Individual Representation
In addition to its representation of unions, benefit funds, nonprofits, law firms and other entities, the firm represents individual clients in a variety of settings, including civil rights and employment-rights cases, Bar disciplinary matters, criminal defense cases (both at trial and in grand jury investigations), congressional investigations and plaintiff personal injury cases.
- Employment and civil rights. The firm represents employees who have been subject to discrimination or other violations of their rights. For example, on our current or recent docket are two civil rights actions challenging the failure of the District of Columbia to provide appropriate protection to individuals held in custodial facilities other than prison; numerous class actions against a variety of manufacturing companies in different industries on behalf of retirees seeking to preserve their health care benefits; and, a number of individual claims of race or gender discrimination. In addition, we are regularly involved in representing high level employees in executive compensation or termination cases.
- Tort claims. The firm’s representation of individuals as plaintiffs in tort cases has ranged from asbestos exposure cases, to a case involving a District of Columbia student who was seriously injured in a chemistry experiment at school, to cases on behalf of individuals who were injured or killed as the result of high speed police chases. In addition, the firm has handled a number of plaintiffs’ tort cases in the appellate courts or in the Supreme Court, including the famous Supreme Court case of Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Corp., 464 U.S. 238 (1984).
- Lawyers. We have represented numerous lawyers in Bar disciplinary proceedings and have been brought in to defend lawyers who are accused in the course of a court proceeding of engaging in unethical conduct. In one such case, our representation of two lawyers who had been disqualified from representing their clients in a tort case took us to the Supreme Court (Richardson-Merrell Inc. v. Koller, 472 U.S. 424 (1985)). In addition, as illustrated in the section immediately below, we have represented a number of lawyers in investigations conducted by the government agencies in which they work.
- Investigations. The firm frequently represents individuals in grand jury, congressional or other public investigations. The following are examples of such representation from our current or recent dockets: representation of individuals in grand jury investigations in California, New York and the District of Columbia; representation of a Department of Justice attorney in a DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility investigation; and representation of a top NIH research official in connection with congressional and NIH investigations into conflicts of interest at NIH. The following are notable examples from the past of such representation: representation of Senator Metzenbaum and his staff in the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill leak investigation; representation of one of the major targets in the FBI files investigation, known as “Filegate”; representation of several Clinton Administration officials in a number of grand jury, independent counsel and congressional investigations, including various investigations into campaign fundraising, leaks and the personal behavior of the President; representation of individuals in the Thompson Committee investigation in the Senate into the financing of the 1996 federal election campaign; representation of individuals in the grand jury and congressional investigations growing out of the Teamster’s election scandal; representation of a Department of Justice official in the investigation of the Department’s conduct of the Wen Ho Lee investigation; representation of a member of Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s staff in a criminal contempt trial growing out of alleged leaks of confidential information.