rubikoblwondell

Martes, Oktubre 4, 2011

Attorney exudes love for litigation

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Attorney Ron Ponzoli Jr., a partner at Richman Greer, is president of the North County Section of the Palm Beach County Bar Association. It is the county Bar's largest section with more than 600 attorney members.

Name: Ronald P. Ponzoli Jr.

Age: 39

Hometown: Miami. I now live in Jupiter. My family has a long history in Florida; My mother is a fourth-generation Floridian.

Education: Law degree from the University of Miami School of Law, May 1997. Undergraduate degree from Lafayette College.

About your firm: Now celebrating its 50th anniversary, Richman Greer, P.A., focuses on commercial and contract disputes, real estate, family law, estates, trusts and probate, class actions and other commercial transactions. We have two offices in Miami and West Palm Beach (www.richmangreer.com).

My practice concentrates on representing clients in state and federal courts in civil litigation including contract, partnership and such shareholder disputes and complex tort cases as product liability.

First break in the business: Early in my legal career, I joined a West Palm Beach firm that needed a young aggressive attorney to go to court daily. I found myself in court four to five days a week arguing a multitude of legal issues, trying cases, and working on every other aspect of civil lawsuits. That experience fostered my passion for trial work and allowed me to hone my litigation skills through immersion.

Best business book you ever read: Although not a traditional "how to" business book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been a beacon for me. The book's lessons on professionalism, passionate advocacy, and humility are timeless. Atticus Finch's discipline and determination throughout the story are a reminder of the purpose of being an attorney.

Best piece of business advice you ever received: Assumption is dangerous. If you don't know for certain the answer to a question, research the issue or perform your due diligence until you are 100 percent sure. Attention to detail is critical in every case and in every business deal.

What you tell young people about your business: Never discount the power of being professional, courteous and honest. Though attorneys passionately advance their clients' rights, attorneys are charged with setting the standards for civil and professional conduct in all legal matters. Being an attorney means never stop fighting for your clients, while at the same time, always being respectful to the opposition.

What do you see ahead for Palm Beach County? Our natural resources, businesses, public services and infrastructure have us well-postured.

We should expect to see new business opportunities and population growth as the economy recovers and home sales rise. Palm Beach County has all the ingredients to continue to be a leader in the state, and I see great things ahead.

What is a challenge you're facing in north county?

Decreases in state funding present significant challenges for the entire court system.

For example, the recent end of funding to assist with increased foreclosure filings resulted in several judges assuming additional responsibilities.

For the North County Courthouse, judges are taking cases in the foreclosure and the family law divisions.

The busier our judges become, the more time it takes to move cases through the court. Additionally, insufficient funding for magistrate assistants has forced our north county magistrates to share assistants, which has the potential to slow cases. Timely access to our courts is critical for the continued success of our business community and all citizens of Palm Beach County.

Power lunch spot: The Yard House in Downtown at the Gardens.

Favorite smartphone app: The ability to take and share quality photos with a smartphone is great, especially when we forget the camera on fishing trips.

What is the most important trait you look for when hiring? Does the attorney have a natural hunger for success? Skills can be taught, but inner drive to do the best job possible and to never give up is an inherent trait. Attorneys who have this "fire in the belly" are who I want working with me.

Source: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/attorney-exudes-love-for-litigation-1876329.html?cxtype=ynews_rss

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Lunes, Oktubre 3, 2011

Attorney vows appeal; motion to dismiss misconduct charges was turned down

By Ann Zaniewski
For the Daily Tribune

Henry Baskin

An attorney plans to appeal the denial of a request to dismiss misconduct charges against his client, a Birmingham lawyer who serves as an Oakland University trustee.

A Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission complaint filed earlier this year alleges that Henry Baskin had a sexual relationship with a woman he was representing in a divorce case, and didn?t fully disclose to her ?the possible effect that the conflict of interest could have on her representation.?

On Friday, a three-attorney panel of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board heard arguments on Baskin?s motion for summary disposition.

The panel denied the motion without prejudice, meaning the issues he raised can still be brought up at a later time.

Baskin?s attorney, Kenneth Mogill, said he plans to appeal the panel?s decision to the full discipline board.

The formal complaint accuses Baskin of engaging in conduct that is contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals; violating the rules of professional conduct adopted by the Supreme Court; and violating the criminal law against adultery. Baskin?s answer to the formal complaint is due Nov. 15.

Baskin and the woman?s alleged sexual relationship happened from late December 1999 to September 2003, according to the complaint. Mogill cited the ?extreme delay? between the alleged acts and the April 2011 filing of the complaint as among the reasons why it should be dismissed.

Mogill has also said that an attorney involved in a bona fide long-term romantic relationship with a client that happens to begin during the course of an attorney-client relationship is not subject to professional discipline.

Robert Edick, deputy administrator of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, said an adulterous relationship with a client in a divorce case is problematic because of the impact it could have on the divorce proceedings themselves.

It would be a conflict of interest for an attorney to continue representing the client in that situation, he said. Continued...

By Ann Zaniewski
For the Daily Tribune

Henry Baskin

An attorney plans to appeal the denial of a request to dismiss misconduct charges against his client, a Birmingham lawyer who serves as an Oakland University trustee.

On Friday, a three-attorney panel of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board heard arguments on Baskin?s motion for summary disposition.

The panel denied the motion without prejudice, meaning the issues he raised can still be brought up at a later time.

Baskin?s attorney, Kenneth Mogill, said he plans to appeal the panel?s decision to the full discipline board.

It would be a conflict of interest for an attorney to continue representing the client in that situation, he said.

Baskin, a well-known entertainment and family law attorney, is the chairman of Oakland University?s Board of Trustees.

Source: http://dailytribune.com/articles/2011/09/24/news/doc4e7e3d46c28b2418574731.txt

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Attorney general returns to unique role over legal aid reform - The Guardian

Joshua Rozenberg

Dominic Grieve, pictured next to Ken Clarke, has not used his position in government to promote reforms of his own. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The attorney general is to intervene in the controversy over cuts to family justice, according to the Times (paywall). Dominic Grieve is to tell Ken Clarke that the lord chancellor's proposals would clog up the courts with unrepresented litigants.

Is this a split between two ministerial colleagues in the runup to the Tory conference? Will Grieve force Clarke to modify his legal aid reforms? Not at all: it is simply another sign that Grieve is trying to restore the unique constitutional role of the attorney general, a lawyer who must maintain his independence from the government of which he is a member.

Unlike some of Labour's law officers, Grieve has not used his position in government to promote reforms of his own. As the minister answerable for the prosecution services, he attends cabinet only when his responsibilities are on the agenda or when he is called in to give advice.

By virtue of his office, the attorney general is also leader of the bar. That role used to be more important before the Bar Council was set up to provide barristers with a modern representative body headed by an annually elected chairman. But Grieve has shown his willingness to revive the attorney's traditional role, attending meetings of the specialist bar associations, explaining the government's position and relaying barristers' concerns to his ministerial colleagues.

It was in that capacity that he attended a national meeting hosted by the Bar Council and the Family Law Bar Association on 17 September. Stephen Cobb QC, chairman of the family bar, said the court system would be put under considerable strain "as unrepresented individuals, some suffering from mental health problems and the effects of domestic abuse, attempt to represent themselves in court, in some cases opposite experienced lawyers".

The government's legal aid reforms would result in 54,000 fewer people a year being represented in the family courts, Grieve was told, affecting 68,000 children at the centre of traumatic family breakdown.

"Vulnerable children face the prospect of being cross-examined by their allegedly abusive parent," Cobb added. Increased use of mediation would not resolve these problems.

Grieve undertook to take these concerns back to the Ministry of Justice. He also agreed to pass on a more technical problem: that courts would not have the capacity to draft the necessary orders in family cases once there were no longer any lawyers in court to perform this essential function.

The attorney general's office told me this week that Grieve was persuaded of the need to reform the legal aid system. "He made it clear at the meeting that there was no prospect of the government resiling from reform and he did not set himself up as a champion of opposition to it," his spokesman said.

But Grieve does seem more open to argument than his colleagues at the ministry. He can surely see that accusing lawyers of self-interest is no longer sufficient to carry the argument for cuts. Lawyers' representatives have worked hard to find better ways of saving the government money, only to find their efforts rejected by a department that seems to ignore the fruits of its own consultation process.

Above all, Grieve must surely see the false economy of saving money on legal aid only to increase the costs elsewhere in the justice system. The short-sighted decision to cut legal aid for personal injury work more than a decade ago led to huge costs for the NHS, local authorities and other public defendants required to pay claimants' "success fees".

Grieve also agreed to pass on to his colleagues the concerns of the criminal bar. Senior members are furious at what they see as an attempt by the government's legal services commission to do away with the status of QC. Instead of certifying that a publicly funded case was serious enough to need a "silk", a court would simply grant representation for a less experienced defence advocate who had reached a particular level under a planned new quality assurance scheme for advocates.

That must surely increase the risks of defendants being wrongly convicted, increasing the number of costly appeals.

It was also reported this week that the criminal bar had received legal advice (from fellow barristers ? who else?) that it would be lawful for barristers' leaders to co-ordinate direct action: in other words, to call a strike. It had been thought that this would fall foul of competition law.

Without lawyers, courts become slower and more expensive. If Grieve can persuade the lord chancellor that his reforms will cost money rather than save it, he will have well served the interests of justice.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/sep/28/attorney-general-legal-aid-reform

Kaplan Attorneys www.kaplanattorneys.com

Linggo, Oktubre 2, 2011

Calif. Attorney General Won't Review Finding in Millionaire's Girlfriend's Mansion Death

SAN DIEGO ? �The California attorney general denied a wealthy pharmaceutical executive's request to review a finding that his girlfriend killed herself by binding her wrists and ankles and hanging herself naked from a balcony at his historic mansion, according to a letter released Thursday.

The office of Attorney General Kamala Harris said it reviews cases for limited reasons, including allegations of gross misconduct by investigators, a clear conflict of interest or if a local law enforcement agency lacks resources or requests help.

Jonah Shacknai asked for a review of a San Diego County Sheriff's Department finding that his 32-year-old girlfriend Rebecca Zahau killed herself two days after his 6-year-old son suffered a fatal fall at his waterfront mansion in Coronado, a wealthy San Diego suburb.

Shacknai, 54, wrote the attorney general Monday that he had no reason to doubt the finding but that a review might put to rest questions raised by Zahau's family and others. He said Thursday that he accepted Harris' decision.

"If at any time there is new substantive evidence bearing on this case, it should be presented, not in tabloid form to fuel rumor and innuendo, but rather to appropriate law enforcement authorities who may determine whether further investigation is warranted," Shacknai said in a statement.

Sheriff Bill Gore said this week that he understood and supported Shacknai's request and would cooperate if the attorney general launched a review. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Zahau's family is seeking an independent investigation. Their attorney, Anne Bremner, said Wednesday that a neighbor heard a woman scream at the home the night before the body was found and that numerous experts have challenged the suicide ruling.

Bremner is also calling attention to an autopsy report revelation that Shacknai's brother, Adam, found Zahau's body with a shirt stuffed in her mouth. The San Diego County coroner's office said it was unclear why the cloth was there but people can put material in their mouths before hanging themselves.

Dane Gillette, chief assistant attorney general, denied the request in a letter to Shacknai that he signed on behalf of Harris. The letter was dated Wednesday.

Additional search warrants unsealed Thursday showed that investigators had seized Rady Children's Hospital surveillance recordings in an attempt to verify that Shacknai was at the hospital -- where his son was being treated -- before Zahau's body was found.

Shacknai is founder and chief executive of Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corp., a company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that makes acne and facial wrinkle treatments.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/calif-attorney-general-wont-review-finding-in-millionaires-girlfriends-mansion/

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Attorney: Amanda Knox Is No 'Femme Fatale' - FOX News

PERUGIA, Italy ? �A defense lawyer told an Italian court Tuesday that Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of killing her roommate, isn't a manipulating, sex-obsessed "femme fatale" as her accusers charge, but is rather like Jessica Rabbit -- just drawn that way.

In closing arguments before an appeals court, lawyer Giulia Bongiorno compared Knox to the cartoon character, contending that Knox had been unfairly portrayed over the course of the media-hyped, four-year case. She said the 24-year-old American is instead a loving young woman who simply displayed immaturity and naivete at the time of the 2007 slaying.

Knox was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Meredith Kercher, a British student in Perugia, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, an Italian who was Knox's boyfriend at the time of the crime, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to 25 years.

They both deny wrongdoing and have appealed their 2009 convictions. A verdict in the appeals case is expected in early October.

On Tuesday, Bongiorno likened Knox to the voluptuous character in the "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" film.

"Jessica Rabbit looks like a man-eater, but she is a faithful and loving woman," Bongiorno said. Paraphrasing a famous line from the movie, Bongiorno said Knox "is not bad, she's just drawn that way."

Bongiorno is Sollecito's lawyer, but, with the fates of the two defendants intertwined, she discussed Knox's role in the case at length.

By the media as well as in court, Knox has either been described either as a manipulative "she-devil" or as an innocent girl caught in a judicial inferno in a foreign land. Bongiorno said she was really an immature girl who had just started dating Sollecito.

"One should not mistake tenderness for sexual obsession," Bongiorno said, adding the two liked making faces at each other.

"How do you reconcile that with the 'Venus in Furs' image?" -- another reference Bongiorno threw in to a literary character who enslaved her lover. Bongiorno told reporters after the session that she had given a copy of the book -- a 19th-century Austrian novella -- to Knox, who reads avidly in prison, according to her family and supporters.

Kercher, 21, was stabbed to death in the apartment she shared with Knox, in what prosecutors say had begun like a sexual assault.

Knox and Sollecito insist they spent the night at his house the night of the murder, watching a movie, smoking pot and having sex. The movie they said they were watching, "Amelie," led Bongiorno in the original trial to compare Knox to the title character, an innocent girl intent on doing good.

Bongiorno also looked at DNA evidence linking her client to the crime, most notably an alleged trace on the bra clasp of the victim.

Prosecutors maintain that Sollecito's DNA was on the clasp of Kercher's bra as part of a mix of evidence that also included the victim's genetic profile. They also say Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and Kercher's DNA was found on the blade.

A court-ordered review of evidence, carried out by independent experts, said much of that evidence was unreliable. It highlighted the risk of contamination, especially on the clasp, which was collected from the crime scene 46 days after the murder.

The review significantly weakened the prosecution case, giving the defendants hope that they might be freed after four years behind bars.

Speaking of the clasp, Bongiorno said "that piece of evidence must be considered unusable."

Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede from Ivory Coast. Italy's highest criminal court has upheld Guede's conviction and his 16-year prison sentence. Guede also denies wrongdoing.

Sabado, Oktubre 1, 2011

Attorney releases statement for Bengals player

Covington-based attorney Robert Lotz has released a statement from Anthony Collins about Tuesday?s incident at Jerome Simpson?s house. Lotz said a copy of the statement has also been sent to Rob Sanders, the Kenton County Attorney.

Here is the text of the statement:

STATEMENT OF ANTHONY COLLINS

This past Tuesday morning I stopped by the house of my teammate, Jerome Simpson, on my way to the stadium. While I was at his home, several law enforcement officers unexpectedly entered the house. I had no idea what it was about and after identifying myself and speaking to the officers, they let me go on my way.

Unfortunately I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, I do want to take this opportunity to let my fans, friends and family know that I had no part in the reported activities at Jerome?s home. I have done nothing wrong and I have not been charged with doing anything wrong. So far as I know, I am no longer a part of any investigation.

In due time, I am confident that authorities will clear my name and announce I am not a person of interest and my name will be completely cleared from Tuesday?s incident. In the meantime, my focus will continue to be on playing football and helping my teammates, coaches and the rest of the Cincinnati Bengals organization have a successful 2011 season.

Kenton County Commonwealth?s Attorney Rob Sanders told The Enquirer?s Jim Hannah that Kentucky law enforcement, to his knowledge, never released Mr. Collins? name to the press. Collins? name came out on the original report about the investigation by CaliforniaWatch.org, a group of investigative journalists.

?I am not aware of any evidence that would contradict Mr. Collins statement,? Sanders said. ?Anyone who implied Mr. Collins was involved in criminal activity probably owes him an apology.?

Posted in: Updates

Source: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/bengals/2011/09/23/collins-releases-statement-through-his-attorney/

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Calif. Attorney General Won't Review Finding in Millionaire's Girlfriend's Mansion Death

Dane Gillette, chief assistant attorney general, denied the request in a letter to Shacknai that he signed on behalf of Harris. The letter was dated Wednesday.

Shacknai is founder and chief executive of Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corp., a company based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that makes acne and facial wrinkle treatments.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/09/22/calif-attorney-general-wont-review-finding-in-millionaires-girlfriends-mansion/

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rubikoblwondell

Martes, Oktubre 4, 2011

Attorney exudes love for litigation

Lunes, Oktubre 3, 2011

Attorney vows appeal; motion to dismiss misconduct charges was turned down

Attorney general returns to unique role over legal aid reform - The Guardian

Linggo, Oktubre 2, 2011

Calif. Attorney General Won't Review Finding in Millionaire's Girlfriend's Mansion Death

Attorney: Amanda Knox Is No 'Femme Fatale' - FOX News

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