BP

Elie on Fox Business: Do I Sound Republican to You?

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Yesterday, after whining about law schools on NPR, I motored over to the Fox headquarters on Sixth Avenue. They wanted me on to to talk about a post I did a couple of weeks ago, encouraging oil-spill victims to take their BP money from the $20 billion fund being administered by Ken Feinberg, instead of pursuing private lawsuits against BP. For the debate, they brought on a plaintiff’s lawyer.

I thought it was a good segment, and I do believe the BP fund will be better for the victims (and the justice system) than a slew of plaintiff’s lawyers jumping on BP — and taking a sizable cut out of whatever damages a judge (most likely) reduces.

But a commenter noted something that a few people have told me privately:

Ellie [sic], I think you are on the brink of finally embracing the fallacy of prudential regulation and the idea that government or semi-government programs are ever going to be able to take care of someone who refuses to take the most basic steps of self-preservation. I saw you on Fox News and I bet you vote Republican this November.

I don’t think I was accessing my inner elephant. But check out the clip and tell me what you think…

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Morning Docket: 07.28.10

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Warren Jeffs

* A team of federal investigators called the “BP Squad” is starting up a criminal investigation into BP and its pals, Transocean and Halliburton. [Washington Post]

* The four justices of the Utah Supreme Court have reversed the rape convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. No word yet on their response to his marriage proposal. [How Appealing]

* The Sacramento firm of McDonough Holland & Allen is closing up shop by Labor Day, and its 80 or so attorneys are looking for new homes. [Am Law Daily]

* We can now return to not knowing or caring about Levinson Axelrod. [ABA Journal]

* Obama to Senate: plug the damn hole — in the ranks of the federal judiciary. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]

* Texas is simultaneously fighting and following the new health care law — the Supremacy Clause is a real bi**h sometimes. [New York Times]

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Non-Sequiturs: 07.20.10

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Aaron Biber Gray Plant Mooty.jpg* Century Regional Detention Facility is sentenced to Lindsay Lohan. Watch out, she looks a little menacing in her mug shot. [People]

* Fellow legal blogger and prominent immigration lawyer Lavi Soloway opines on the intersection of immigration reform, evangelicals, and same-sex marriage. [Politico]

* Why BP oil leak victims might want to look to Faegre & Benson for help. [Forbes]

* This would take all of the fun out of intra-firm email. [Lifehacker]

* Gawker jumps on the you’re-stupid-for-pursuing-a-law-degree bandwagon. [Gawker]

* Advice for lawyers who decide to make a career shift into private investigation, from lawyer-turned-investigator Philip Segal. [Charles Griffin]

* Were you thinking that the lawyer in the Non-Sequiturs photo today looks a little like a pedophile? [Bad Lawyer]

* No hooters allowed on this South Carolina island at night. [Lowering the Bar]

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Ken Feinberg Offers Better Deals than Lawsuits

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As we mentioned this weekend, the BP oil spill has been capped (for the time being), and now we can fully focus on who needs to get paid. As with so many things, it’s Ken Feinberg’s world and we’re just living in it. Bloomberg reports:

Kenneth Feinberg, who is overseeing a $20 billion fund to pay damage claims from BP Plc’s oil spill, pledged to create a system “more generous and more beneficial” to spill victims than taking the company to court.

More generous than court? Ooohh, judicial system, Czar Feinberg is calling you out. You gonna just take that?

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Morning Docket: 07.01.10

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* It’s too bad that Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana can’t seal the slick as easily as he can his office’s oil-spill records. [New York Times]

* Rockin’ New York judge Matthew D’Emic is trying to decide what to rename his band. Possibilities: Rock-n-Robes, L.L. Cool Judge and The Electric Chairs. [Associated Press]

* Eric Holder is in Afghanistan to lecture President Karzai on corruption. [NPR]

* Scottie Pippen scores in his legal malpractice case against Pedersen & Houpt. [ABA Journal]

* Harvard is a good choice for wannabe spies. [New York Times]

* That was quick. Class action against Apple over the “defective” iPhone 4. [Courthouse News]

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Morning Docket: 06.29.10

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* Yesterday was a big day at the Supreme Court. Who were the Biglaw winners and losers at One First Street? [Am Law Daily]

* Of the four opinions from yesterday, McDonald v. Chicago, aka “the guns case,” seems to have generated the most headlines. [How Appealing (linkwrap)]

* And Solicitor General Elena Kagan wants to get in on all the fun. Dana Milbank summarizes yesterday’s confirmation hearings in five words: “talking about Elena is boring.” [Washington Post]

* Federal prosecutors have accused 11 people of being part of a Russian spy ring — including couples living apparently normal lives in places like Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Montclair, New Jersey. [New York Times]

* BP gets hit with a RICO suit. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Some people can’t get a break. Law professor Peter Erlinder, back in St. Paul after his release from a prison in Rwanda, got mugged at gunpoint. [ABA Journal]

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Deep-Water Drilling Is Back on the Table

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Article II, meet Article III. Hope you enjoy the pwnage. CNN reports:

A federal judge has blocked a six-month federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several dozen plaintiffs had sued the Obama administration, arguing the ban would create long-term economic harm to their businesses.

Well, think of it this way: the chances of another one of these rigs exploding and creating an environmental catastrophe that is beyond our ability to fix is like really, really small…

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A BP Potpourri: Legal Links and Updates

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BP: 'Make us!'

Obama: 'Plug the damn hole.'

Not many people are happy about the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — with the possible exceptions of (1) Elena Kagan, whose confirmation to the Supreme Court is all but guaranteed (since everyone’s too distracted to oppose her); (2) the lawyers who are getting work out of this disaster (as discussed below); and (3) whoever is behind the fake BP Twitter account, which currently has over 167,000 followers.

But today brings some news that might make some people a little less angry at BP. Even though the government probably couldn’t have forced the oil giant to set up a $20 billion fund to pay oil spill claims, for the reasons explained by Professor David Zaring, BP is setting up such a fund voluntarily. The New York Times reports:

The White House and BP agreed on Wednesday that the oil giant would create an independent $20 billion fund to pay claims arising from the worst oil spill in American history.

Bowing to pressure from the Obama administration, the company also said it would suspend paying dividends to its shareholders for the rest of the year and would compensate oil field workers for lost wages.

There are actually several legal angles to the BP drama. For example, who will administer this massive fund? And which firms are getting a piece of all the defense-side action?

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Can Jamie Gorelick Clean Up BP’s Mess?

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Jamie Gorelick is a Washington D.C. power lawyer. She’s a former Deputy Attorney General, former general counsel to the Defense Department, and current partner at WilmerHale, where she chairs the national security and public policy practice groups. She’s had — and continues to have — an amazing career.

But does she really want to be the legal face of the BP disaster?

Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick will head the legal team for British oil giant BP PLC as it prepares to respond to legal challenges related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Greenwire reported Wednesday.

“We have been retained to help the company respond to the numerous congressional inquiries that are underway,” Gorelick, now of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, said in an e-mail to Greenwire. “We have not been retained to advocate for any position.”

Does WilmerHale really want this? Yesterday, the Daily News called BP’s CEO Tony Hayward the most hated man in America — and the headline was probably an understatement. There’s a new Facebook group entitled I vote we plug the Gulf oil leak with BP executives.

Do Gorelick and WilmerHale really want to be the lawyers for his company? Isn’t there some white-baby-killing, terrorist Nazi out there who would make for a more sympathetic client right now?

Oh, but the fees, the fees…

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