A New York appellate court has overturned a finding that a personal injury lawyer had misappropriated client funds with dishonest or fraudulent intent, citing post-9/11 trauma the attorney blamed for his conduct. The panel approved a one-year suspension for Frederick W. Salo, but dismissed a charge that he had engaged in dishonest or fraudulent conduct, crediting psychologists' opinions that he i
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William Hebert, a partner with Calvo & Clark, outlasted four other candidates during voting by the State Bar Board of Governors to win the California State Bar presidency on Saturday. He'll be sworn in on Sept. 25. Hebert broke up the room during his opening speech before the board by saying he asked his wife, Morrison & Foerster partner Lori Schechter, whether she ever thought in her wildest dre
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A Massachusetts federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction barring law firm Parker Waichman Alonso from using or making television or video advertisements with certain phrases, sounds and visual effects. Market Masters-Legal, a law firm advertising company, sought the injunction in a lawsuit that accuses the firm, a former client, of making commercials using its copyrighted material in vio
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An attorney has been charged with assault after authorities say he repeatedly punched his opposing counsel during an argument in a Pennsylvania courthouse. Police say Michael Rauch threw three roundhouse punches at attorney John Fisher at the Lackawanna County Courthouse in Scranton on Thursday. According to court papers, Rauch told sheriff's deputies that he had told Fisher to leave him alone bu
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The Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission has named as its new executive director an attorney who has spent part of his legal career handling disciplinary complaints at the State Bar of Georgia. Jeffrey R. Davis, of counsel at the firm DuBose Massey Bair & Evans in Madison, has experience both as a civil and criminal trial attorney, and he also spent several years with the State Bar of Georg
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Legal malpractice is nothing new, but the last two years have seen a spike in attorney misbehavior, says attorney Andrew Hall. The most egregious example within the last year involved former Fort Lauderdale, Fla., lawyer and convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein and his cohorts, according to Hall. He argues that while greed has always been one motivating factor for legal malpractice, the econom
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A law firm must pay punitive damages, attorney fees and costs for its bad-faith filing of an involuntary bankruptcy petition against a former client as a "tactical maneuver," a federal bankruptcy judge in New Jersey has ruled. Scarola Ellis claims Skyworks Ventures owes it $200,000 in fees, while the former client says in a related suit that the firm engaged in overbilling and malpractice. The ju
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While assisting the Kenyan Wildlife Service to track elephant poachers and ivory dealers, attorney G. Kenneth Bernhard found himself posing as an American tourist interested in buying ivory in a hair-raising sting operation, joining in flying missions to spot poachers, and attending ranger training. "They were doing this ambush training and I was jumping around rocks, avoiding scorpions and snake
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