County prosecutor Benjamin Field.

There has been an undercurrent of tension throughout the proceedings, in which Field is accused of misconduct in courtrooms. But words started flying on Wednesday when Field’s attorney, Allen Ruby, tried to present a witness that State Bar Supervising Trial Counsel Donald Steedman thought hadn’t been properly vetted as an expert.

“I shouldn’t have to face an expert witness for the first time on cross-examination without notice,” Steedman told State Bar Court Judge Patrice McElroy. “We gave Mr. Ruby advance notice of who we were calling. This is a surprise witness.”

“Basically,” he said later, “it’s an ambush kind of litigation tactic.”