A U.S. lawyer criminally charged in Dubai with leaking information about his corporate employer says he simply e-mailed a friend from work a couple of times about what was going on in his life, including a job search. But there is no way that anyone reading the e-mail he sent to a fellow in-house counsel would think he did anything criminal, Justin Connor tells the ABA Journal. "You can't read it and say 'This person had criminal intent.' " As detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, the 37-year-old Connor—who is identified only by his initials in the underlying coverage and…

Federal authorities violated the law by wiretapping two United States lawyers for an Islamic charity without obtaining a warrant, a federal judge in San Francisco has just ruled. The government will almost certainly appeal the much-awaited ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of the Northern District of California that the National Security Agency violated the rights of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, according to the Atlantic and the National Review's The Corner. Although the government asserted a state secrets privilege to prevent much of the information concerning its wiretapping of the Islamic charity from being used in evidence, the…

A lawsuit filed in Ohio this week accuses two Baker Hostetler attorneys of supporting a fraud in which a former legal secretary for the firm allegedly scammed "investors" out of hundreds of thousands of dollars she claimed to need to pay tax on a $14.5 million African inheritance. The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court suit (PDF provided by Courthouse News Service) contends that Willia Burton obtained more than $1 million from nine plaintiffs with the help of Baker Hostetler lawyers William Culbertson and Paul Feinberg. It alleges that in 2005, Burton arranged for a meeting between a representative of a…

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that lawyers have a Sixth Amendment obligation to warn their clients when their guilty pleas can result in deportation. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion (PDF) finding that the lawyer for Jose Padilla should have advised him that a guilty plea to transporting marijuana would make him subject to automatic deportation. "When the deportation consequence is truly clear, as it was in this case, the duty to give correct advice is equally clear," Stevens wrote. “We now hold that counsel must inform her client whether his plea carries a risk of deportation,”…

Many biotech stocks fell after a federal judge’s ruling Monday striking down patents for genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer, even as some observers said the long-term impact could boost genetic research. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet of New York was such a surprise that the Genomics Law Report headlined its news story on the decision “Pigs Fly,” the New York Times reports. Critics of the decision include patent lawyer Edward Reines of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who says researchers need the assurance of a patent to protect their efforts, the New York Times reported in…

Former White House counsel Greg Craig surprised observers when he announced that he would be joining Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom rather than return to Williams & Connolly, where he had spent 30 years. According to the Washingtonian’s Capital Comment blog, it’s rare for Williams & Connolly partners to leave the firm that is more exclusive than the Alfalfa Club. “It’s nearly impossible to gain membership in the top tier of the prominent D.C. litigation firm,” the blog says, “and once lawyers do get in, they almost never leave.” Williams & Connolly has hired only one lateral partner in…

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that attorney-client privilege protects e-mail discussing a possible employment lawsuit that was transmitted on the corporate laptop of the would-be plaintiff. Sending and receiving personal, password-protected e-mails on a corporate laptop did not eliminate the attorney-client privilege that protected them, the court ruled in its opinion (PDF). The Legal Profession Blog, the New Jersey Star-Ledger and the New Jersey Law Journal (sub. req.) covered the ruling. The opinion could influence workplace privacy rules across the country, lawyers told the Star-Ledger. Lawyers from the Newark law firm of Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark…

A Colorado lawyer will pay $50,000 and his law firm will post a “Service Animals Welcome” sign to settle a Justice Department complaint that he refused to allow a brain-damaged woman to bring her service dog to a deposition at his offices. Attorney Patric LeHouillier of Colorado Springs will also train his staff on the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the Denver Post and a Justice Department press release. A federal judge has approved the consent decree. The deponent, a veterinarian, had trained her Australian Shepherd to help her with balance, vision and hearing. LeHouillier refused to let the…

An Ohio lawyer convicted of tampering with evidence in connection with a pinhole camera found in the women’s restroom of his law office now faces an invasion of privacy lawsuit by two former employees. The $2 million suit accuses Fostoria lawyer Donald Guernsey of “extreme and outrageous voyeur activities” and says the employees suffered severe emotional distress, according to the Review Times and the Toledo Blade. Guernsey was convicted of two counts of tampering with evidence in a December trial and sentenced to community control for four years. Guernsey was never charged with voyeurism. He was indicted on tampering charges…

Todd Neufeld doesn’t regret putting aside his career as a patent lawyer to become a full-time entertainer who twists balloons into creatures and costumes. “I hated patent law,” Neufeld, a 36-year-old Brooklyn resident, tells the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. “It’s interesting to theorize about, but for me it’s tedious,” Neufeld said. “I wanted to be the creative one, not the one describing someone else’s creativity.” Now Neufeld runs and owns Todd’s Twisted Balloon Company. He has performed at kids’ parties, corporate events, on David Letterman, and for two U.S. presidents: Barack Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush. “A lot of…