The Legal Intelligencer Blog

People-Watching and Dancing Machines

By Barely Legal
Special to the Legal

I love people-watching — I practically majored in it in college. It is not just the voyeuristic pleasure of spying on people that I enjoy, but it is also the insights into human behavior you can derive from an afternoon sitting on a park bench. I also like to make up little stories about the people I see, but that is for another time.

So, as a people-watcher, firm holiday parties are an absolute delight for me. I stand in a corner, with a drink in my hand, and disappear into the background as my co-workers party the night away.

From my vantage point I can see who arrived early, who is already drunk and who arrived fashionably late (and with whom).

I watch the attorneys chatting up each other, with the younger smart ones strategically placing themselves near enough to the head of their department so that they might get pulled into a conversation.

I also catch the IS guy checking out the HR woman, scanning the crowd for her face, and maneuvering himself so that he might just bump into her as she is on her way back to the bar.

It’s all so lovely in its predictability. But in all my years of studying, one class of co-workers I can’t wrap my head around is of the ones who dance at the holiday party. What possible motive could one have for showing all your colleagues just “how low you can go.”?

In the interest of full disclosure, I love to dance. I took dance lessons as a kid, I have been in dance-offs, and will often dance around my kitchen at night, sometimes even replaying a song so I can get my choreography just right.

However, I have never and will never dance at a firm-sponsored event. Nor do I understand those that do.

First, people dancing always look drunk. Even when they are cold sober, the assumption is that they are drunk because most people couldn’t imagine getting up and dancing in front of their coworkers unless they were intoxicated.

Second, almost all dancing looks dirty (and is meant to lead to dirty things). There is a reason it was banned in that fictional town where Footloose took place.

Which leads us to my next point: Third, by dancing, you are inevitably inviting that creepy partner or mailroom guy or guy who sits in the office down the hall and is always flashing you his wallet with the condom impression worn into the leather to do at best think nasty thoughts about you, at worst join you on the dance floor.

So why do it? What could your possible motivation be?

And don’t tell me it is to have fun, because no one has fun at firm holiday parties.

Barely Legal offers humorous monthly musings on what it's really like to work for a law firm. Hint: It's nothing like it is on TV.

PHA Adds New Deputy General Counsel

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

The embattled Philadelphia Housing Authority has completely restaffed its office of general counsel by hiring two deputy general counsels this week.

Laurence Redican, formerly deputy general counsel for corporate affairs at the New York City Housing Authority, is joining the PHA as the deputy general counsel for transactions, regulatory and administrative matters, according to a news release.

Redican’s staff at the NYCHA was made up of 14 attorneys, and his group prepared or reviewed over 2,000 contracts, leases, franchises, sealed bids and competitive solicitations each year. Redican also has worked as an assistant town attorney for Oyster Bay, N.Y., after his graduation from St. John’s School of Law.

Joffie Pittman, formerly director of human resources and labor relations at Philadelphia Gas Works, is joining the PHA as the deputy general counsel for labor relations, according to a news release. Pittman also worked as an assistant city solicitor for the Philadelphia Law Department, handling civil rights litigation in federal and state court on behalf of the Philadelphia Police Department and the Philadelphia Prison System, and serving as legal counsel to the Mayor’s Office of Transportation and the Philadelphia International Airport. Pittman earned his law degree from the Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.

The PHA, which owns more than 14,000 affordable housing units, came under fire after it was revealed that former PHA Executive Director Carl Greene settled sexual harassment lawsuits without informing the PHA's board, according to court filings. Greene was fired in 2010.

In October, PHA General Counsel Barbara Adams hired her first assistant general counsel, Sherry A. Swirsky. Swirsky, the former general counsel for the School District of Philadelphia, is the deputy general counsel for litigation. Adams became the PHA general counsel on Aug. 1.

Amaris Elliott-Engel can be contacted at 215-557-2354 or aelliott-engel@alm.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmarisTLI.

Normalization of Income: Where Business Valuation Meets Forensic Accounting, Part 2

By Terry Silver
Special to the Legal

Please see Part 1 of this article, published Nov. 30, 2011, for background to Part 2.

To value a closely held company, the valuator usually employs forensic accounting skills, such as keen interviewing techniques, the determination of whom to interview and understanding that often, listening is more important than speaking. Adept interview skills will lead to the extraction of useful information to be used in the business valuation. During a range of interviews of parties related to the matter, the valuator can amalgamate the gathered information, which is then used to direct and prioritize the continuing stages of the valuation and forensic process. Productive interview questions are the ones probing and phrased to produce narrative responses - not a simple yes or no.

A good interviewer uses the information obtained to develop a more specific line of questioning. The amount of useful information I usually obtain via the interview process has been significant. For example, during an interview with a financial controller, he admitted to keeping two sets of books! By using patient, thoughtful and organized questions, surprising information can often be obtained. At a minimum, a productive interview will provide information essential for the normalization aspects of the business valuation, and at most, will disclose major information, which can significantly influence the valuation conclusion.

Ultimately, it is the useful data that the forensic aspects of a valuation engagement must produce. The valuator will always review books and records in the course of the engagement. This involves an analysis of the records to gather data in order to determine whether and what normalization adjustments should be made. Many companies use accounting software (like Quickbooks), which in this process can be examined to extract relevant valuation data. For a company whose database is manageable, the manual review of its records is common. For those companies whose databases are too large to render this application manageable, automated data mining is preferable and most likely necessary.

At Citrin Cooperman, we utilize an automated data mining software called IDEA, which facilitates the targeting of specific data within a database. After the review of financial records such as financial statements, tax returns, etc., and appropriate interviews, the valuator will assess what data is desired. The target data is entered into IDEA, and the software searches the company database for the requested data. For example, in a recent investigation of a family-owned, multi-company organization, we were able to identify payments made from each company to all other companies in the group, as well as payments made to all family members, by integrating IDEA into the accounting software. This process was completed in no time! Using tools like IDEA to data mine makes it possible to identify useful information in an efficient, cost-effective manner.

Knowledge is king, especially in the forensic accounting process. The accuracy of your business valuation will be influenced by the information obtained via the forensic analysis process.

Terry Silver is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Valuation Analyst and certified in financial forensics for Citrin Cooperman, an accounting, tax and business consulting firm in Philadelphia, where he is a partner with more than 33 years of experience as an accountant and auditor. He focuses his practice on business valuation and financial forensic services, expert testimony and matrimonial actions. He can be reached at tsilver@citrincooperman.com or 215-545-4800.

 

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Tuesday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

Today’s top story, written by reporter Zack Needles, takes a look at the $17.75 million settlement that developer Robert K. Mericle agreed to on Dec. 16 as part of the Luzerne County “kids-for-cash” scandal. The bulk of Mericle’s settlement will be reserved for juveniles who were physically or psychologically harmed as a result of being sent to detention centers by former Luzerne County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. More than $8 million of the settlement will be reserved for class members with “unique specified situations.”

There are two other big stories on Page 1 of today’s Legal, both written by reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel. The state Supreme Court made the unusual move of appointing Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Gary S. Glazer to take over administrative duties at Philadelphia Traffic Court in the wake of an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged ticket-fixing.

Amaris also wrote today’s below-the-fold story on Page 1, regarding pharmaceutical plaintiffs advancing new drug liability theories following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling five months ago that they can’t sue generic drugmakers over drug warnings. Tom Kline of Kline & Specter said there “may be a needle hole for plaintiffs to thread for generics. We’re no longer talking about driving through a tunnel.”

On Page 3, Gina Passarella has an article detailing the state government’s choice of Washington, D.C.-based law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge to work with receiver David Unkovic overseeing Harrisburg’s financial recovery. Gina writes that McKenna Long’s initial contract is for 360 hours at a blended rate of $375 an hour – a rate that includes some pro bono work.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section, including a judge’s ruling that Twitter and blog posts are part of protected speech.

Today’s Legal Marketing column is on Page 5, as Stacy West Clark writes about the innovative things law firms are doing to better market their product, including creative videos, “Thirsty Thursdays” and a better way to use Facebook and social media.

On Page 7 you’ll find this week’s Professional Conduct column, as Ellen C. Brotman and Michael Hayes write about helping to give your firm and clients an ethical culture by creating a code of conduct.

Being that it’s Tuesday, it’s also your chance to read this week’s Pennsylvania Law Weekly. The lead story for PLW, written by reporter Ben Present, details two separate Pennsylvania courts that have recently denied defense motions asking for access to plaintiffs’ private social media pages. This evens up the ledger, giving plaintiffs some case law to refer to, countering a trio of recent opposing decisions.

Amaris Elliott Engel has the other top story from this week’s PLW, writing that plaintiffs lawyers in Pennsylvania would like to see the auto insurance minimum coverage raised. The Pennsylvania Association for Justice is backing a bill introduced last month that would double the minimum coverage required to obtain automobile insurance, saying it would better protect drivers and compensate those injured in car accidents.

There is plenty more inside this week’s PLW, including acceptance into ARD for a second DUI trigger ignition interlock, Samuel C. Stretton’s weekly ethics forum, Daniel E. Cummins writing about a year of change for civil litigation and much more.

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

Reporter's Notebook: Other Changes in Phila. Civil Court

By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff

In an interview Monday, The Legal sat down with Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, who was just appointed the administrative judge of the trial division under which authority for civil cases is placed, and Complex Litigation Center Coordinating Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, to talk about recent changes for Philadelphia’s mass torts program. You can read that coverage here.

Herron also has made a couple other small changes in civil cases.

Herron has issued a civil mediation policy statement that “it shall be the policy and practice that the judges in the civil program shall not order counsel and the parties in any matter to avail themselves of mediation.”

There have long been discussions among the civil team leaders about mediators, and the commerce program already has a formal policy on the use of judge pro tems, including that JPTs are assigned at random and both sides have the opportunity to agree or disagree with a mediation with that JPT, Herron said. So the judge said he thought there should be a formalized policy about the use of mediators in the rest of the civil program.

“The first thing mediators will tell you” is the parties need to want them to mediate the case for them, Herron said.

When he was previously administrative judge, it was the administrative judge’s responsibility, not the CLC coordinating judge’s responsibility, to designate what would be a mass torts program, Herron said, so he has changed the procedure back to one in place during his prior tenure as administrative judge. Herron also has made it so all class actions will not be placed into the commerce program for business litigation and instead are being assigned out proportionally to the day forward teams.

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Friday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

The big news of the day is what’s going on in Harrisburg, where preliminary hearings are currently taking place for two former high-ranking officials implicated in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State – former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz. Reporter Ben Present is in the capital, where Mike McQueary, the graduate assistant who allegedly saw Sandusky rape a young boy in a shower in 2002, is expected to be taking the stand. "I would begin in excruciating detail as to what [McQueary] claimed to have observed and or heard in the showers, as if it were a movie in slow motion," said Theodore Simon, a Philadelphia criminal defense attorney who has defended several nationally followed trials.

Ben is posting live updates from the courtroom throughout the morning on his Twitter account. Follow him @BPresentTLI.

Reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel has a story in today’s Legal about the big changes coming to Philadelphia’s mass torts program, which is ending the consolidation of pharmaceutical cases into reverse-bifurcation trials with the new year. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, who was recently appointed the administrative judge of the trial division, said it is "incumbent upon administrators to constantly examine our protocols and our procedures.”

Today’s Page 3 regional news story comes from reporter David Gialanella of Legal affiliate New Jersey Law Journal, who writes that a putative class action has claimed Colgate-Palmolive’s anti-bacterial hand soap has no advantage over other hand soaps and may even be harmful. The suit alleges that Softsoap Antibacterial has a deceptive name that "implies that it will destroy more bacteria than ordinary hand soap," when in fact Colgate "has no competent and reliable support for these claims."

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.

In an Asset Management column, Mark L. Silow takes a look at the tax aspects of foreign investment in U.S. real estate. As Silow writes, “The reach of U.S. income taxation extends to both U.S. citizens and residents on a worldwide basis, and to nonresident, noncitizens to the extent of their U.S. source income.”

In today’s Bankruptcy Update, Francis J. Lawall and James C. Carignan write that pre-petition services paid for after bankruptcy may still qualify for defense. They write about the “new value” defense, which “enables a recipient of a preferential payment potentially to reduce its liability to the extent of the value of goods or services such creditor provided to the debtor on an unsecured basis during the applicable pre-bankruptcy period.”

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

Check back to the blog soon for Amaris Elliott-Engel's reporter's notebook, which will discuss some other changes coming to Philadelphia civil courts.

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Friday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

The big news of the day is what’s going on in Harrisburg, where preliminary hearings are currently taking place for two former high-ranking officials implicated in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal at Penn State – former Athletic Director Timothy Curley and former Vice President of Finance and Business Gary Schultz. Reporter Ben Present is in the capital, where Mike McQueary, the graduate assistant who allegedly saw Sandusky rape a young boy in a shower in 2002, is expected to be taking the stand. "I would begin in excruciating detail as to what [McQueary] claimed to have observed and or heard in the showers, as if it were a movie in slow motion," said Theodore Simon, a Philadelphia criminal defense attorney who has defended several nationally followed trials.

Reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel has a story in today’s Legal about the big changes coming to Philadelphia’s mass torts program, which is ending the consolidation of pharmaceutical cases into reverse-bifurcation trials with the new year. Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge John W. Herron, who was recently appointed the administrative judge of the trial division, said it is "incumbent upon administrators to constantly examine our protocols and our procedures.”

Today’s Page 3 regional news story comes from reporter David Gialanella of Legal affiliate New Jersey Law Journal, who writes that a putative class action has claimed Colgate-Palmolive’s anti-bacterial hand soap has no advantage over other hand soaps and may even be harmful. The suit alleges that Softsoap Antibacterial has a deceptive name that "implies that it will destroy more bacteria than ordinary hand soap," when in fact Colgate "has no competent and reliable support for these claims."

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section.

In an Asset Management column, Mark L. Silow takes a look at the tax aspects of foreign investment in U.S. real estate. As Silow writes, “The reach of U.S. income taxation extends to both U.S. citizens and residents on a worldwide basis, and to nonresident, noncitizens to the extent of their U.S. source income.”

In today’s Bankruptcy Update, Francis J. Lawall and James C. Carignan write that pre-petition services paid for after bankruptcy may still qualify for defense. They write about the “new value” defense, which “enables a recipient of a preferential payment potentially to reduce its liability to the extent of the value of goods or services such creditor provided to the debtor on an unsecured basis during the applicable pre-bankruptcy period.”

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

Check back to the blog soon for Amaris Elliott-Engel's reporter's notebook, which will discuss some other changes coming to Philadelphia civil courts.

Fresh Ink: Inside Today's Legal

Welcome to your Thursday morning round-up of stories in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer. All of the links below will take you directly to today’s stories, or you can head straight over to The Legal’s homepage. (Some stories may require registration or a paid subscription.)

The day’s top story is GlaxoSmithKline again being defeated in its attempt to claim Delaware citizenship for purposes of federal diversity jurisdiction. As reporter Amaris Elliott-Engel writes, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Savage of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania followed up his spring ruling that GSK’s “never center” is in Philadelphia by holding to his decision. "We are disappointed in the court's ruling and, with the greatest respect, continue to disagree with the court's view of this issue," GSK said in a statement.

Also on Page 1, reporter Gina Passarella writes on the efforts made by developers and community groups to rewrite Philadelphia’s zoning code, a measure which is expected to pass today. It would likely result in a more development-friendly model for local zoning lawyers, assuming the new law is administered properly. "You can write gold, but if you don't enforce it, if you don't do it properly, it's meaningless," said Ballard Spahr zoning partner Matthew McClure.

Our Page 3 regional news story today comes from reporter David Gialanella of Legal affiliate New Jersey Law Journal, as he writes that two law firm employees whose financial data was hacked don’t have standing to sue the payroll-processing company that allowed the breach.

As always, our People in the News section is on Page 2, and the top stories from our sister publications across the country make up the Page 4 National News section, which is led today by ex-Siemens executives being charged in a record FCPA case.

Today’s weekly Young Lawyer page (Page 5, if you’ve got a paper) features a column written by Ellie Austin, who is just scratching the surface of her legal career at Koller Law. Ellie writes about everything she’s learned from her first few months as a full-time practitioner of the law: “When you have no clue where to begin, call someone and ask. Most of the time, people like being of service. Most of the time.”

On Page 7 you’ll find today’s Paralegal column, written by Christine M. Flynn. The topic this week is the Top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Paralegals, including several helpful ideas as we head into 2012. Christine writes, “Learn something new. We all get caught up in routines, so take a minute and expand your professional horizons.”

If you have questions or comments about any of today's stories, or our coverage as a whole, we invite you to e-mail any of the reporters directly. We hope you'll enjoy today's Legal.

At Issue: State Governments Interfering With Law School Clinics

By Anthony S. Volpe
Special to the Legal

The recent news report that Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley threatened the budget of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law because it filed suit against Perdue Farms Inc. and a chicken farm that supplies Perdue is troubling on all levels. Putting aside all merit considerations regarding the suit, there are no positives in the governor’s actions.

Law schools are charged with educating advocates for all sides of an issue and the decision to use the clinic program to advocate for a particular position should not be influenced by the potential that it could result in a loss of funding for the school. The only lesson that can be learned from such meddling is negative – powerful people or companies can apply pressures to bend and twist events to their advantage regardless of the law.

In addition to the harmful lesson this teaches at the law school, it reinforces the public perception that the law is manipulated by the rich and powerful. There is already too much distrust of the process and a public intervention by the state’s top official in a litigated matter can have no good outcome. The governor’s argument that he intervened to save a family chicken farm is unavailing. While it is commendable that the governor is protecting the welfare of the chicken farmer, the families down stream of the alleged pollution and the many users of the Chesapeake Bay are entitled to the same protection. Since there is an obvious dispute over the accuracy of the pollution charges, the matter is best settled by the courts.

There is no good that can come from politicians mixing in judicial issues, regardless of how pure the heart of the mixer.

Anthony S. Volpe, a shareholder at Volpe & Koenig, has corporate and private practice experience in securing, licensing and enforcing all aspects of intellectual property rights. His patent work includes appeals before the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and interferences and international trade commission, prosecution of patent applications, rendering opinions regarding patentability and enforcement of patent rights.

Foot-in-Mouth Media Interviews by Clients in High-Profile Cases

By Gina F. Rubel
Special to the Legal

What do divorce, homicide and sexually deviant behavior have in common in today’s media? It all makes for hot news but bad media interviews for clients in high-profile cases. That’s the bottom line.

Gary Giordano, Kris Humphries and Jerry Sandusky are three men who are all currently involved in unrelated, high-profile court cases. Giordano is the sole suspect in the high-profile disappearance case of American Robyn Gardner in Aruba. Humphries is involved in a public divorce battle with reality TV star Kim Kardashian. Sandusky, as the world knows, is the former Penn State University assistant football coach involved in the highly publicized child sex abuse case. All three have come under criticism for their alleged deviant and criminal behavior, not to mention their recent media interviews that appeared stiff, insincere and all-around unconvincing.

Giordano appeared twice on “Good Morning America” to defend himself with Jose Baez, the famous Casey Anthony attorney, by his side. He seemed unable to clearly answer questions as to why he and Gardner were snorkeling when Gardner was known to hate swimming, why he became suddenly distressed in the water and swam for shore, and why he waited over an hour to report Gardner as a missing person to the local authorities. Giordano has been criticized for coming off as unemotional and heartless in his interviews. However, a possible defense tactic was made public to create doubt that perhaps Gardner was abducted by human traffickers from Venezuela, which is only a 30-minute boat ride away. Hmmm. I wonder.

From a media relations perspective, when a high-profile individual answers questions with the same answer verbatim, over and over again, it becomes clear that the person isn’t speaking for himself. It’s an issue of credibility. We saw this with the recent Kris Humphries interview on “Good Morning America.” He repeated the same statement over and over again when asked pointed questions regarding his divorce from Kim Kardashian. Humphries appeared unnatural and stiff with unemotional body language. He repeated a canned statement that, in my opinion, diminished his credibility.

The most baffling media interview is that of Jerry Sandusky regarding the various counts of child molestation he is facing. From a public relations perspective it’s hard to understand why Sandusky’s attorney, Joseph L. Amendola, would allow him to speak in public.

During a telephone interview on NBC's "Rock Center" on Nov. 14 with Bob Costas, Sandusky said he was not guilty of the criminal charges against him, but recognized that he did engage in inappropriate behavior with children, including taking showers with boys. Later, in a partially videotaped interview with the New York Times, it is clear that Amendola was directing Sandusky’s comments for clarification.

While Amendola has a long-standing reputation as a well-known criminal defense attorney, he, too, has been caught up in media firestorms in the past. It is going to be interesting to see how the Sandusky case plays out in the end. At least they made one very smart decision: to waive Sandusky’s preliminary hearing Tuesday.

It is important for attorneys to learn how to manage the media message. Sometimes it is better just to say that while the matter remains in the courts, you are going to refrain from “trying the case in the court of public opinion.” At least that’s better than saying, “no comment.” In these cases, even I might say “no comment” would have been better than the statements made by Gary Giordano, Kris Humphries and Jerry Sandusky.

Gina F. Rubel is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications Inc., a public relations and marketing agency with a niche in legal communications. A former Philadelphia trial attorney, public relations and marketing expert, she is the author of Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers. She and her PR and marketing firm have won numerous awards for legal communications, public relations, media relations, web and graphic design, strategic planning and leadership. She maintains a blog at www.ThePRLawyer.com, is a contributor to National Law Review, The Legal Intelligencer Blog and The Huffington Post. You can find her on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter.