Legal News

Stanford?s New Lawyers: ?As Different as Punk and Country Music?

By Ashby Jones

We’ve written at length about Allen Stanford’s difficulties keeping a lawyer. We won’t regale you with the entire saga (though you can read about it here and here), but the short story is that financial issues have kept the fallen financier from latching on to one lawyer for good.

The latest development, from earlier this week: heavy-hitting Houston lawyer Richard DeGuerin was swapped out for a couple of federal public defenders. Click here for that post, in which we said the news was further evidence that Stanford’s troubles were deepening.

But we could have been wrong on that front. According to a Houston Chron story out Friday, the lawyers handed to Stanford and who will work free of charge could actually be about the best Stanford could have hoped for, with or without a lofty price tag. Chron reporter Mary Flood calls Stanford’s new team “about as good as money can buy anyway.” Writes Flood:

Mike Sokolow, the first assistant federal public defender for the Southern District of Texas, who is lead lawyer on the case, has previously practiced with two high-dollar civil law firms [ed. note: Akin Gump and Susman Godfrey], argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, has four . . . degrees and a Harvard research fellowship, and was named outstanding public defender in the nation in 2005.

Kent Schaffer, a private practice criminal defense attorney added to the case Thursday because it’s such a complex matter, is a well-known local criminal defense lawyer and frequent lecturer on criminal law who’s often sought by public officials and sports and entertainment figures in trouble.

Flood’s story has some nice details on Sokolow and Schaffer’s styles. Sokolow (U. Mass, UT Law) is the straight man, Schaffer (UT, University of Houston Law) the more free-wheeling.

"Both are bright. But they are as different as punk and country music," said Dan Cogdell, the lawyer for a Stanford co-defendant, Laura Pendergest-Holt. "Kent is mischievous, cunning and very layered. Just when a witness thinks they’ve 'gotten past’ Kent, he will sting them like the scorpion they never saw coming. Sokolow is candid, straightforward and cerebral. Sokolow is your trusted uncle," Cogdell said.

Said Schaffer: "We will do an excellent job for Allen. These cases often end up being quite different than the government typically describes them, and we will be spending the next year working to bring to light the truth about what occurred. Hopefully that will result in the acquittal of Allen Stanford," said Schaffer, who will receive a set federal rate of $110 an hour.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).