Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks before The Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award was presented to Judge Ralph Winter, Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Foley Square on Thursday, September 28, 2017. .(Photo by David Handschuh/NYLJ)
It’s not what you’d call hard-hitting journalism, but Ginni Thomas this weekend did an “exclusive interview” with her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for the Dally Caller.
Once you get past the cringe-y stuff—“Clarence Thomas, you’re the best man walking the face of the earth,” is how she begins—the 14-minute interview is quite interesting.
The justice offers a conciliatory message about civility and common ground, both sorely lacking in Washington these days.
“You have to figure out a way to work with someone else,” he said. “No matter who it is, what station in life, you can find something that you have in common, even if it’s just a football team, an experience, it could be a hobby…It could be bigger things, like religion or philosophy. But you can find something.”
He credits divine providence for his path and asserts that ambition has “never played any role in my life.”
“You’re always looking for the next calling, the next vocation, and so to live up to that vocation and calling, you have to discard these distractions of praise, of being afraid of being criticized, of wanting to be first, of wanting to be treated well and feted,” he said. “None of that has anything to do with being called to do what you’re called to do. I’m called to do a job.”
However, there was one troubling mention: he used “motorhoming” as a verb. As in “We have been motorhoming now for 18 years.” (Noooo!)
Still, it’s kind of awesome that the justice and his wife go tooling around the country in their old RV—and Thomas said he agreed with a man who told him years ago that “The best people in the country are in the RV parks….I think all of that informs what I do and the way that I look at things.”
In Chicago, Zach Fardon Is Making His Mark at King & Spalding
Zachary Fardon of King & Spalding in Chicago.
It’s been four months since former U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon launched King & Spalding’s Chicago office from a temporary, shoebox-sized Regus space with some supplies he picked up from the Walgreens across the street.
The top prosecutor in Chicago from 2013 until March of 2017, Fardon surprised the legal world by declining to return to Latham & Watkins, where he had been a partner, in favor of building King & Spalding’s newest outpost.
Ensconced these days in much plusher digs, Fardon has been busy staffing the office with former top prosecutors.
The latest addition: Patrick Otlewski, who joined the firm on Monday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where he tried 12 cases and won them all. Among them: the largest fraud case by dollar amount in the district’s history.
He and Fardon go way back. When Otlewski was a new Latham associate, fresh off a clerkship with Judge Richard Wesley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, he worked with Fardon in representing a lead witness in the prosecution of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
They overlapped again at the U.S. Attorney’s office, where Otlewski spent seven years and rose to deputy chief of general crime.
“He’s smart as a whip, he’s got great judgment, and he’s a good person,” Fardon said in an interview. “And he’s a monster trial lawyer.”
Otlewski is the seventh lawyer to join King & Spalding’s Chicago office, and Fardon says “a couple more” are expected by the end of the month. Previous hires include Patrick Collins, another former AUSA in Chicago who went on to become a partner at Perkins Coie in Chicago before joining his old friend at King & Spalding in October.
Fardon said he has been “moved and at times overwhelmed by the positive reaction across Chicago to our practice…There has been a tremendous amount of interest in the prospect of joining the endeavor we’ve started. I didn’t take that for granted. It’s exciting and flattering.”
At the same time, he remains “cautious of reaching for too much, too fast… There is a right way and a wrong way to grow.”
Fardon said he sometimes gets asked about how big a book of business it would take for a lateral to be considered. While portable business is certainly “nice,” Fardon said that’s “not how we’re approaching the process. We want talent and a cultural fit.”
To date, the Chicago office has been focused on litigation as well as King & Spalding’s marquee special matters and government investigations practice, but Fardon said the long-term plan is to diversify into other areas including health care, life sciences, corporate and M & A work.
“I respect the fact that Chicago is a difficult legal market to waltz into,” Fardon said. Nonetheless his long-term goal is “to be the best law firm in town…lawyer over lawyer, to be second to none.”
FCA Enforcement Stayed Strong in 2017
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher on Monday released a report analyzing False Claims Act cases in 2017, and found that while enforcement dipped slightly in the first year of the Trump administration, it’s still at near-record levels.
“2017 marked the eighth straight year in which the federal government has recovered more than $3 billion in FCA cases and in which more than 700 new FCA cases were filed,” the firm found. “And despite hints from isolated elements of the Trump Administration that there may be some interest in reigning in perceived overreach with the FCA, top DOJ officials have reaffirmed their dedication to stringent enforcement of the statute.”
Read the full report here.
So About the 25th Amendment…
Politico’s Josh Gerstein has an interesting story looking at the 25th amendment, and concludes it is unlikely to be invoked to remove Donald Trump from office for mental health reasons.
The amendment was passed after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the half-dozen experts Gerstein spoke with agreed it was more suited to a situation where the president was left physically incapacitated.
Former Reagan White House lawyer Peter Wallison told Gerstein that Trump’s tweets or behavior to staff members are not grounds to remove him.
“The fact he acts strangely is not sufficient to invoke the 25th Amendment,” he said.
More Legal News
Rimini Liable for Copyright Infringement Against Oracle but Not Computer Crimes, 9th Circuit Rules
The upshot is that the decision knocked $20 million off the award. The panel also advised the lower court judge to reconsider the $28.5 million attorney fee award and injunction.
As #MeToo Roils Clients, Stroock Launches Unit to Vet Sex Claims
The group will be led by former U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin and former New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams.
Client Who Stood Up for Boies Goes Public in Sex Trafficking Case
“Jane Doe 43″ has formally identified herself as Sarah Ransome in the case, which claims billionaire Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex for money.
Testosterone Trial Kicks Off With New Team at Helm for Plaintiffs
Lead trial counsel in the latest AndroGel suit (this one involves blood clots, not heart attacks) will be Ronald Johnson of Schachter, Hendy & Johnson.
Pa. Superior Court Opens Door for Punitive Damages Claims in Risperdal Mass Tort
The ruling significantly raises the stakes of the litigation, which currently involves more than 6,000 pending cases in Philadelphia.
Greebel Defense Looks to Poll Jurors Over Alleged ‘Threat’
“We encourage any jurors who observed or heard of any potential misconduct or had concerns regarding the process to come forward,” said Reed Brodsky of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
In SCOTUS Water Dispute, Florida Edges Ahead of Georgia
Flordia’s lawyer, Latham & Watkins partner Gregory Garre, seemed to have the edge over Kirkland & Ellis partner Craig Primis, who represented Georgia.
For-Profit Prison Giant Pays $550K to Settle Sex Harassment Claims
Claims against GEO Group Inc. included male officers asking female officers for sex, calling women explicit names and managers making sexually explicit comments to female officers.
Citing Trump Ties, Fusion GPS Asks New U.S. Judge to Mull Recusal in Subpoena Fight
Zuckerman Spaeder lawyers wrote that Judge Trevor McFadden’s impartiality could be questioned because of his work for President Donald Trump’s transition team, his time as second in command at DOJ’s Criminal Division and his representation of clients in private practice at Baker & McKenzie.
Milberg Joins Forces With Mass Torts, Personal Injury Firm
“Milberg Tadler Phillips Grossman will have the resources necessary to take on the largest corporations and institutions on behalf of consumers, investors, institutional clients, and those that have long been under-represented to achieve justice.”
SCOTUS Blocks Execution in Georgia Over a Juror’s Racial Bias
Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, wrote a 13-page dissent, reasoning that Tharpe is going to die anyway. (Yes, but aren’t we all?)
