Miers Led Law Firm repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages

David Sirota

Miers Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages

Thu Oct 6, 2005 00:25

64.140.158.34

Miers Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding Investors

By David Sirota
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10524.htm

10/04/05 "Huffington Post" -- -- In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling, considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented
the head of a "foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly a Ponzi scheme." The law-firm admitted that it "knew in March 1998 that $ 8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to investors" but didn't tell regulators.

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. The Austin American-Statesman reported in 2001 that Miers' lawfirm was forced to pay another $8 million for a similar scheme to defraud investors. The suit, which dealt with actions the firm took under Miers in the late 1990s, was again quite troubling. As the 9/20/00 Texas Lawyer reported, Miers' firm helped a now-convicted con man "defraud investors and allowed the firm's [bank] account to be used as a 'conduit.'" The suit said "money from investors that went into the firm's trust account was deposited into [the con man's] bank accounts and was used to pay for his 'expensive toys.'"

If you think Miers wasn't involved in any of this -- think again. Miers wasn't just any old lawyer at the firm. She was the Managing Partner -- the big cheese. True, she could claim she had no idea this was going on. But that would be as laughable/pathetic/transparent as the Enron executives who made the same ones after they ripped off investors.

I wrote earlier today that Democrats must focus on the fact that Miers' defining career experience up until her nomination was being a Bush crony. These new details about her career only enhance that case, in that it shows she is just like the other corrupt corporate cronies like Enron's Ken ("Kenny Boy") Lay that Bush has surrounded himself with over the years. There is no room on the Supreme Court for people like Miers who are clearly entirely compromised by partisan/corporate loyalties -- loyalties that might make her an attractive candidate to the a corrupt elitists who run today's Republican Party, but a danger to the interests of ordinary Americans.

Copyright 2005 © HuffingtonPost.com
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10524.htm
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LOCKE LIDDELL & SAPP FORMER CO-MANAGING PARTNER HARRIET MIERS NOMINATED BY PRESIDENT BUSH TO UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

Locke Liddell & Sapp is pleased and proud that President George W. Bush has nominated the Firm's former co-Managing Partner to become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Harriet Miers began working at what is now Locke Liddell & Sapp in 1972, and stayed at the Firm until she joined the Bush Administration in 2001. Her long and distinguished career as a trial lawyer dedicated to her clients and the legal profession makes her exceptionally well qualified to serve on the Supreme Court.

Ms. Miers' career as a trial lawyer at the Firm included representing such clients as Microsoft, Walt Disney Co. and SunGard Data Systems Inc. on the one hand, and individuals who needed legal services but couldn't afford them, on the other hand. She is a driven and principled attorney who served as a trailblazer for other women in the legal community. In 1972, she became the first woman hired at our law firm; in 1985, she became the first woman elected President of the Dallas Bar Association; in 1992, she became the first woman elected President of the State Bar of Texas; and in 1996, her partners elected her the first female President of the Firm.

We at Locke Liddell take great pride in Harriet Miers' legacy at the Firm, and know that as a Justice on the United States Supreme Court, she will adhere to the Rule of Law and strictly interpret the Constitution and laws of the United States.

http://www.lockeliddell.com/

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Appellate Lawyers in Texas: Hatchell PC Attorneys
Mike Hatchell heads Locke Liddell's newly created Appellate Section. In joining Locke Liddell & Sapp, Mike Hatchell stated: "This Firm has an exceptional ...
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Let-Down Lady - Harriet Miers isn't just no John Roberts. She's no ...
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HTTP://WWW.slate.msn.com/id/2127361/?nav=ais

TPMCafe || Miers As Enron's Ken Lay
Locke Liddell & Sapp's agreement to pay $ 22 million to settle a suit alleging
... Harriet Miers, co-managing partner of Locke Liddell, said the firm denies ...
HTTP://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/3/194613/390

CNN.com - Bush: Miers 'a pit bull in size 6 shoes' - Oct 3, 2005
Among a host of qualities that White House counsel Harriet Ellan Miers shares
... she became co-managing partner of the 400-lawyer Locke Liddell & Sapp. ...
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/03/miers.profile.ap/?section=cnn_latest

Miers Briefed Bush on Famous Bin Laden Memo, But Newspapers Handle the AP Photo
... According to the InterNet Bankruptcy Library (IBL), Locke Liddell & Sapp ...
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The Village Voice: The Bush Beat
Locke Liddell & Sapp's agreement to pay $22 million to settle a suit alleging
... Harriet Miers, co-managing partner of Locke Liddell, says the firm denies ...
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/001912.php

NEWSMEAT - Harriet Miers's federal campaign contributions
Miers, Harriet Mrs. Dallas, TX 75201 Locke Liddell & Sapp/Attorney, BUSH, ...
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Harriet Miers - SMU Magazine
In 1999 she became co-managing partner of Locke, Liddell & Sapp LLP, the fifth
largest ... SMU paid tribute to Miers in October, when she received the 2002 ...
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Think Progress: Supreme Court Extra
... president of her 400-lawyer firm (Locke, Liddell and Sapp in Texas). ...
The fact that Miers, at that stage in her life, chose to remain at SMU for law ...
HTTP://WWW.court.thinkprogress.org/

HOTTALKRADIO.COM
Dallas public schools, Southern Methodist University, SMU law school. ... She rose
to be president before it merged into Locke Liddell & Sapp, where she was ...
HTTP://www.hottalkradio.com/

Daily Kos: State of the Nation
... Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22
... Laura and Harriet at SMU--the SMU Connection by cova1. 7 comments ...
HTTP://WWW.mojoman.dailykos.com/

Dobson dedicated his entire half-hour radio show to the Miers nomination today. Below is my short write-up of what he had to say:

Dobson is clearly conflicted about this, at times literally begging the Lord for guidance. Dobson said this has been "One of the more difficult weeks that I can remember" and that he needs to "speak [his] heart" because of the "unprecedented significance" of this nomination.

Dobson cited the Bible when he talks about the split among the right-wing over the nomination, saying "There have been many disagreements in the Scripture between men of faith who were seeking the mind of God and I think that is what's going on here."

He went on the claim that "I'm getting calls from members of Congress saying 'tell us your take on this, we're not sure what we think of Harriet Miers.'" He then admitted "It was leaked to the media that I've had conversations with Karl Rove and the White House, which is true."

He said "There is so much in the balance [with this nominee], there is no way to put it into words . . . Because of that, Dobson is begging the Lord: "If this is not the person you want on that Supreme Court, all you have to do is tell me so, and do it through any means you want to."

He finally then discussed why he is supporting Miers, saying "I can't reveal it all, because I do know things that I'm privy to that I can't describe, because of confidentiality." He then states that Miers "is a deeply committed Christian" and that people who know her have all told him that "she will not be a disappointment."
"I believe in trusting this president and this time because of the stand that he has taken and the way he has implemented it consistently for four and a half years. When you put that with all the other information that I have been able to gather - and you'll have to trust me on this one - when you know some of the things that I know, that I probably shouldn't know, that take me in this direction, you will understand why I have said, with fear and trepidation, why I have said why I believe that Harriet Miers will be a good justice."

He then states that "if I have made a mistake here ... the blood of those babies that will die will be on my hands, to some degree. And that's why is has weighed so heavily on me" before telling the right wing to let the confirmation process play out and not undermine Miers before the hearings.
http://mojoman.dailykos.com/

Miers Law Firm pays $30 MILLION in Ponzi Scheme.. —WorldNetDaily, Thu Oct 6 00:56