May 2009
3 posts
Copy of Class Action Complaint Filed Against...
Download now or preview on posterous 31010cmp.pdf (6109 KB) Plaintiff Contact: Guy M. Burns Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel, & Burns P.O. Box 1100 Tampa FL 33601 813-225-2500 Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
Copy of Class Action Complaint Filed Against...
Download now or preview on posterous 31010cmp.pdf (6109 KB) Plaintiff Contact: Guy M. Burns Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel, & Burns P.O. Box 1100 Tampa FL 33601 813-225-2500 Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
Copy of Class Action Complaint Filed Against...
Download now or preview on posterous 31010cmp.pdf (6109 KB) Plaintiff Contact: Guy M. Burns Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel, & Burns P.O. Box 1100 Tampa FL 33601 813-225-2500 Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
February 2009
27 posts
Holland & Knight Happy Hour Invite
Without question the photo of the week “Quite possibly the most disturbing image I’ve ever seen,” sighed a high level Senate staffer. This is the pic of an invite for a happy hour thrown by Holland & Knight. And, just for you: “Holland and Knight has consulted with the House and Senate ethics committees regarding this event’s compliance...
Five lawyers leave Holland & Knight in part...
The five partners who comprised Holland & Knight’s media practice in Tampa are leaving to start a law firm. Gregg D. Thomas, who headed the Holland & Knight group, will be joined by Carol LoCicero, James L. McGuire, Susan Bunch and James B. Lake at the Tampa practice Thomas & LoCicero. While at Holland & Knight, the partners’ client roster has included the New York...
Holland & Knight CMO Bruce Alltop answers Do Model...
The Bar’s rules of professional conduct dealing with communications about lawyer services contain a section dealing with advertising prohibitions. Rule 4-7.2 (c) says that lawyers “shall not make or permit to be made a false misleading or deceptive communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services” and that a communication violates the rule if it is deceptive or...
The Disappearing Associate... Valentine’s Day...
The disappearing associate By Jordan Furlong | February 13, 2009 | law21.ca Well, that was ugly. In case you missed it, or you need a summary, here’s what happened on a day (yesterday) that the ABA Journal called Black Thursday and Above The Law readers have decided should be named (a little early) the Valentine’s Day Massacre: Holland & Knight fired 70 lawyers and 173...
Holland & Knight Lays Off 243
TAMPA - Law firm Holland & Knight laid off 243 people, consisting of lawyers and support staff, at its 21 offices Thursday. The number of employees affected in the Tampa office was not immediately clear. Word of the layoffs created a buzz among local lawyers and legal blogs. Late Thursday afternoon, the company issued a statement saying 70 lawyer and 173 support positions had been...
Do non-legal subsidiaries of Holland & Knight LLP...
Boyden and Holland & Knight Alliance http://www.boyden.ru/news2.shtml NEW YORK – July 23 – H&K Investigative Solutions (HKIS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Holland & Knight Consulting LLC, and Boyden Global Executive search have created a strategic alliance to provide public and private sector organizations with legal, security and executive placement support in the...
A Double Standard for Lawyer Dishonesty: Billing...
Download now or preview on posterous lrv_issues_v34n03_a09.pdf (303 KB) In client surveys about their concerns about lawyers, excessive fees and dishonesty in billing practices are near the top of the list of client concerns. Empirical studies suggest that a majority of lawyers who bill by the hour engage in dishonest billing practices at least occasionally. ...
Holland & Knight - Martha Barnett - Reforming...
Download now or preview on posterous 04-keynote.pdf (90 KB) Professionalism Conference Remarks KEYNOTE: MARTHA W. BARNETT PROFESSIONALISM: DEBORAH L. RHODE Let me close by singling out a representative example: reforming state bar disciplinary systems. Current systems generally dismiss about ninety percent of complaints without...
Holland & Knight surprised by low marks from...
Adolfo E. Jimenez, the partner in charge of recruiting at Holland & Knight, was surprised when the midlevel associates survey published by The American Lawyer magazine ranked the firm so low. The firm finished 142 out of 175 firms in satisfaction nationwide behind such firms as Greenberg Traurig; Hunton & Williams; Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; and...
For A Few Dollars More: The Perplexing Problem of...
Download now or preview on posterous 012709.pdf (798 KB) DOUGLAS R. RICHMOND Introduction In August 2006, Matthew Farmer, once a promising young partner in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight LLP, was featured in a Wall Street Journal article on his firm’s billing practices. Farmer accused a senior partner in his firm of billing fraud...
The Florida Bar v. John L. Scott - Sexual...
The following is a real-time transcript taken as closed captioning during the oral argument proceedings, and as such, may contain errors. This service is provided solely for the purpose of assisting those with disabilities and should be used for no other purpose. These are not legal documents, and may not be used as legal authority. This transcript is not an official document of the Florida...
819 F.2d 1002 Glaeser class action against Holland...
819 F.2d 1002 56 USLW 2013 Jean Ann CONE, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Evelyn M. Glaeser, deceased, and as representative of a class of all persons similarly situated, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The STATE BAR OF FLORIDA, the Florida Bar Foundation, Inc., and Holland & Knight, Defendants-Appellees. No. 85-3993. United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. ...
Zebersky on Holland & Knight conflicts and...
Download now or preview on posterous 05-1150_CommentsEdwardZebersky.pdf (31 KB) IN THE SUPREME COURT OF FLORIDA CASE NUMBER SCO5-1150 IN RE: PETITION TO AMEND RULE 4-1.5(0(4)(B) OF THE RULES OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT / RESPONSE TO PETITION BY EDWARD H. ZEBERSKY, ESQ. This is a Response to the Petition filed by former Justice Grimes seeking to amend the...
Leigh Jones reports Holland & Knight lost 47...
Staff growth at America’s largest law firms slowed in 2008, according to new research, with a host of major firms contracting in the face of the ailing economy. Holland & Knight lost 47 lawyers (4.1%). Author: Leigh Jones http://www.legalweek.com/Company/340/Navigation/18/Articles/1179139/Cads+and+Shearman+shrink+as+US+firms‘+growth+slows.html Posted via email from HKLaw ...
Six Holland & Knight Partners Quit to Launch...
Holland & Knight suffered its first large partner exodus in years when six of its top lawyers announced that they were leaving to start their own firm. The new firm, to be known as Avila Rodriguez Hernandez Mena & Ferri, includes Alcides I. Avila, former head of Holland & Knight’s banking and finance group. “We believe that there’s a strong market for a small boutique...
Disbarment Sought for Former Holland & Knight...
By Debra Cassens Weiss source The District of Columbia Bar Counsel is seeking the disbarment of a former partner at Holland & Knight for allegedly forging signatures on an agreement for an easement. Theodore Silva Jr. is accused of lying to the law firm and a client about the status of the agreement, then forging signatures and presenting the agreement to the client, Legal Times reports....
Holland & Knight sued for breach of contract and...
A Johns Hopkins Hospital neurosurgery professor alleges he is out $20 million because the company hired to pay the annual maintenance fee for a Japanese patent of a pain-relieving drug failed to do so. Dr. James N. Campbell is suing the Channel Island branch of Computer Patent Annuities, which specializes in managing intellectual property rights for its clients, in Baltimore City Circuit Court....
Lawyers and the criminal law - Stephen Warne on...
Reproduced below is a blog post about ‘bill padding’ from the US site, Legal Blog Watch. That is where lawyers say work took them longer than it really did, and so charge commensurately more, or even make up the fact that they did work, and charge for it. Sometimes I read articles like this and wonder whether lawyers don’t think they live in a different world where, if they...
The Perfect Crime? “The amount billed by Holland &...
Posted by Ashby Jones William Ross, a professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Ala., calls it “the perfect crime.” NYU legal ethics guru Stephen Gillers says there’s a “general consensus” that the practice is on the upswing. The practice? Law-firm billing fraud, and the WSJ’s Nathan Koppel takes a look at the issue...
Holland & Knight - Rockdale County 911 - Conflict...
Download now or preview on posterous rockdale.pdf (1205 KB) Holland & Knight - Conflict Waiver and Terms of Engagement Holland & Knight is the sole owner of Holland & Knight Consulting LLC which is a partial owner of Corporate Integrity Services. Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
Critics worry that conflict-of-interest...
Even by Washington standards, Aurene Martin’s spin through the revolving door was a quick one. On Sept. 10 of last year, the former acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs stepped down to become a partner in the Indian law group of Holland & Knight. Within weeks, according to Senate disclosure forms, she was lobbying her former agency on behalf of the Lower Lake Rancheria, a...
Holland & Knight - skirting conflicts by creating...
Download now or preview on posterous cra.pdf (11 KB) Amendment of CRA By-Laws Motion made by Commissioner Moore and seconded by Commissioner Katz to approve amendments to the CRA By-Laws. Roll call showed: YEAS: Commissioners Hutchinson, Katz, Moore, Smith, and Mayor Naugle. NAYS: none. CRA Consultant A motion was presented to approve hiring Mr. David...
Blood is big business - Holland & Knight paid over...
Tracking the big business of donated blood in Orlando Dan Tracy | Sentinel Staff Writer Blood is big business. It starts with Rebecca Zamrycki, 27, who lives in Orlando and has given a pint every eight weeks for a decade. It ends with people such as Ed Havill, the 67-year-old Lake County property appraiser who needs blood transfusions to battle his leukemia. In the middle is Florida’s...
Motion to Disqualify Holland & Knight for multiple...
Download now or preview on posterous Motiontodisqualify.pdf (186 KB) Michael Katherein Victoria Zaytseva v. City of Evanston, Illinois Jack M. Siegel Herbert D. Hill Ellen Szymanski Case No 05 C 3385 Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
Third Big Firm Overbilling Scandal
The Holland & Knight story is terrifying for every big firm client. Stated baldly, allegedly a partner at the firm treated invoices as works of fiction, manufacturing new hours/entries to increase the bill. Allegedly, this added up to at least $100,000 of overbilling, but this could be massively understated. Eric Goldman - Source Posted via email from HKLaw ...
Holland & Knight Hourly Billing: The Perfect...
Ron Baker - Source The Wall Street Journal reported on August 30, 2006 that Matthew Farmer, a 42-year old junior partner in the Chicago office of Holland & Knight, accused the firm of padding its timesheet and billings on a trial for home builder Pinnacle Corp. You can find the article, and the Journal’s blog, with comments, here. You can also read CEO of Exemplar, and VeraSage...
The Illinois Supreme Court filed disciplinary...
Sanctions were imposed because the lawyers engaged in professional misconduct by violating state ethics law, according to the court. They include: • John Deangelis of Skokie, whose practice was listed at 8820 Skokie Blvd. Deangelis, who was licensed in 1992, was suspended for one year, beginning Feb. 10. The court ruled he converted $6,582 from a client and $12,500 from his former law firm...
January 2009
86 posts
Holland & Knight loses 3 lawyers after internal...
By: Scott Barancik Three more lawyers are leaving Holland & Knight’s Tampa office, bringing its net loss to 10 percent since an internal struggle over sexual harassment allegations came to light in late March. Richard M. Blau, an expert on alcohol law, is leaving Holland & Knight’s Tampa office to join a rival firm. He’s taking 14 members of his national team with...
Whither Holland & Knight?
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, the former managing partner of Holland & Knight, took the microphone last month at a campaign rally in front of a rustic bed-and-breakfast in New Smyrna Beach. “I’m the only person in this campaign who’s run a business,” he said in his soft Central Florida drawl to about 150 senior citizens standing on the lawn....
Agency and law firm entangled (Enterprise Florida...
The hiring of Enterprise Florida CEO Darrell Kelley by legal giant Holland & Knight is the latest in a list of close, lucrative connections. By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG and SCOTT BARANCIK While Darrell Kelley was chief executive of Florida’s top economic development agency, it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal and consulting fees to the Holland & Knight law firm. Now...
Holland & Knight lawyer making fool of himself and...
This would be hard for me to believe but for some of the pieces of work I met while coaching little league and practicing law. From the St. Pete’s Times, Fred Grady, a lawyer at Holland & Knight in Tampa, was coaching his son’s little league team. A spectator said Grady hit one of the kids with a water bottle which he then denied. As Peter Lattman of the WSJ Law Blog, my source...
Bill padding, and lots of it
by Walter Olson Source Two-thirds of lawyers queried in a new survey say they’ve seen specific instances of bill padding, a figure that hasn’t changed much since 1995. On two related questions, the numbers are actually getting worse, as Nathan Koppel notes at the WSJ Law Blog (May 1): “54.6% of the respondents (as compared with 40.3% in 1995) admitted that they had...
Billing issues in a copyright matter of Holland &...
Further to an earlier IPBiz post on Holland & Knight, a reader pointed to a link concerning billing issues in a copyright case. The link is to an article by Nathan Koppel of the Wall Street Journal, reproduced in the Pittsburgh Gazette, and concerns charges made by Matthew Farmer, once a junior partner in the Chicago law offices of Holland & Knight LLP. The article includes the text: After...
This Week in Layoffs - 1/23/09
* Holland & Knight laid off some staff, but no numbers. source Posted via email from HKLaw Investigation | Comment »
Lawyers From Holland & Knight LLP Join Morris,...
Download now or preview on posterous morris.pdf (20 KB) A former partner and a former senior counsel of Holland & Knight’s Atlanta office have joined Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP. James “Mac” Hunter joined Morris Manning & Martin as a partner and Jason P. Wright will be of counsel; Bruce Strothers will be a contract associate. A...
Holland & Knight Committee for Effective...
Tea Leaves, at the Federal Election Commission Last year the Federal Election Commission heard from Holland and Knight, a limited liability law partnership organized under Florida law, that asked whether, having elected tax treatment as a corporation under federal tax law, it could operate its political committee as a corporate PAC and pay without limit for its PAC administrative...
Seven Leave Holland & Knight
By Debra Cassens Weiss Source Seven lawyers at Holland & Knight have announced they are leaving the firm’s Miami office to start their own boutique firm. Six of the lawyers are partners, the Daily Business Review reports. The publication says the partner departure is the largest since the firm experienced financial problems several years ago. The firm took several steps to get back...
Holland & Knight Bill Padding
Lawyer’s Charge Opens Window On Bill Padding By NATHAN KOPPEL The career of Matthew Farmer, a junior partner in the Chicago law offices of Holland & Knight LLP, was on the upswing in December 2004. He had just won a monthlong trial for Pinnacle Corp., a Midwestern home builder accused of copyright infringement, and gotten kudos from many of his partners. But weeks later,...
Holland & Knight - Minh VU - charged in a sweeping...
Cache of knockoff bags triggers federal case Chelsea residents accused in fraud Thousands of counterfeit designer purses crowded the shelves of a Revere storage facility unit. By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | November 4, 2005 Three sisters from Chelsea, and the boyfriend of one, were allegedly running a brisk business selling knockoff handbags of designers like Gucci, Kate Spade, and...
Holland and Knight attorneys help Osama Bin...
Federal Law Enforcement, Corporate Counsel and Private Practice Lawyers Knew of Mohammed Atta’s Continuing Presence in Orlando, Florida in Early 2001 February 8, 2008 by Robby Scott Hill The Secret Service’s Preisdential Advance Team ran across Atta in Orlando while preparing for a visit by President Bush and the US Customs Service knew that Osama Bin Laden’s brother Khalil...
THE WHISTLEBLOWER
It was a simple act, copying documents and mailing them to local newspapers. But it was a bold one. And one that publicly embarrassed Florida’s largest law firm, Holland & Knight, and led it to rescind its brazen promotion of Douglas A. Wright, a partner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment. The anonymous whistleblower accomplished what nine female employees who had...
Blagojevich - Holland & Knight Memorandum of...
Download now or preview on posterous GatesMOU.pdf (38 KB) Holland & Knight will also broadly identify possible policy objectives and strategies relating to these policy areas. Holland & Knight will coordinate the development of a step-by-step action plan to address each selected initiative. The action plan will include recommendations for: (i)...
H&K's handling sets a troubling standard
By ROBERT TRIGAUX The firm is committed to fostering a collegial work environment in which all individuals are treated with dignity and respect. - from Holland & Knight’s policy prohibiting sexual harassment. I do not recall asking her to “feel my pipes’ numerous times or even asking her to do so at all, but I may have done so because I’ve done it before. - from...
Holland & Knight - Waiver of Conflicts - Place...
Richard Dunnells — A partner in the DC office of Holland & Knight (after the dissolution of Dunnells & Duvall in the early- to mid- 90s) specializing in HUD matters.� He represented Hamilton Securities in various HUD related matters while it served as Financial Advisor to HUD and also as counsel to HUD in connection with certain “portfolio reengineering” matters (after...
Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board public...
Download now or preview on posterous Silva_2-6-08.pdf (345 KB) February 1, 2008 Theodore Scott Silva Jr., Holland & Knight, LLP, Suite 400, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20034-3202 VSB Docket No. 08-000-073253 On January 23, 2008, the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board issued a public reprimand with terms to Theodore Scott Silva...
Holland & Knight could be held liable by investors...
Missing investor kept N.Y. disbarment a secret, Sarasota’s Art Nadel Paid $50,000 to Mob Loan Sharks From Clients Escrow Account. Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent In Print: Wednesday, January 21, 2009. To pay off loan sharks, New York attorney Arthur G. Nadel violated a basic tenet of legal ethics — he dipped into an escrow account and took $50,000 that did not belong to...
On probation in tax case, former federal public...
By: Mary Hladky Source: http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/news.html?news_id=14195 Former Federal Public Defender James R. Gailey soon will be joining the Miami office of Holland & Knight as a legal assistant. Gailey, who resigned his post in 1994, pleaded guilty in August of this year to filing a false income tax return and was sentenced to a year of probation in early November. He was...