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Carolyn Lamm;
Jack Olender;
Sterne Kessler;
Andrews Kurth
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| Bisnow is continuing to expand and looking for talented writers and reporters. Apply your brief-writing to writing brief. If interested, e-mail Mark@Bisnow.com |
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| ABA President Carolyn Lamm of White & Case can add this to the list of awards she seems to receive from every organization in the District: a merit badge! Technically it’s called the Good Scout Award, and she received it from the Capital Area Boy Scout Council on Monday. |
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| Some 350 well-wishers came out to the Capital Hilton on Monday for the lunchtime fundraiser, where Carolyn was introduced by News4 Today’s Barbara Harrison. Wonder who gets up earlier—Barbara for her 4:55 a.m. newscast or Caroyln as she prepares to take up her ABA presidency. She seems to be getting all the important details right, like perfectly matching her outfit to the Boy Scout kerchief she was given before speaking. One factoid we learned: these two are neighbors (on the same street as your Bisnow publisher, no less), and go running together on the weekends. |
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| Med Mal king Jack Olender received the other Good Scout award (which may explain why doctors were fleeing the hotel as we arrived). In any case, Federal Circuit Chief Judge Paul Michel and a few of the 75,000 area scouts (these from troop 1509) egg Jack on as he lofts the award. Though Jack claimed he wasn’t the best boy scout, he says the “Be Prepared” motto is one he lives by in litigation. And he appears to have relished the honor as much as winning the first-ever seven-figure obstetric verdict. |
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| The event—now in its fourth year—is the brainchild of Sterne Kessler’s Rob Sterne. We found him here with (his date?) a piece from the silent auction that preceded the lunch. Rob remains involved with the Boy Scouts and is a member of Troop 1983. We’re just going to assume he’s not getting that confused with Section 1983. |
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| The Bisnow lens caught O’Melveny’s Piper Hall (at left) checking out some of the jewelry up for bid. For the guys who haven’t grown up yet, there was also a very enticing set of Hot Wheels on the auction block. |
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| Here’s Bill Blakely of Polsinelli Shughart with Logan Gates, an Eagle Scout from Vienna who gave remarks at the lunch. Logan encouraged the lawyers in attendance to serve as role models. |
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| Niche Envy: Andrews Kurth Art Practice |
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| We suspect that the art history majors—or anybody who likes museums—will be a little jealous on hearing about the unique art law practice that Tom Kline has been developing at Andrews Kurth with an assist from Eden Burgess. It started more than 20 years ago, when he successfully represented Cyprus in a trial to recover stolen mosaics (pictured behind). Now with numerous other cases under his belt—including one over $250 million in medieval religious objects stolen from a German church by an Army Lieutenant in WWII—Tom is one of the nation’s few legal experts in recovery of misappropriated art. |
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| Does looking at pretty coffee table books really count as research? Actually, it’s serious business. Tom and Eden scored an important victory in the First Circuit last year for the estate of a German Jew who lost more than 200 masterpieces to theft or forced sale by the Nazis. One of those, The Girl from the Sabine Mountains, was held by a German Baroness living in Rhode Island. (What other practice involves Baronesses, we ask you?) Representing the Max Stern Art Restoration Project, Tom got the appellate court to establish that forced sales did not legitimately pass ownership. |
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| Beyond Holocaust cases, the art practice has expanded, Tom says, to include art-related tax and bankruptcy work for dealers and museums. He may have been destined for this line of work all along, given that his mom is an artist—in fact, she made the tree in Tom’s display case. The leaves are made of shredded U.S. currency, but stand down IRS types, she had permission from Customs and Treasury to use them. |
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| Book ‘em |
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| Last night we snapped Williams & Connolly’s Bob Barnet and Mayer Brown’s Richard Ben-Veniste at a book party for Richard’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a reminiscence of his 35 years of high profile Washington investigations. At age 30, he was a lead Watergate prosecutor; later he pursued Abscam, defended the Clintons in Whitewater, and most recently as a member of the 9/11 Commission went toe to toe with Secretary of State Rice. He tells us it was about two-and-a-half years in the writing. Oh, and congrats on his 45th undergrad reunion—he and wife Donna went back for it to Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa, the other day. And to Bob for closing a book deal last week for Barbra Streisand. |
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| John Ford is Bisnow’s Legal Editor. Send story ideas to john@bisnow.com. |
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