On the Record

It’s a fun day at The Daily Record when we get to write about sex-enhancement potions, especially when there’s a connection to a law firm with roots here.

You’ll probably recall that earlier this week, the founder of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, maker of the “male enhancement” supplement Enzyte, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud and other charges.

Today, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Berkeley’s in-house lawyer, Paul Kellogg, was sentenced to one year for obstruction and money laundering. He apparently advised the company to hide its money from the government by setting up trusts. That’s where the local connection comes in:

[U.S. District Judge S. Arthur] Spiegel asked prosecutors whether they would investigate a Baltimore-based law firm, the Venable firm, because two of its lawyers advised the company about the trusts. [Assistant U.S. Attorney Anne] Porter said that was unlikely but she would be willing to consider any evidence Kellogg could provide.

She said Kellogg has refused to cooperate so far.

A spokesman for Venable did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Late in the afternoon before a holiday weekend, I couldn’t get any comment from a Venable PR rep either.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

Garrett County, currently functioning without a district court judge, moved one step closer Friday afternoon to getting one.

Friday was the deadline for new applications for the seat that belonged to Judge Ralph M. Burnett before his death last May. Burnett was Garrett’s only district judge, so the rural county has gone without one for more than a year now. Garrett’s circuit court judge and the two district court judges in neighboring Allegany County have been picking up the slack.

The Trial Courts Judicial Nominating Commission that covers Western Maryland advertised the vacancy last year and received four applications, but they only deemed two of the candidates qualified enough to forward on to the governor.

After that, O’Malley said in an executive order that commissions have to give him at least three choices. The Western Maryland commission took a second look at the two candidates they originally rejected but again passed them over.

The commission readvertised the vacancy and now has two additional candidates to consider, Oakland lawyers Leonard J. Eiswert and Linda S. Sherbin.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

“Welcome to the courtroom, we set bail set at 10K,” probably was not a variation on “Welcome to the Jungle” Kevin Cogill had ever considered. Yet those were the circumstances he faced Wednesday morning in federal court in Los Angeles.

Cogill’s alleged crime: leaking nine songs off Guns N’ Roses long-anticipated new album on his blog earlier this year.

What makes the story even more interesting is Cogill just about predicted Wednesday’s arrest and legal troubles on his blog, Antiquiet (which, be warned, does contain profanity).

Cogill, 27 and a huge GNR fan, posted the songs on Antiquiet in June. The rush of users caused the entire site to crash and the songs were eventually removed. “Also, we got a call from Guns N’ Roses,” Cogill noted in the same revised post, foreshadowing his future troubles. “Stay tuned.”

Three days ago, Cogill, aka Skwerl, asked his readers if they knew any good lawyers who could represent him in the copyright infringement case. The FBI had been interviewing him and collecting information, he said. “More and more each day, it looks like I may be indicted.”

It appears the site’s remaining bloggers will keep tabs on the legal proceedings. The last post noted that the judge let Cogill go home on a signature bond for the $10,000 and told him not to leave the district before his next court date, a preliminary hearing on Sept. 17.

The leaked songs are from “Chinese Democracy,” an album 10 years in the making that has reportedly already cost $13 million. Still no official word on when Axl Rose and Co. plan to release the album — nor if Cogill will be in jail or a free man the first time he hears it.

DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer

USA Today has a story today about Joe Biden’s ties to lawyers who specialize in asbestos litigation and his votes on measures that would affect this area of the law. (Hat tip: WSJ Law Blog.) Here’s the lede (yes, that’s how we spell it in journalism) of the story:

Sen. Joe Biden worked to defeat a bipartisan bill designed to curb asbestos lawsuits at a time his son’s law firm was filing them in Delaware and a former aide was lobbying against the measure, according to public records and interviews. 

The story notes that three of Biden’s largest contributors over his career have been firms specializing in plaintiff-side asbestos work. (The employees or PACs gave, not the firms themselves.)

You can probably see where this is going. The story doesn’t name the firms, but a quick trip to Open Secrets, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that one of them — the one that gave the most money, in fact — is the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos. Employees of Angelos’ firm have given Biden $156,250 since 1989, making the firm Biden’s fourth-largest contributor.

As you can imagine, Angelos’ lawyers were also kind to Biden during his campaign for the Democratic nomination for president this year. Employees of the firm gave him $50,750, making them his third-largest contributor.

USA Today notes that Barack Obama has touted his vote for 2005’s Class Action Fairness Act “as evidence he was willing to stand up to trial lawyers.” I wonder if that will be enough to keep Angelos’ lawyers from directing a whole mess of money Obama and Biden’s way this fall. I doubt it, especially since, as the story points out, Obama, like Biden, voted against a series of measures that would have limited asbestos litigation.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

For those of you who missed it, the University of Baltimore School of Law was featured prominently today in a Wall Street Journal story about the U.S. News & World Report law school rankings. The magazine is thinking of revamping its ranking criteria to address the widespread practice of admitting inferior applicants as part-timers, since part-time students’ LSAT scores and undergraduate grades don’t count in the rankings.

Amir Efrati writes:

One of the top beneficiaries of the current U.S. News criteria is Phillip Closius, former dean of the University of Toledo’s law school. He led the school’s rise from the list’s fourth tier to its second tier within a few years. After he took the helm of the University of Baltimore law school last year, that school also quickly climbed the rankings, to 125 this year from 170 last year, he says. (Schools in the third and fourth tiers aren’t publicly ranked — instead they are grouped together — but deans can find out where they placed.)

Mr. Closius’s winning strategy in both places: Cut the number of full-time students accepted into the program to boost the median LSAT scores and GPAs, which together account for more than 20% of a school’s ranking. In their place, the schools add more part-time students, who can transfer to full-time the second year.

Closius says the strategy is good for weaker students because it lets them ease into law school. He also tied the improved rank to subsequent “multimillion-dollar grants and donations for a new building.”

The story also has a small chart showing how some schools’ ranks this year would have been different had part-timers been counted. According to that chart, the University of Maryland School of Law, which placed 42nd, would have been ranked a bit lower, in the mid- or high 40s.

Ron Miller over at the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog posts about this story, too.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer

I will see Judge Roger W. Titus’ Johnny Cash analogy and raise him Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr.’s “Seinfeld” citation.

Harrell, writing for the Court of Appeals in its Clancy v. King decision released today, references dialogue from an episode titled “The Wig Master.” In one scene, Jerry unsuccessfully attempts to return a jacket he bought at a men’s store “for spite” because he does not like the salesman who sold it to him. (“Seinfeld” fans will know the salesman as the pony-tailed Craig, who keeps promising Elaine the new shipment of Nicole Miller dresses will be arriving soon.)

Calling Jerry an “unlikely legal illustrator,” Harrell found the incident “epitomized the duty of good faith in contract.” Jerry could only return the jacket if it did not fit or he did not like it, Harrell wrote in footnote 27.

“He may not return the jacket, however, for the sole purpose of denying to the other party the value of the contract,” the judge wrote.

No word yet, however, as to whether or not a handshake can be considered a pact and what penalty is appropriate for double-dippers.

DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus is at it again.

Earlier this month, Titus seized upon the train theme in a case of alleged racial discrimination to narrate its procedural history.

Last week, the Greenbelt judge likened a Bethesda physical therapist’s allegations that she was sold a “mongrel” Mercedes Benz (PDF) — one pieced together from “leftover spare parts” — to the “Psycho-Billy Cadillac” in Johnny Cash’s ballad about a similar stitch-up job, “One Piece at a Time.”

While Cash’s character was tickled by the success of his caper, Dr. Pepi Schafler was not happy with her “abomination of a car.” In her multi-count complaint filed July 15 against the dealer and various other parties, she alleges the passenger seat’s manual controls “look to be 50 years old,” the dashboard controls are “pretend,” and the car doors are “odd and bizarre.”

After Titus dismissed the case sua sponte for lack of complete diversity two weeks later, Schafler, who claims to have earned a J.D., sought reconsideration, arguing the judge acted beyond his powers.

“However, Plaintiff’s version of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, like her car, is missing some crucial parts,” Titus wrote in a short opinion Wednesday, before pointing out recent revisions to that text.

But if Dr. Schafler’s past litigiousness is any indication, she’s no stranger to such legal wrangling, and I doubt we’ve heard the last from her. As long as the case file doesn’t end up weighing as much as the title paperwork for Cash’s car…

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer

At the Hilton Convention Center Hotel’s official opening Friday, a Hilton official mentioned the hotel brand’s recent endorsement of Olympic swimmer and Baltimore native Michael Phelps and said they hoped to bring Phelps around the new downtown hotel sometime soon.

David Warschawski, a Baltimore-based sports marketing and branding expert, said the key to Hilton’s partnership with Phelps is to create opportunities where people can actually interact with the athlete rather than just watch him from afar.

“If you can create activities that enhance the chance for guests to have those encounters then you increase your chance of getting people to come to your hotel,” he said.

Examples from Warschawski included giving Phelps eight years of residence (one for each gold medal he earned during the Beijing Olympics) at the Hilton, a free membership to the hotel gym or free dinner reservations at Hilton’s upscale restaurant, Diamond Tavern.

“Just the thought that when you’re booking the hotel you may have a chance to run into Michael, that gives you a lot of media opportunities and it’s a selling point for the hotel,” Warschawski said.

How more likely would you be to book a room at a hotel where you have the off chance of seeing Michael Phelps, or any athlete? Is this an effective marketing tool?

LIZ FARMER, Business Writer

In this economy, should you be getting rid of clients? Some lawyers say the practice, known as culling, is necessary to maintain a healthy practice.

Unionized workers can sell their right to recovery under two federal labor laws, a federal judge in Maryland has ruled. According to the decision itself, it is the first time any U.S. District Court, anywhere, has addressed the issue.

The representative of an estate can sympathize with the family suing the estate — he claims that he, too, was a victim of fraud by the decedent.

A decision written by a Court of Special Appeals judge who died before it was filed is a nullity, the Court of Appeals has ruled.

Also:
* Unbillable Hours: Kathleen Cahill’s office was the Obama campaign’s first Maryland headquarters.

* My First: Louis M. Leibowitz ignored the courthouse gossip and focused on his case — and won.

* Verdicts & Settlements: The city of Baltimore agrees to pay more than $42,000 to a man whose right arm was broken shortly after his arrest.

* Legal Briefs: The Court of Special Appeals has held that the search of vehicle was improper because the police did not have a reasonable, articulable suspicion to believe the driver was selling drugs.

* Case Digests: Read condensed versions of decisions by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. District Court in Maryland.

CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor

Welcome back! Here are a few law links for your Monday:

*    Douglas Colbert, professor at University of Maryland’s law school, writes about the importance of teaching future lawyers about their professional duty to do pro bono.
*    Like our own Christina Doran, Paul Mark Sandler weighs in on expert witness hot tubbing.
*    Jon Katz writes that the Trial Lawyers College gave him the ability to “talk[] to the jury, witnesses and judge the same way s/he would talk to his or her best friends, without a bunch of notes intervening, and with a heart that cares not only about the lawyer’s client, but also about everyone else in the courtroom…”
*    It’s OCI season! Writes the anonymous blogger behind the Hiring Partner’s Office blog: “I also consider if this is someone that I could take with me to a client’s office tomorrow.  If I have to train you how to act professionally and normally, I am passing.” He or she also has some other words of advice for students interviewing on campus or elsewhere.
*    Via Lawbeat, the New York Times wrote over the weekend that immigration judges selected by the Bush administration with an apparent eye toward their politics deny a disproportionate number of asylum applications.

CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer