Judicial Notice (02.19.22): Circuit On Fire
The legal world mourns one of its finest, a Fifth Circuit judge pulls no punches, and other legal news from the week that was.
On Tuesday, I went to the doctor for my annual physical. Two years after my harrowing Covid-19 experience, my health is decent and improving (and my Covid-19 antibodies are literally off the charts). I feel fortunate and grateful.
On Wednesday, after getting a much-needed haircut, I recorded a new episode of Movers, Shakers, and Rainmakers. This week, my co-host Zach Sandberg and I interviewed Gloria Sandrino, managing principal at Lateral Link, about trends in the lateral partner recruiting space. I commend to you her recent Law360 piece, The Law Firm Qualities Partners Seek In Lateral Moves.
Next week, I’ll be on vacation, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be writing. But if we get any major news in President Joe Biden’s search for a Supreme Court nominee, of course I’ll cover it.
Unlike last week, this week was actually a busy one in legal news, so let’s get to it.
Lawyer of the Week: David Boies and Sigrid McCawley
In the United States, nobody is above the law—including royalty. Exhibit A: Prince Andrew’s recent settlement with Virginia Giuffre, the Jeffrey Epstein victim who accused the prince of sexually abusing her when she was under 18.
Here are the terms of the settlement, which Giuffre’s lawyers, David Boies and Sigrid McCawley of Boies Schiller Flexner, shared with Judge Lewis Kaplan (S.D.N.Y.):
Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out of court settlement. The parties will file a stipulated dismissal upon Ms. Giuffre’s receipt of the settlement….
Prince Andrew intends to make a substantial donation to Ms. Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights. Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms. Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks.
The amount Prince Andrew paid to Giuffre was not disclosed, but news reports claim it was $12 million or even $16 million. None of that money will go to Boies or McCawley; as noted in this BBC profile, which describes them as “two of the most famed and formidable lawyers in America,” they have represented Giuffre on a pro bono basis for many years. Congratulations to Boies, McCawley, and all their colleagues at BSF who worked on the case.
Runners-up for Lawyer of the Week, also for their work in a sex-abuse case: Stephanie Christensen, Damaris Diaz, and Lynda Lao. On Monday, a retired Marine Corps captain was sentenced to 210 years in federal prison for raping eight Cambodian girls, some as young as 9 years old at the time. The trial and sentencing were handled by this trio of diverse, female federal prosecutors from the Central District of California (Los Angeles). And Lao, a Cambodian-American, was able to speak to the victims in their native language—a great help and comfort to the victims as they prepared to testify at trial about the trauma they endured.
In memoriam:
Walter Dellinger, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel and acting solicitor general in the Clinton Administration, passed away at the age of 80 from complications of pulmonary fibrosis. There are many wonderful tributes to this legendary Supreme Court advocate and giant of the law, including this collection compiled by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern and this one by Jesse Wegman. As Professor Garrett Epps told Wegman, when Dellinger spoke, “the justices paid attention.”
Martin Luther Brackett Jr., a North Carolina litigator and former partner at Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson, passed away at the age of 74. Former client Lee Jordan described Brackett to me as “a cheerful, kind, and thoughtful man, and a hardworking and capable advocate.”
May they rest in peace.
Judge of the Week: Judge Jed S. Rakoff
I’m a big fan of Judge Jed Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.). He has served the federal judiciary with distinction for more than a quarter-century. He’s a leading public intellectual of the federal bench, writing learned essays for the New York Review of Books as well as books of his own, including Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and the Guilty Go Free: And Other Paradoxes of Our Broken Legal System. He’s the rare trial judge who is a top-ranked Supreme Court feeder judge.
Judge Rakoff is also a bit of a maverick, not afraid to buck convention if he believes it’s the right thing to do. But this week, his habit of doing things differently created… a bit of a mess.
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