Otis Mobley Jr., a 23-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area, faces charges that could put him away for a long time, including assault on a federal agent.Prosecutors say he orchestrated a bogus deal to sell a grenade launcher in the parking lot of a Chevy's restaurant in Richmond, Calif.Rather than hock a large weapon, Mr. Mobley, his 18-year-old cousin and an associate tried to rob the buyer of $1,000, according to prosecutors.The Justice Department believes the severity of the allegations and Mr. Mobley's past -- he admitted in 2009 to shooting a man to death in a drug deal gone bad, for instance -- counsel keeping him behind bars pending the outcome of his trial.But U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, Calif., has granted his release, albeit with several conditions --*including a requirement that Mr. Mobley read for an hour a day and submit regular book reports to pretrial services. . .




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Nothing left but empty chairs at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP's office of the chairman, the crisis team formed in late March to lead the embattled New York law firm as it contended with partner exits, compensation disputes and negotiations with creditors.Washington D.C. partner Charles Landgraf, the last remaining member of the office of the chairman, joined Arnold & Porter LLP,* a firm spokeswoman said Wednesday. . .




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In the years since the 2008 financial downturn forced law firms to trim lawyers and discount services, one question has loomed large: will the changes be permanent?Unfortunately, yes, according to a new poll of law firm leaders out Wednesday from the consulting firm Altman Weil Inc.




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The trial of former ex-ace Roger Clemens on charges he lied about steroid use is in its fifth week, and already two jurors have been booted for sleeping on the job.

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Investigators at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are poking around J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s $2 billion-plus trading loss. But should investigators even bother?

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The U.S. is delaying the transfer of convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout to a high-security prison in Colorado, his lawyer said Tuesday.



Viktor Bout

Albert Yukhanan Dayan said he received a letter from prosecutors that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has decided to delay its transfer of Mr. Bout to the Supermax prison in Florence, Colo. — a.k.a “a clean version of hell.” Mr. Bout was to be transferred to the prison on Wednesday, Mr. Dayan said.

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A disagreement between the Justice Department and former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal is getting prickly.

As we reported Monday, the department wants to bar Mr. Katyal, now a partner at Hogan Lovells, from representing a former AU Optronics Corp. executive who is seeking to overturn his conviction for fixing prices on LCD screens used in computers and other electronic products.

The department said a 1978 government ethics law bars Mr. Katyal, who left the department last June, from representing the executive because the solicitor general’s office took part in the case while he was at the helm.
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The Virginia House of Delegates blocked the nomination of a gay man for a judgeship in the commonwealth's capital -- not because he is gay, but because of his outspoken support for gay rights, those who oppose him told The Washington Post.

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Law Blog rounds up the morning's news.

‘Booty shot’: 45-year-old Brian McNamee, a former trainer for retired baseball star Roger Clemens, told a jury Monday that in 1998 the pitcher asked him for a “booty shot” — an injection of steroids in his buttocks that was allegedly the first of many. Mr. Clemens denies the allegation. WSJ

NLRB rule, shot down: A federal judge on Monday struck down a rule designed to make it easier for unions to hold organizing elections on the grounds that the National Labor Relations Board lacked a quorum when it passed the measure last year. WSJ

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Some semi-cheerful news out on the legal biz front—demand for legal services rose in the first quarter of 2012, according to a new report from Citi Private Bank.

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Patricia from Minnesota wrote in with a question about public comments: Something else I would absolutely LOVE to see, is a compilation of all legislation that is open for public comments. Almost invariably, I find out about legislation that I have an interest in just as the comment period is about to end or is [...]

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The diminishing of Dewey & LeBoeuf continues, with a fleet of about 50 of the firm’s European lawyers moving over to Greenberg Traurig.

Greenberg also snapped up some partners in London and New York, including Frank R. Adams, a member of Dewey’s executive committee and former global chair of the firm’s corporate finance practice.

“This approach requires real discipline in an increasingly undisciplined world, as we focus on the careful selection of individuals and teams in a sensible manner,” Richard A. Rosenbaum, Greenberg Traurig’s chief executive, said in a statement released by the firm.

“This team has been successful in Poland for two decades, is integral to the Warsaw business and legal communities, and is exactly such an opportunity in one of the most important and successful European markets, where entrepreneurship in the private sector is highly valued and supported with policies that focus on growth.”

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A Chicago man pleaded not guilty Monday to criminal charges that he participated in a series of cyber attacks allegedly carried out by "LulzSec," a globe-spanning collective of computer hackers who targeted government and corporate websites last year.

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Jeffrey Toobin, the New Yorker's Supreme Court chronicler, takes on Citizens United v. FEC in next week's magazine. As with most of his pieces, it's a brisk read infused with precious behind-the-scenes details of the court.

The case, Toobin says, was of “modest importance” when it reached the court. Citizens United sought to air a movie that was harshly critical of Hillary Clinton on video on demand. The group aimed for it to come out in late 2007, to tie it to the presidential election. Under the FEC rules, if “Hillary: The Movie” was deemed a work of journalism or entertainment, it could be shown at anytime. If the FEC considered the movie and commercials for it as an “electioneering communication,” then it couldn’t be broadcast close to elections.

The FEC determined it was an “electioneering communication.” So did a three-judge panel in Washington, placing the case in front of the Supreme Court.

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Anyone who has tuned into the Law Blog in the last two months likely knows all about the woes of Dewey & LeBoeuf, the large New York law firm that now stands on the brink of collapse.

The situation marks a dismal turn for Dewey, created in 2007 from the merger of two old-line law firms whose roots stretch back to the early 20th century: Dewey Ballantine, for years run by Thomas E. Dewey, a former New York governor and presidential candidate, and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacCrae.

Over the weekend, two members of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s office of the chairman — bankruptcy specialist Martin Bienenstock and Charles Landgraf, the head of the firm’s legislative and public policy group — spoke at length to the Wall Street Journal. The duo described why the firm has failed and discussed their next steps.

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U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan will sort through outstanding issues ahead of the May 21 insider-trading trial of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. director Rajat Gupta.



Rajat Gupta, former Goldman Sachs Inc. director and former senior partner at McKinsey & Co., center, arrives at federal court with his attorney Gary Naftalis, left.

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By Mike Spector and Jennifer Smith

Bankruptcy lawyer Bruce Bennett is leaving Dewey & LeBoeuf to join Jones Day, he said late Sunday.Mr. Bennett represents another in a string of departures from the beleaguered Dewey, which recently gave layoff notices to some staff and associate lawyers after telling employees that the firm could shut down.Mr. Bennett represented the Los Angeles Dodgers in the baseball team's recent $2 billion bankruptcy sale to a group of investors including Magic Johnson.He said the core of a group that practiced for Dewey in Los Angeles and came to the firm about a year ago from Hennigan, Bennett & Dorman will be joining him at Jones Day in its Los Angeles office.“Jones Day has a terrific national business reorganization and bankruptcy practice and I’m thrilled to become a part of it,” he said.

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It used to be that us outsiders never exactly knew when a bill was going to come up for a vote. But thanks to recent developments in the House we can be more involved in the legislative process in the crucial days before a bill comes to a vote. GovTrack’s new Docket page and Coming [...]

The new docs.house.gov website is a major milestone for legislative transparency. For the first time, House leadership is not only committing to a rough schedule a week in advance but is also publishing the schedule in a re-usable, machine-processable format that allows websites like GovTrack to include the information quickly and reliably. Which we’ve done.

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U.S. taxes are a such drag that prodigiously wealthy people are renouncing their citizenship to escape Uncle Sam's grasp.



From Bloomberg:

Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co- founder of Facebook Inc. (FB), renounced his U.S. citizenship before an initial public offering that values the social network at as much as $96 billion, a move that may reduce his tax bill.

Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion through the IPO, the biggest in history for anInternet company. Saverin’s stake is about 4 percent, according to the website Who Owns Facebook. At the high end of the IPO valuation, that would be worth about $3.84 billion. His holdings aren’t listed in Facebook’s regulatory filings.

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The Telephone Consumer Protection Act forbids advertisers, bill collectors and the like from calling your mobile phone, without your consent, using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice.




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