Rod Blagojevich: Bills, Bills, Bills
Some have wondered: Where was star litigator Dan Webb at Governor Rod Blagojevich's bond hearing?
High-powered Winston & Strawn litigators Dan Webb and Bradley Lerman were not at Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's side when he appeared at a bond hearing on Tuesday. Blagojevich instead tapped Sheldon Sorosky, a lawyer from two-partner Chicago litigation shop Kaplan & Sorosky. Whither Winston & Strawn?
Here's a possible answer, from the Wall Street Journal (subscription):
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich owes more than $500,000 in unpaid bills to the law firm Winston & Strawn, his primary counsel since federal investigators began looking into various allegations of corruption five years ago. It is unclear whether the legal bills are for personal or campaign work, or for both. Campaign filings show Winston & Strawn had charged the governor's campaign fund, Friends of Blagojevich, nearly $2 million in legal fees through the end of 2007.
"Friends of Blagojevich": probably in short supply right now.
Update: As noted in the comments, if Winston & Strawn isn't eager to rep Rod, it's understandable. Recall how the firm blew $20 million defending Illinois's last corrupt governor, George Ryan. It lost the trial, lost the appeal, and couldn't even get pro bono credit for the thousands of hours spent on the case.
Blagojevich Has $500,000 in Unpaid Legal Bills [Wall Street Journal (subscription)]
Webb-less in Chicago: Where Was the Star Litigator At Blago's Bond Hearing? [Am Law Daily]
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1st!
1st!
fuck yeah!!!
- 1
5th
I love how the Am Law Daily piece points out that most of the top litigators in the area have been conflicted out because they represent other related, corrupt people. Not enough litigators to go around.
Way to go Chicago.
Winston is going to sit this one out. Dan Webb cashed in a lot of chits to spend $20MM of firm time and money on Ryan without getting paid, and it didn't really turn into the kind of great publicity he thought that it would. Milorad doesn't have a lot of money stashed away for this kind of stuff (because he was arrogant and thought that he would never get caught and because, at the end of the day, you can't really make that much being a corrupt governor) so he can't pay cash for it, either.
I wish my hair looked as good as that. He looks like the guy from Clueless.
four posts in a row by david lat.
is elie mystal finally being laid off?
Layoffs at ATL. Ellie was dismissed earlier today, but it was not performance based.
Welcome to Change-ville. LMAO!
4 posts by D. Lat
Can it be? Is Elie gone?
Grammar rejoices.
.
.
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[Waits expectantly per comments 8 and 9]
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.
.
I am planning on nailing a sheep after I am done reading this.
Elie being laid off = HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLELUJAH!
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUUUUUUJAH!
4 posts by D. Lat
Can it be? Is Elie gone?
Grammar rejoices.
stealth!
Do we dare to hope that Elie is gone?
YES WE CAN!
"Here's a possible answer, from the Wall Street Journal (subscription):"
Is that comma really necessary?
Stealth layoffs at DLA this week - you heard it here first...
everything is hunky dory
"Here's a possible answer, from the Wall Street Journal (subscription):"
Is that comma really necessary?
Blago's coif = amazing.
Winston = trash.
18 - sounds like Elie's writing...maybe Elie is just pretending to be Lat
Maybe Mystal is working on a huge, killer story or, perhaps, he was given the day off.
23, maybe Lat is the product of affirmative action.
24 - Maybe a cupcake truck flipped over in front of him on the highway.
Why did they arrest Jeremy Sisto?
Criminal client doesn't pay bill. What else is new?
The Blago has tested teh limits of political fungibility and has been found wanting.
Who the f#@k is Jeremy Sisto?
In Rod we trust.
26 = best comment all day
30
http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/blog/3038e0a9-5ffa-4f14-9002-b6b3827fa589.widec.jpg
it's not that hard
25 - was Lat terrible in the past, before Elie took over?
23
6. There is also the fact that Ryan and Jim Thompson, who was chair of Winston at the time of the trial were very close politically. Blago has no contacts like that at Winston.
Jeremy Sisto got arrested??
Per Lat's Facebook status, Lat is only writing more posts today due to Elie being sick. Oh well.
36, that's an insult to sisto. gov. bigface does not resemble.
and the fact that lat is back, no matter the reason, makes being up to my neck in 3L exam studying so much more bearable.
David Lat is on Facebook?
Lat's current status: "David is minding the lemonade stand this afternoon at Above the Law, due to Elie's illness."
$2 mil in campaign legal fees? That should already be a sign that the guy is corrupt. How much money does it cost for campaign finance compliance and ballot issues?
I hope that Elie is ok and wish him a speedy recovery. I may rag on his efforts on occasion, but I would never wish poor health upon anyone. Get well soon, Elie!
I have no opinion on this post.
Ed Stimes.
37 - This is why you don't eat floor cupcakes.
I like Elie!
what do you think Elie has? obstructed colon? or maybe he's doing his best Al Roker impression...
get well elie. i misss you're typos!!!
*kisses*
Keep in mind that Elie has to post around the clock while looking for news sources and reading emails - this may be a reason why the grammar is so poor.
Then again, it's not my job to do it, so I dunno.
Sorosky promised he can lose Blago's trial for 1/10th of Webb's fee to lose it.
What illness can be so severe as to keep Elie from laying around his house in his pyjamas, surfing the internet and posting links to stories that were already posted by the WSJ Law Blog?
50- I think Elie has mustache ride fever.
George Ryan, convicted former Illinois Governor, was Lt. Governor under Jim Thompson, former W&S chairman.
i dont like elie(fant) mysTTTal as a blogger or whatever he is. his outrage at u of c (or wherever) changing their grading curve while ignoring the ridiculous HLS "if u has pulse, you ares cum laude" bullshit is pathetic.
53, top 40% at HLS is cum laude, minus the top 10% magna cum laude. I'm pretty sure the bottom 60% have a pulse though.
Any truth to the mustache ride rumor? Elie?
6 here, I am embarrassed that I had not corrected my comment from earlier before Lat got a chance to reference it. I meant to say that Big Jim cashed in a lot of internal Winston political capital to get his partners to agree to represent Ryan. Dan was involved, too, but it was really Jim that made it happen. Neither of those guys will stick his neck out for Rowdy Roddy Grifter.
54 - a few years back, top 70 percent got cum laude, but nice try dipshit
56, care to speculate on real reason Thompson got Webb and Co. to donate 20MM worth of time on behalf of Ryan? I've heard anything from "Ryan and Thompson were real close friends and Ryan really was broke" to "Ryan threatened to blow the whistle on Thompson for some shennanigans in his administration." I personally suspect it was a bit of both, even if Ryan never overtly threatened Thompson.
57, by "a few years back" you mean a decade?
HLS changed their cum laude ranking system ten years ago. Wow, what an important and pressing issue for Elie to address now.
Why don't we have an Abovethelaw post about the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the breakup of the Spice Girls while we're at it!
hth, dipshit.
31--Nice Simpsons reference
Legal advice to governor Blagojesonovabitch:
STOP BREAKING THE LAW, ASSHOLE!
58. My guess is that you are right, but I think alot had to do with Webb to. Even if Thompson wanted to do it for free, he still couldn't have forced it to happen with Webb's okay, in fact, he was only the chairman because Webb wanted him to be the chairman.
58, I don't think that Thompson and Ryan were especially close, but they were both Republican governors of Illinois, which is a pretty small group. Thompson probably also wanted Ryan to get off for the good of the party, and because Ryan probably knew enough about the 80s to bring a lot of people down if he wanted to.
An un-hot and not nearly as cool version of Sisto.