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March 9, 2009 |
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Hausfeld;
O'Melveny;
HBA
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Color us intrigued by the newest firm on K Street: one that's actually growing, not to mention plowing interesting legal ground most big firms can't touch for conflicts reasons. It's Hausfeld LLP, named for Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll veteran Michael Hausfeld, the feared plaintiffs-side class action lawyer who calls his new shop a "global claimants law firm."
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Michael opened his 1700 K Street doors in early January, bringing 17 lawyers with him and adding three new hires since. The business model: to build on his successes in anti-trust (including a $1 billion settlement in a vitamin price-fixing case) and human rights ($176 million settlement from Texaco for race discrimination), but with an eye to correcting "mass wrongs" outside U.S. borders. Hausfeld, which just opened a small London office, will soon announce a joint venture with a 650-lawyer Chinese firm, has an affiliated firm in South Africa, and is looking next to Latin America and India.
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So what will these cases look like? In one example, Hausfeld is taking on the allegedly "cartelized" Chinese air cargo industry with actions on behalf of Chinese shippers pending in the E.D.N.Y. (for injury in the U.S.) and London's High Court (for injury elsewhere). Other matters in the hopper: representing citizens of Bhopal, India, asking Union Carbide to clean up the effects of a chemical explosion that killed 8,000 in 1984, and an International Court of Justice case to redress injury from global warming (Michael couldn't talk specifics but the ICJ hears cases by nations against other nations).
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With beleaguered companies looking to find money wherever they can, Michael and his partners are getting contacted by multinationals to do analyze whether the raw materials they purchase are subject to price-fixing agreements. It's called "cartel analysis," and it's one way that Hausfeld, traditionally a corporate foe, could prove profitable for in-house legal departments.
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| Coleman Feted at Senate |
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In case you missed it on C-Span, O'Melveny's living legend Bill Coleman (front row far right) got the royal treatment from Congress at the end of Black History Month when Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey (front row far left), hosted a tribute to him complete with symposium and a reception at the Capital Visitors Center. The Pennsylvania connection? Bill grew up in Philly and graduated from Penn (summa cum laude, natch). For more on his praise-worthy exploits, check our interview.
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Justice Breyer appeared on the symposium panel, along with moderator Elaine Jones (counsel of record in the Furman v. Georgia death penalty case), Harvard Law Prof. Charles Ogletree, E.D. Pa. Judge Louis Pollack, and Pepper Hamilton partner Michael Reed. Justice Scalia was also spotted in the influential crowd.
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| HBA's Sangria Night |
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We can never turn down good sangria, or paella (or the 99-cent late-nite menu at Taco Bell, but that's another story)—the point is, the Hispanic Bar Association didn't twist our arm to get us to its annual meet and greet at La Tasca. Enjoying the fare, counter-clockwise from right: AUSA Sam Ramer, WilmerHale's partner-about-town Brigida Benitez, Mariela Gomez of National Geographic, WilmerHale counsel Isha Youhas, and AUSA Sarah Schall. On a serious note, Sam tells us he's prosecuting a murder that occurred in July over a parking spot (!) in Southeast.
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President of the 1,000-member HBA and senior counsel to the SEC director Marlon Paz, center, came over fashionably late from the class he was teaching at Georgetown. His students can look forward to a roundtable he's aseembling on credit rating agencies. Framing him left to right, Sergio Oehninger of Hunton & Williams, Lyzka De La Cruz, headliner at Bakker DeLaCruz, DOJ civil section law clerk Alan Vazquez (who, btw, we know to be a trivia whiz), and FTC lawyer Leonor Velazquez.
John Ford, Bisnow's Legal Editor, doesn't actually eat Taco Bell anymore. Send him story ideas anyway, to john@bisnow.com.
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