Judicial Notice (09.24.22): Sad!
The Donald has a very bad week, Latham hires a rising star in litigation, and other legal news from the week that was.
Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. Thanks!
“A healthy man wants a thousand things; a sick man wants only one.”
I couldn’t agree more with this saying, which is attributed to Confucius (accurately or not, I don’t know). After weeks of brutal stomach pain and related digestive issues, followed by emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder, I feel great—and finally able to focus on things other than my pain. Thanks to all of you for your good wishes over the past month or so, which I greatly appreciate.
The highlight of my week was launching the Original Jurisdiction podcast, which you can now find on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and other popular podcast platforms. For my first guest I welcomed Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, who spoke with me despite being very busy representing Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Elon Musk (in the $44 billion Twitter lawsuit, going to trial next month).
I also recorded a new episode of Movers, Shakers, and Rainmakers, the podcast I co-host with Zach Sandberg of Lateral Link. We had a delightful conversation with Laura Zagar, office managing partner for the San Francisco office of Perkins Coie.
Now, on to the news.
Lawyer of the Week: Letitia James.
For former president Donald Trump, Wednesday started off badly and went from terrible to worse (as noted by Professor Steve Vladeck for CNN). Let’s take the developments in order.
On Wednesday morning, New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James announced the filing of a sprawling, seven-count, 220-page complaint against Donald Trump; various Trump-controlled entities, including the Trump Organization; and Trump’s three oldest children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump. James alleges that the defendants committed fraud by inflating Trump’s net worth and overvaluing his assets when dealing with lenders and insurers, allowing him and his businesses to receive more favorable terms than they otherwise would have.
James seeks disgorgement of all financial benefits from the fraud, which she estimates at $250 million. She also asks the court to (1) appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Trumps’ financial practices for at least five years, (2) oust the Trumps from their positions of leadership at the various Trump entities, (3) bar the Trumps from serving as executives of any New York corporation, and (4) prevent Trump and the Trump Organization from engaging in any commercial real estate transactions or taking out any loans in New York State for five years. Whew!
If successful, James’s lawsuit would deal quite a blow to Trump’s business. Although he’s no longer a New Yorker, having moved to the more MAGA-friendly state of Florida, he still has major real-estate and financial interests in the Empire State. The case is civil rather than criminal, so folks hoping to see Trump in an orange jumpsuit will be disappointed. But its civil nature gives James certain advantages, including a lower burden of proof (a mere preponderance of the evidence) and the ability to use Trump’s silence—his invocation of the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times in a recent deposition—against him. (James said on Wednesday that she has referred possible violations of federal criminal law to the U.S. Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service, but the DOJ and IRS are under no obligation to prosecute.)
Runner Up for Lawyer of the Week: Williams & Connolly partner Robert Shaughnessy has been sued civilly by the Justice Department for unpaid taxes—specifically, almost $7 million in unpaid taxes, including interest and penalties. Without speaking to Shaughnessy’s case—the DOJ’s allegations at this point are just that, allegations—I’m always mystified as to why Biglaw partners would cheat on their taxes to the tune of seven figures, considering how much they earn, and how they think they can get away with it. But I know that it does happen, since over the years I have covered other Biglaw partners, including former partners at firms like Kirkland & Ellis and Sullivan & Cromwell, who tried—and failed—to do so.
Judges of the Week: Judges Robin Rosenbaum, Britt Grant, and Andrew Brasher.
Now let’s turn to Wednesday night’s bad news for Trump: the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling in favor of the Justice Department in L’Affaire Mar-a-Lago. Specifically, the court granted the DOJ’s request for a partial stay of the order of Judge Aileen Cannon (S.D. Fla.) appointing a special master to review the documents seized in the August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, “to the extent it enjoins the government’s use of [around 100] classified documents and requires the government to submit the classified documents to the special master for review.”
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Original Jurisdiction to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.