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Texas’ Paxton picks Kirkland lawyer, ex-Alito clerk as solicitor general
Trump rally in Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks ahead of a rally held by former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Robstown, Texas, U.S., October 22, 2022. REUTERS/Go Nakamura Acquire Licensing Rights

Nov 13 (Reuters) – Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday said he has appointed a Brigham Young University law professor and attorney at law firm Kirkland & Ellis to serve as the state’s next solicitor general.

Aaron Nielson, a former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, will serve as Texas’ lead lawyer in state and federal appellate courts.

“In this position, he will lead the critical appellate work for some of our most significant, far-reaching cases,” Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.

Paxton said Nielson will take a one-year leave of absence from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School to serve as solicitor general.

Nielson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement released by Paxton’s office, Nielson said he looked forward to “working alongside the team Attorney General Paxton has assembled.”

The appointment comes about two months after the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton on 16 articles of impeachment he faced before that body, allowing him to keep his state office. Paxton has been dogged by corruption allegations since taking office in 2014.

Paxton, an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, has repeatedly insisted that he is innocent and that the impeachment trial was a political witchhunt.

Nielson has worked at Kirkland for more than decade, according to his LinkedIn profile. The firm’s website said he is an of counsel in its Washington, D.C., and Salt Lake City offices.

Apart from Alito, Nielson has also served as a clerk to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Jerry Smith of the

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November 15, 2023 by LAW

Marlene Galan Woods Is Running as a Dem. She’s Taking Cash From a GOP Lawyer Who Fought Trump’s Loss.

At a press conference ahead of the 2022 election in Arizona, Marlene Galan Woods—a prominent former TV journalist in Phoenix and a onetime member of the state’s Republican elite—described that year’s GOP ticket as a bunch of “election-denying lunatics.”

“Only one party is trying to end democracy,” Woods said. “Only one party is trying to limit who can vote. Only one party embraces antisemitism, racism, and an extreme white nationalist agenda—and it is not the Democrats.”

Last November, Arizona voters awarded a clean sweep to Democrats, including a candidate whose campaign Woods chaired: Adrian Fontes, who defeated hardcore election denier Mark Finchem for the office of secretary of state.

Now officially a Democrat, Woods is making her former party’s assault on elections a focal point of her 2024 campaign against Rep. David Schweikert (R), who represents a battleground congressional district in the Phoenix area.

But tucked inside Woods’ first federal campaign finance report is a detail that complicates her pro-democracy bona fides: one of her most generous supporters is the attorney who led the Trump-fueled legal challenges to the 2020 election result in Arizona.

Since November 2020, Dennis Wilenchik and his law firm have represented the Arizona Republican Party and its former chair, Kelli Ward, in two lawsuits which aimed to throw out Joe Biden’s victory and challenge the integrity of Maricopa County’s vote-counting procedure.

While judges quickly shut down these cases—and any threat they posed to the transition of power—Wilenchik and his law firm continued to file appeals related to these lawsuits into this year.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Bonnie Conrad, who is Wilenchik’s wife, gave $6,600 to Woods’ campaign, which is twice the federally allowed maximum for a primary election. A note on the line item states that the donation was “reattributed to Conrad and Wilenchik,”

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September 3, 2023 by LAW

A Lawyer’s Journey: From Burnout To Trailblazing

Thomas Dunlap, Managing Partner at Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig a vet-owned law firm representing clients in national and international matters.

Lawyers leave the private practice of law for myriad reasons. While the pay is generally high, the prestige can be great, and the work is usually exciting and intellectually stimulating; it also involves long hours and high stress. To combat this, I share this short article to help others forge a new and better path to stay engaged with and continue the practice of law.

Almost twenty-five years ago, a few short years after starting my career as an associate at a private law firm, I quit law. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I took a sabbatical. One day in the year 2000, I enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army infantry.

I was still interested in law. I still held the duty to protect and defend the Constitution. But I had decided that without a new direction, I could end up like the partners in my law firm. Senior lawyers in their mid-fifties still working ten to twelve hours a day under as much stress and scrutiny as I was as an associate, and they did not seem to enjoy their work. There was pride in work, but not joy.

At the time, I quit because I thought I hated being a lawyer. However, I later realized that it is not the profession of law that is so mentally exhausting; it is how I was engaging in the profession. After discovering that enlisted life was not as awesome as perhaps I had thought, I decided to attend Officer Candidate School, which gave me perspective on management and structure.

Later in life, after starting a nascent practice with a fellow former Army officer, I went

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August 10, 2023 by LAW

Biden taps GE HealthCare lawyer, ex-prosecutor for Chicago U.S. Attorney

June 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday said he intends to nominate April Perry, a former federal prosecutor and a senior counsel at GE HealthCare (GEHC.O), to serve as the next Chicago U.S. Attorney.

If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Perry will be the first woman to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Morris (Sonny) Pasqual has been serving as acting U.S. Attorney in Chicago after John Lausch stepped down from the role on March 11. Lausch rejoined law firm Kirkland & Ellis in May.

Lausch was originally appointed by former President Donald Trump, a Republican, in 2017. He was kept in the role by the Democratic Biden administration at the behest of Illinois U.S. senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, even as Biden terminated the appointments of other Trump-era U.S. Attorneys.

Durbin and Duckworth praised Perry’s nomination on Wednesday.

“She was highly regarded by our screening committee and brings strong qualifications and a wealth of experience from her time in the U.S. Attorney’s office and in the private sector to the position,” the senators said in a joint statement.

Reached for comment, Perry said she is “honored to be nominated, and would be proud to serve if confirmed.”

A spokesperson for GE HealthCare called Perry “outstanding” in a statement.

Perry is the senior counsel of global investigations and fraud and abuse prevention at Chicago-headquartered GE HealthCare, which was spun off from General Electric at the beginning of the year. Prior to joining the company in 2022, she was general counsel at Ubiety Technologies for three years, the White House said.

Perry was chief deputy state’s attorney and chief ethics officer for Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly Foxx from 2017 to 2019. Before joining Foxx’s team, she worked in the Chicago U.S.

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June 29, 2023 by LAW

The Latina lawyer building up Houston’s next generation of lawyers

Despite the barriers to women and Latinos in the legal profession, every one of them who has risen to become a partner at a large law firm has proven to possess an abundance of skill.

Among those who have pushed themselves so far is Natalie Gonzales an IP lawyer and partner with Baker Botts, a Houston-based law firm centered on clients within the technology, life sciences, and energy industries.

Alongside her position at the firm, she also serves as the President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston (HisBA), a nonprofit that works to advance and support the law careers of Hispanics in Houston, Texas.

Navigating a Changing Path

According to a 2022 study conducted by the National Association of Law Placement, only 0.97% of all law firm partners were Hispanic women, and they made up only a third of all Hispanic law partners.

Since its founding in 1987, HisBA has enacted numerous scholarships throughout its history, and more recently, a one-on-one mentorship program.

Founded three years ago, the HisBA Law School Mentorship Program connects established lawyers with students to build the next generation of lawyers in the region, accepting over 100 mentees alone last year.

“From the mentor perspective, we want to shape the next generation of lawyers and make sure that they are contributing to society, that they’re doing a great job in terms of their legal practices,” Gonzales said in an interview with AL DÍA. “The only way that they can do that is if folks step up and give their time back and help train them.”

As a college student, Gonzales had chosen to pursue a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Texas, in Austin. After working on multiple summer internships, Gonzales decided that becoming an engineer wasn’t what she wanted, not for a

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June 9, 2023 by LAW

Lawyer pleads guilty to defrauding veterans, retirees out of millions

A South Carolina woman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy for using her position as a managing partner at a law firm to exploit military veterans and elderly investors as part of a nationwide cash flow scheme, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

From approximately 2012 to 2021, Candy Kern, 55, used her law firm to prey on retiree investors and “military veterans in desperate financial straits” by illegally assigning veterans’ benefits, a DoJ release stated.

As part of the scheme, Kern directed financially struggling veterans to accept lump sum cash payments in exchange for the veterans’ monthly retirement or disability earnings, which Kern would arrange in contracts — replete with credit background checks, interest rates and legal ramifications — to be paid out, with interest, over an agreed-upon term.

Kern and other partners would then solicit elderly investors seeking to bolster their retirement to invest in the contracts by providing the lump sum payments, which they were told would yield a return over time.

Throughout the entirety of the scheme, Kern and her partners knew that each contract was void from the start due to federal laws that prohibit the reassignment of pensions.

“For more than eight years, Kern, through her law firm, served as the banker, legal counsel, and debt collector” in the scheme, the release stated. Kern even went as far as filing suits against veterans who defaulted on their payments, according to court documents.

In all, an estimated $14 million in illegally assigned veterans’ payments were funneled through accounts managed by Kern’s law firm. The retiree investors duped by Kern and her partners lost more than $31 million.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina Adair Boroughs called Kern’s use of her standing as a lawyer to facilitate the scheme “reprehensible.”

Principal Deputy Assistant

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April 23, 2023 by LAW

Ballwin’s city attorney refunds money after ethical questions are raised

Matt Conlon went to City Hall seeking answers. Or maybe an act of contrition.

Conlon signed up to address the Board of Aldermen over the city’s handling of an election matter I wrote about last November. In 2022, Mayor Tim Pogue had visited a new Ballwin resident who signed up to run for an aldermanic seat.

The man, Brennan Redinger, hadn’t lived in the city long enough to run for office, the mayor told Redinger during the unannounced visit to his apartment. He’d have to withdraw. Redinger did so, but the deadline to remove his name from the ballot had already passed.

The only way to get his name off the ballot would be to file a lawsuit. The city’s attorney, Robert E. Jones, of the Curtis, Heinz, Garrett, & O’Keefe law firm, filed such a lawsuit. But it was rife with problems.

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March 26, 2023 by ATTORNEY

The Best Online Forums for Lawyers

Monday, February 20, 2023

Although unorthodox for a traditional profession like the law, remote work is becoming a more realistic option for lawyers all over the country. With the help of tools like legal practice management software and options to practice law in multiple states, lawyers everywhere are tackling the challenges of remote work.

But one obstacle that remains is networking. Remote lawyers need to put extra work into maintaining professional connections and building an online presence, both of which are made easier with online forums designed specifically for legal professionals.

What Is an Online Forum?

An online forum is an internet space dedicated to conversation using questions, answers, responses, and prompts. Typically, online forums are asynchronous — users post a question, then other users respond at their leisure.

Posts in forums are archived and arranged into categories such as post date, popularity, and more. Discussions can last for hours, days, months, or possibly years, as long as users continue to contribute.

Why Should Lawyers Use Online Forums?

After the rapid shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, plenty of industries saw the value of allowing employees to work from home – including law firms. More and more lawyers are working remotely, but that could come at the cost of networking.

Networking doesn’t have the mean interactions that take place over coffee, lunch, cocktails, golf excursions, or big events. In the strictest sense, networking is any meeting between people, whether in a group or one on one, online or in person, which can be done using online forums.

Online forums dedicated to lawyers and the legal industry are an effective way to facilitate networking opportunities when in-person meetings aren’t an option. Getting involved in online forums helps lawyers discuss industry topics with experts and thought leaders, stay

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February 21, 2023 by LAW

Trump Lawyer Hires Own Attorney in Classified Documents Probe

(Reuters) – A lawyer for former President Donald Trump retained an attorney to represent himself as prosecutors step up their inquiry into the handling of sensitive documents at Trump’s Florida residence, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Evan Corcoran, who has represented Trump in interactions with the government over presidential records taken to his Mar-a-Lago resort, has turned to Michael Levy, a prominent white-collar lawyer in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.

Levy was hired by Corcoran’s law firm, Silverman Thompson Slutkin & White, to represent Corcoran in the probe, according to one of the people.

Levy, a principal at the Washington law firm Ellerman Enzinna Levy, declined to comment.

Corcoran has appeared before a grand jury in connection with US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into classified documents taken to Mar-a-Lago following Trump’s term in office and possible attempts to obstruct that probe. He appeared before the grand jury in early January, according to a person familiar with his appearance.

The New York Times reported this week that US prosecutors are seeking to question Corcoran again, asking a US judge to pierce attorney-client privilege by arguing that they’ve uncovered evidence of a crime.

Corcoran communicated with both the National Archives and US Justice Department last year as the government sought the return of presidential records taken to Mar-a-Lago, according to documents released as part of a lawsuit Trump filed last year seeking an independent review of materials the The FBI seized at Mar-a-Lago.

Another Trump lawyer, Christina Bobb, signed a certification that all classified documents had been returned before the FBI found about 100 additional classified documents during an August 2022 search, according to prosecutors.

Trump has denied wrongdoing and claimed, without offering evidence, that all documents at his residence have been

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February 18, 2023 by ATTORNEY

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee relocates office to Hatcher Lane in Columbia
The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands announced the opening of its relocated Columbia office at 1503 Hatcher Lane, Suite 105.

The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands announced the opening of its relocated Columbia office at 1503 Hatcher Lane, Suite 105.

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm, announced today the opening of its relocated Columbia office at 1503 Hatcher Lane, Suite 105.

The Columbia office’s attorneys and legal services will continue unchanged in the new location, although additional staff may be joining in the near future. Previously, the office had been located at 1121 Trotwood Ave., Ste. 4.

“The Legal Aid Society is proud to have been a part of the Columbia community for more than 40 years,” said Patricia Jones, lead attorney of the Columbia office. “In this new location, which is just a short drive away from our old offices, we will continue to provide needed free legal services to low-income residents of Columbia and the surrounding area.”

Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands advocates for fairness and justice under the law. The nonprofit law firm offers free civil legal representation and educational programs to help people in its region receive justice, protect their well-being and support opportunities to overcome poverty. It serves 48 counties from offices in Clarksville, Columbia, Cookeville, Gallatin, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Oak Ridge and Tullahoma. The Legal Aid Society is funded in part by the United Way. Learn more at www.las.org or by following the firm on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: Legal Aid of Middle TN relocates office to Hatcher Lane in Columbia

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February 14, 2023 by LEGAL
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