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JUDGE DENIES BAIL TO EX-PROSECUTOR CHARGED WITH MURDER
"A federal judge in Newark on Friday refused to grant bail to former Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Bergrin, who stands indicted on charges of leading a racketeering conspiracy that included the murder of a drug-case witness and the attempted murder of an informant. U.S. Magistrate Judge Madeline Cox Arleo found that prosecutors presented strong, unambiguous evidence to support the charges and that they proved by clear and convincing evidence 'that no conditions or combination of conditions exist that will reasonably ensure the safety of the community [or] that will reasonably assure defendant?s appearance at trial.' "

IN RARE HABEAS GRANT, CIRCUIT FINDS MURDER EVIDENCE LACKING
"The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a writ of habeas corpus for a New Jersey man who has been in prison for more than two decades on a conviction of murder by association. The three-judge panel criticized a state appeals court for not recognizing an obvious lack of credible evidence against Paul Kamienski, 61, now serving a life sentence for his alleged participation in the 1983 shooting deaths of a Florida couple with whom he was brokering a cocaine deal. The ruling, in Kamienski v. Hendricks, DDS No. 14-8-3987, is a rare grant of habeas relief under the tough standards of the 1996 federal Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. "

NO SANCTION VS. LAWYER WHERE ONE OF THREE CLAIMS SURVIVED DISMISSAL
"The Appellate Division on Friday reversed a $37,210 frivolous-litigation sanction against a lawyer, holding that because one of the three counts in the complaint survived a motion for summary judgment, he could not be deemed to have litigated in bad faith. The appeals court held, in United Hearts, L.L.C. v. Zahabian, DDS No. 04-2-3967, that although Hackensack solo Charles Epstein did not oppose dismissal of an unjust-enrichment claim and conceded he did not have evidence to support a claim for fraudulent conveyance to an insider under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, the fact that a third claim proceeded to trial was sufficient to avoid sanctions under Rule 1:4-8(d)."

NOTED LITIGATOR AND RETIRED ETHICS CHIEF GET TOP AWARD
"A trial lawyer who has devoted himself to making sure veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are properly taken care of and an attorney ethics watchdog will be honored as this year?s New Jersey State Bar Foundation Medal of Honor winners. The efforts of McCarter & English partner William Greenberg and David Johnson Jr., the retired director of the Office of Attorney Ethics, will be celebrated at an awards reception on June 11 at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. The Medal of Honor is given each year to those in the legal field who have shown a longstanding commitment and made significant contributions to New Jersey?s justice system."

SOTOMAYOR'S CIVIL PRACTICE WAS AT ANTI-KNOCKOFF FIRM
"Long before President Obama thrust Sonia Sotomayor into the spotlight by nominating her for the U.S. Supreme Court, she was a corporate attorney with an interesting specialty: designer handbags. Fake designer handbags, to be exact. Sotomayor spent eight years from 1984 to 1992 at New York firm Pavia & Harcourt, where she represented Italian luxury goods retailer Fendi in its fight against knockoff handbags bearing the designer's logo. Fendi was one of Sotomayor's major clients when she was an associate and later a partner specializing in intellectual" property litigation."

WHAT MAKES A COURT SUPREME: PART 4
"This chapter of Justice Daniel O'Hern's book about his years on the Wilentz Court focuses on Justice Alan Handler. Every great court needs a clean-up hitter, someone strong, someone certain, someone on whom others can rely to come through at crucial moments, and that was Handler's role, O'Hern said. Of all the justices, he had the deepest mind, the greatest reservoir of judicial experience and understanding."

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