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February 6, 2009 |
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Kilpatrick Stockton;
WilmerHale;
Arent Fox;
Vietnamese Bar
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| For those of you interested in environmental issues, we're proud to announce our next Bisnow Breakfast & Schmoozarama, with the CEO and Founding Chairman of the US Green Building Council, Rick Fedrizzi. BLT restaurant in DC, Thursday, Feb 12, sign up! |
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Supreme Court vet Mark Levy of Kilpatrick Stockton knocked it out of the park in his first appearance before the Roberts Court, which just returned a 9-0 victory for Mark and client DuPont in an ERISA matter involving pension benefits of a divorced employee.
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Justice Souter’s unanimous Jan. 26th opinion in Kennedy v. DuPont declares that whether an ex-spouse is owed pension benefits under ERISA depends solely on the employer’s plan documents and not, for example, a state divorce decree in which the ex-spouse waived her right to benefits. Mark notes that the issue, which split the lower courts, is of “great practical importance” to Americans, many of whom have no bigger asset than their pension plans. Whatever ERISA cases lack in glamour, they make up for in complexity: the statute has confounded Federal and state courts for the last 35 years, sending a steady diet of ERISA matters to the High Court.
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Here’s how it looked at the October 7th argument. Mark has now argued 16 times before SCOTUS; when preparing, he prefers an informal “skull session” to a full-blown moot court. Since this was his first time grappling with ERISA (not to mention a hyper-active Court averaging two questions per minute) he pulled in friends for a mock argument: Bob Long of Covington (DuPont’s ERISA counsel), Supreme Court regular Patricia Millett of Akin Gump, Sean Lev of Kellogg Huber, and former Kennedy clerk Adam Charnes from Kilpatrick’s Winston-Salem office. Patricia and Sean both worked under Mark when he headed appellate litigation in DOJ’s civil division from ’93-’95.
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| Arent Fox’s Women’s Movement |
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Old biases seem to be falling away, but we still love hearing stories like this: Arent Fox has elected female partner Carol Connor Cohen to its 10-member executive committee. No surprise: she comes off a term on the all-important compensation committee and leads a top ERISA litigation practice group, which consists of six women. Former GC to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (the FDIC of pension plans), Carol’s docket may be heating up with the economic downturn: 75% of defined-benefit plans are underfunded, she tells us. Her group’s recent work includes a victory for W.R. Grace in the now “ubiquitous” stock-drop litigation.
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| Vietnamese Scholarship Soiree |
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Things are booming for the Vietnamese Bar Association, founded by WilmerHale’s Caroline Nguyen. The former bartender at K Street Lounge makes us look smart for picking her as one of our 30 Under 30s: she developed the VBA from a brainstorm to an organization that pulled in 120 for dinner last night, where it granted scholarships to two law students (from GWU and University of Baltimore) who’ve demonstrated commitment to issues affecting the Vietnamese. There’s Caroline with WilmerHale colleagues Kenneth Imo, career development attorney, and dinner co-chair Danny Nguyen.
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Could this man be the next U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia? Gene Rossi, currently an AUSA in the Rocket Docket, tells us he’s “one of several” who’ve expressed interest in the top slot vacated when Chuck Rosenberg left for Hogan. Gene says he and his friendly competition are expecting a spring appointment for the role now filled by Acting U.S. Attorney, Dana Boente, a career guy. To boost the attractiveness of Gene’s candidacy, we pulled in VBA Board Member Mai Nguyen of the FDA to join him.
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The evening’s keynoter was Congressman Joseph Cao, right, just elected as a Republican from Louisiana’s 2d District. Here with his Director of Special Projects Dang Nguyen, Joseph was one of the last members to slip into the 111th Congress, as Hurricane Gustav pushed his election day back to Dec. 6th. Political junkies may recognize Louisiana’s 2d as the district held for years by William Jefferson, until the FBI found $90,000 in his freezer. Don’t worry: Joseph says that the guiltiest thing in his is ice cream.
John Ford is Bisnow’s Legal Editor. Shoot him your story ideas at john@bisnow.com.
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