legal teams

White Shoes and Black Hats? Ten years ago the American Civil Trial Bar Roundtable published a white paper (later revised in 2006) that addressed how the “Lack of respect and confidence seems to have developed in the public’s mind for the trial practice…”    Lawyer bashing is as old as the Bard, and more than likely even predates that famous...
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(Not) For Immediate Release We continue to keep an eye out for the plaintiff’s response to the defense motion for a gag order, one that would preclude all attorneys involved in the Wone civil case from speaking to members of the media, both in the mainstream press, and we assume, the not-so mainstream. As we wait for...
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Kicking Up Distractions Before the Court.  Why It Matters In modern times it dates back to December 15th, 1991.  H. Ross Perot – remember him? – then a member of the General Motors board, parried with GM CEO Roger Smith’s optimistic perspective of GM’s future.  Distilling Smith’s rosy sales pitch, Perot scooped imaginary dirt and...
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The Man with the Fu Manchu Beard While it has been rather easy to track information about the Swann Street Defendants’ counsel, after all criminal defense attorneys need the publicity, it has not been nearly as simple locating solid information about the prosecution. There is no resume posted at the U.S. Attorney’s office Web site, nor...
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Government to Judge Weisberg: “Meh.”  It’ s still undecided whether the annual Superior Court felony calender swap will bring  in a new judge – former prosecutor Lynn Leibowitz - to preside over the Wone case through the May 2010 trial.   Judge Frederick Weisberg, already 13 months into this case, indicated he was neither inclined to stay...
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Swann Street Swoons  At Friday’s status hearing we learned that the defense team submitted a joint motion for special assignment, a request of Chief Judge Lee Satterfield that the man presiding over the Wone case, Judge Frederick Weisberg, stay on until completion of the May 2010 trial. At issue is whether another judge, Lynn Leibowitz inherits Weisberg’s...
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Latest Defense Discovery Request Hints At Defense Strategy At the last status hearing on September 11, much of the first half focused on whether radio communications between emergency personnel and MPD was evidence that was covered under the Jencks Act.   For the non-lawyers among us, which includes the four editors here at WMRW.com,we needed to...
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The Maryland Campaign Late Friday afternoon, Mike Scarcella of the Legal Times had news on the latest skirmish in Kathy Wone’s $20 million wrongful death civil suit. Any small victory the defendants may have felt following Judge Weisberg’s September status hearing in the criminal case was likely beat back by Judge Brook Hedge, sitting in the civil...
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Getting Ready for Friday’s Status Hearing Nearly four months have passed since last we saw the Swann Street defendants in court.  The summer has fled, and this Friday’s forecast calls for gray skies, suits and expressions. The headline from the last hearing (May 22) was of course the trial date being set.  The other big news was...
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A Friend is Slain in Your Home?  STFU One of the more unsettling aspects of the then-suspects’, now defendants’ puzzling behavior following Robert’s murder was their complete silence on both their friend’s death and their own innocence. None of the three Swann Street housemates found it necessary to distance themselves from the crime by way of public...
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