Friday news and notes

1. UBS got pushed one more week, till August 10. Looks like it might settle. From the WSJ blog:

In a major break in a massive tax-evasion investigation, UBS AG and the governments of Switzerland and the U.S. have reached a settlement that could force UBS to turn over identities of thousands of account holders, a Justice Department attorney told a U.S. District Court judge Friday morning. ...
Stuart Gibson, a Justice Department tax division attorney, didn’t detail the settlement in a conference call with Judge Alan Gold that included lawyers for UBS and the Swiss government.
A hearing scheduled for Monday in Miami was postponed until Aug. 10, at which point more details are expected to be released. The judge scheduled another conference call with parties in the case for next Friday.
The Internal Revenue Service has demanded the identities of 52,000 U.S. account holders at UBS. UBS and the Swiss government have claimed that turning over those names would violate Swiss bank secrecy provisions.

2. Julie Kay special for the Herald on law firms cutting pay:

As law firms continue to lose money in a tough economy, their cost-cutting has moved from layoffs to a new strategy -- slashing lawyers' salaries.
Several firms in South Florida have instituted across-the-board salary cuts for lawyers in recent weeks -- the latest being Holland & Knight, one of South Florida's largest firms, which announced cuts of up to 10 percent Wednesday.
``Law firms have been forced to manage more carefully all of their expenses,'' Holland & Knight Managing Partner Steve Sonberg said in a statement. ``Like many other firms, Holland & Knight is reducing the base salaries of its associates, with limited exceptions.''
The reductions, Sonberg said, would range up to 10 percent. The firm is also chopping salaries of some non-lawyer ``senior counsel and other professionals,'' with an average overall reduction of 7 percent, he said.
Other firms to reduce lawyer salaries in recent weeks include Akerman Senterfitt, Squire Sanders and Ruden McClosky. Carl Schuster, managing partner at Ruden McClosky, said the across-the-board measure was in place until the end of the year when the firm hopes
to reinstate the original salaries.
He wouldn't disclose percentage cuts at the Fort Lauderdale firm.
Becker & Poliakoff cut lawyers' salaries 12 percent in 2008, but reinstated the original salaries three months later and repaid lawyers the difference, according to managing partner Alan Becker.

3. Next week I won't be able to blog, so we will be very very lucky to have the wonderful Vanessa Blum as our guest blogger. If anyone else wants to pitch in, let me know.

We're second...

... to Rhode Island?!!

I demand a recount.

Well, we're trying to be first, with 41 arrests today. Here's the Herald coverage of all the mortgage fraud stuff going on.

So, will UBS settle? Trial is "looming" Monday. Judge Gold will have one last status conference this Friday.

BLT has a number of interesting posts, including this one on 11th Circuit nominee Beverly Martin. Looks like she will be confirmed...

Effective closing or a lemon in the Representative Jefferson case? We'll find out shortly. Here's the BLT coverage:

Lemons have an odd way of sprouting in the legal lexicon. Lemon laws protect car buyers. The Lemon test helps govern the separation of church and state. And today, lawyers for ex-Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) introduced what might be called "the lemon defense."
In closing arguments this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Washington defense attorney Robert Trout told the jury that the FBI had targeted Jefferson in a sting operation, in which the bureau tried to catch him paying bribe money to the vice president of Nigeria. But when the money turned up in Jefferson’s freezer instead of the vice president’s house, Trout said, investigators realized they had "a lemon of a case."
"They decided they wanted to make lemonade out of lemons," the Trout Cacheris name partner continued on. “And before you can do that, you’ve got to squeeze a lot of lemons. And so they squeezed some lemons."
The "lemons" squeezed by the FBI, Trout said, were the witnesses who would eventually testify that they bribed Jefferson to use his congressional connections to set up business deals in Africa.

SDFLA Fantasy Football League?

Miguel de la O wants to start a fantasy football league for the Southern District of Florida. Winner gets bragging rights. If there is enough interest, the league will start. Email Miguel at delao13@gmail.com if you are interested. Spots are reserved for Rumpole and SFLawyers if they are interested.

News and Notes

1. Another UBS defendants bites the dust. (Via AP)

2. Feds drop all charges against lawyer Carlos Loumiet (Via DBR)

3. Sotomayor is a step closer. (Via Herald)

4. Female Herald reporter accused of sexual harassment. (Via Washington Post)

Great piece on the Chief

John Pacenti covers Judge Moreno here

From the intro:

When socialite Paris Hilton came to town for a civil trial, she was upstaged by none other than Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno.

Pragmatic, smart and funny, the Miami jurist stopped seasoned attorneys who were litigating the question of whether Hilton adequately promoted her film box office bomb "Pledge This!," to ask incisive questions. Since it was a bench trial, Moreno was serving as a jury of one and had no need for rote legal arguments.

Despite his good humor, Moreno is a stickler for proper courtroom decorum. He gently chastised an out-of-town attorney representing Hilton repeatedly for failing to stand up when addressing him. He prompted an out-of-town attorney in another case to borrow a tie before speaking at the courtroom lectern. Given the judge's jocularity and ready smile, the attorney asked if he was kidding.

The judge wasn't.

Moreno said his insistence on decorum is based on respect for the institution.

"I think a federal courthouse, or any courthouse for that matter, is a secular temple," he said. "We dress in robes because it's a secular temple. People dress in suits, and I think people behave better when they are dressed better."

Poll numbers

A week of voting has produced the following unscientific numbers:

Who should be our next U.S. Attorney?
405 votes total
David Buckner 56% 227 votes
Willy Ferrer 24% 99 votes
Daryl Trawick 20% 79 votes

Who should be our next judge?
262 votes total
Jerald Bagley 24% 64 votes
Bob Scola 29% 77 votes
Kathy Williams 46% 121 votes

Why were there so many more votes for U.S. Attorney. Do you think the results would be different if I asked who the Senators will actually pick?

Perfection

For just the 18th time in baseball history, a pitcher was perfect today. Mark Buehrle was literally perfect. 27 batters. 27 outs. No one reaches first. Unbelievably remarkable.

Is there an equivalent for lawyers?

More on JNC picks

Between Paris Hilton and the JNC posts, the blog has been on fire lately. Thanks to everyone for stopping by. I have been stuck in trial the last two weeks (if you are in the courthouse, come by Judge Jordan's courtroom and say hello), so I apologize for the slower than usual posts. John Pacenti over at the DBR has been covering the JNC process. Here's a nice article about what's going to happen now:

What happens next? Not all 20 members of the region’s Judicial Nominating Commission are sure. Some members thought that traditionally Florida’s U.S. senators — Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez — would pick just one name for each position to forward to the White House. But that’s not the case. The rules state that if the senators voice no reservations, all of the JNC’s picks will be forwarded to President Obama so he can narrow the field to one selection for each office.. “As long as Sen. Nelson has been in office, it’s been that way,” said Matt Nosanchuk, Nelson’s legislative counsel in Washington. ... The commission process itself is ever-evolving. “The process has changed back and forth over the years,” said Guy Lewis, who served as an acting U.S. Attorney based in Miami. “It’s almost like making a sausage. I used to love Tennessee Pride Sausage, but I’d never want to know what goes into making it.”

Gotta love Guy. I guess he's trying to keep up with his partner Mike Tein, who is the most quotable guy in the district.

We didn't get to cover the Marshal interviews, but the JNC narrowed the list to William Berger, David C. Nieland and Glen M. Wilner. Unfortunately, the current Marshal -- Christina Pharo -- withdrew her name from consideration before the interview process. Pharo was a great Marshal...

The polls are up below. Vote!