Runners up for Litigator of the Week include Winston & Strawn’s Tom Melsheimer, who after a seven-week trial in federal court in Dallas, won acquittal for a prominent surgeon, Dr. William Daniel (“Nick”) Nicholson. What made the win so impressive is that of the nine defendants on trial for conspiring to pay and receive over $40 million in health care bribes and kickbacks, Melsheimer’s client was the only one found not guilty.
Jenner & Block’s Todd Toral and Matt Hellman obtained a significant win for two civilian lawyers who had been ordered to continue representing the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole attack. The lawyers sought to withdraw, citing improper government monitoring of their client conversations. The D.C. Circuit found there was “an intolerable cloud of partiality” over the judicial conduct of a military official overseeing the case.
