Legal News

The Churn: Judge Somma Finds a Home; S&C Lands Mattingly and More

By Dan Slater

Comings, goings, and big assignments to report today. Let’s hit them all in one swoop.

Anti-violent-games, anti-porn attorney disbarred: The Florida Supreme Court has disbarred anti-porn lawyer Jack Thompson. The Supreme Court’s four-page order — which you can find posted at the Joystiq blog and described in this Daily Business Review article — summarized 10 acts of unprofessional behavior by Thompson over the past three years. The court concluded Thompson made false statements to courts, falsely accused a judge of fixing cases and accused lawyers who filed complaints against him of being “criminal pornographers who objectify women.”

Thompson (Denison University, Vanderbilt law) denies the allegations, and told the Daily Business Review that he would file a request for an emergency stay in U.S. District Court in Miami. “I’m just getting warmed up,” he said. “They won this phase of the battle. Now we’re in a federal venue, which will give me relief.”

S&C lands Mattingly: For those bank lawyers out there who long ago grew jealous of Rodge Cohen’s book of business, this might not come as good news: S&C announced last night that it’s nabbed J. Virgil Mattingly, the former general counsel of the Federal Reserve Board and of the Federal Open Market Committee. Mattingly, who spent 30 years with the Federal Reserve, had retired in June 2004.

Dechert litigation head to run probe of Kozinski: The NLJ reports that the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ special investigative committee responsible for investigating alleged misconduct by the Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has hired Philly-based Robert C. Heim, head of Dechert’s litigation department. A Dechert spokesperson confirmed to the NLJ that a team from Dechert and Morgan Lewis has been hired to conduct the investigation and has assigned Heim (UPenn, UPenn law) to lead the operation. In June, Kozinski hired Kirkland & Ellis’s Mark Holscher, who, before moving to K&E second-chaired Jeff Skilling’s defense with O’Melveny’s Dan Petrocelli.

Judge Somma finds home at Boston firm: We’re happy to report that former bankruptcy judge Robert Somma, who resigned from the bench after a drunk driving arrest, has found a home at the bankruptcy department of Boston’s Posternak Blankstein & Lund. For LB coverage of Somma, who was wearing a dress at the time of the infamous drunk driving arrest, click here and here. Here’s the NLJ report on Somma’s move.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).