Legal Malpractice

Blackwater. Iraq and Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Blackwater's Attorney Wiley Rein, is involved in litigation over the deaths of Blackwater employees in Iraq.  Tied up in this case are the questions of the military, contractors to the military, and the rules which apply to them.  Do the rules changes in a war zone, do active military operations in the immediate area change the rules, and are employees of a contractor who are not military personnel within the Federal Officer removal statute.

Discussed by BLT, the Blog of Legal Times tells this story:

"Wiley Rein has filed a motion to dismiss the $30 million legal malpractice lawsuit that Blackwater Security Consulting brought against the firm in late January in D.C. Superior Court.

The lawsuit alleges that if Wiley Rein and former partner Margaret Ryan, now a federal judge who is also named in the suit, had cited the federal officer removal statute and appropriate case precedent when defending the private security contractor in a 2005 wrongful-death suit, the case would have remained in federal court and eventually been thrown out. Instead, the case was remanded to the Superior Court of Wake County in North Carolina and is currently in arbitration.

According to Wiley Rein’s motion to dismiss, filed with Judge Judith Retchin yesterday by the firm’s attorneys — Zuckerman Spaeder partners Mark Foster and Elizabeth Taylor — the federal officer removal statute doesn’t apply. The motion argues that Blackwater wasn’t working in tandem with the U.S. military when its four employees were killed in Fallujah, Iraq, but rather was independently handling security for a catering contractor. "

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).