InsideTrack

Miami Herald gives employees second round of big news

As their employer announced they'll be moving to a new home in Doral, Miami Herald employees got some bad news about their jobs: Unpaid time off.

According to sources, Miami Herald employees must take one week of furlough by June 24. Herald employees have had multiple furloughs in the last couple of years as the paper's revenue base has shrunk. It has also had massive layoffs over the last several years, cutting hundreds of jobs.

The latest required furlough came as the Herald detailed its move in 2013 to the former home of the U.S. Southern Command. The current Herald headquarters on Biscayne Bay has been sold to the Genting Group, the Malaysian gambling resort conglomerate hat is pressing for the state Legislature to pass a law that would permit it to build a massive casino on the site.

FIU law school hosts appellate heavyweights

As if there's not enough pressure just being a finalist in the moot court competition at Florida International University's College of Law, now those law students must compete in front of a U.S. Supreme Court justice and two federal appellate judges.

Justice Samuel Alito will judge the finals along with Judges Rosemary Barkett and Stanley Marcus of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The competition begins at 5 p.m. today at the law school.

Alito, appointed by President George W. Bush, has been on the high court since 2006.

FIU law dean Alex Acosta hopes the event starts a tradition of bringing senior members of the appellate bench to the law school, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in August. Acosta expects dozens of judges and law firm hiring and managing partners to attend.

The student finalists are Jeremy Chevres, Sherman Davis, Nicholas Greene and Matthew Rogoff. Chevres is a graduate of FIU from Miami. Rogoff is a graduate of Florida State from Davie. Greene is a University of Florida graduate from Apopka. Davis is a Louisiana native and graduate of Louisiana State University.

Coming soon: “The Scott Rothstein Story”

Chuck Malkus, who runs a public relations firm in Fort Lauderdale, says he has an offer on a 230-page manuscript about super-schemer Scott Rothstein.

Malkus, who runs Malkus Communications Group, told the Daily Business Review that two other publishers also are interested in his book about the lawyer-turned-criminal dubbed, “Magician Lawyer: The Scott Rothstein Story.”

Malkus has shopped the book through an agent in California because he hopes it will be optioned for a movie script.

Malkus hired a private investigator and an editor to help him on the book, which he finished last August. He said his spouse wondered at times how much of their life savings would go into his “work of passion.”

Malkus said he interviewed call girls who were hired by Rothstein to entertain would-be investors in his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Rothstein detailed last month for civil attorneys how he paid for up to $60,000 a month for prostitutes for himself and others.

Malkus is convinced Rothstein squirreled away money that authorities have yet to find and speculates that’s one reason the con artist’s wife, Kim, hasn’t filed for divorce.

Rothstein is serving a 50-year prison sentence for his crimes.

Six make cut for Miami-Dade circuit vacancy

The governor will have two county court judges and four attorneys to choose from when filling a seat vacated when Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Robert Scola Jr. left for the federal bench.

Those who made the cut are Judges Rodney Smith and Deborah White-Labora and lawyers Miguel de la O, Richard Hersch, Alan Sackrin and Bonnie Riley.

Several already are hedging their bets. De la O filed to run for an open seat and where he has an opponent, Florida City solo lawyer Greer Elaine Wallace. Another is Hersch, who also is running for an open seat where he's found a competitor, Miami solo lawyer Victor De Yurre.

Smith is a civil division judge at the Miami Beach satellite courthouse, and White-Labora is a Miami criminal division judge.

De la O, who has previously run for judge, chairs Miami's civil service board. Hersch is a Miami criminal defense lawyer. Sackrin is a personal injury lawyer in Hallandale Beach. Riley is a lawyer in Miami at the Law Offices of Barranco & Kircher.

Judge to decide who should pony up pay for Rothstein's legal costs during depo

So just who should pay the legal bills of Scott Rothstein's criminal defense attorney, Marc Nurik, who is sitting with the Ponzi crook during his two-week deposition?

That was a question posed to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Raymond Ray. As a federal inmate, Rothstein doesn't have the money to pay for an attorney. A proposal was made to require all the law firms involved in the deposition to pony up funds "on a pro rata basis."

Ray agreed Tuesday, saying he would conduct a hearing after the deposition ends and bill attorneys according to how much each benefits from the deposition and how much time each is given to question Rothstein.

Many lawyers objected, saying Rothstein's fraud victims should not have to pay for his attorney, but perhaps his wife, Kim, should pay.

"I don't think she has any money left," Ray responded.

Another proposal generated some chuckles from the gallery. The judge proposed news media should pay a portion of Nurik's fee in exchange for transcripts.

"Won't they be selling extra newspapers from this?" he asked.

Conrad & Scherer attorney Jim Silver said, "I'm not going there, judge." He had asked permission to produce daily transcripts.

Holland & Knight attorney Sanford Bohrer, who was hired by the Daily Business Review and Sun-Sentinel to argue for timely access to daily transcripts, immediately jumped up to ask, "Then can they attend the depositions?"

Ray responded that the U.S. Marshals Service would not permit that. Reporters were barred by Ray's order based on federal security concerns.

Six nominees selected for Palm Beach Circuit post

The six candidates submitted to Gov. Rick Scott to fill a vacancy left by the retirement of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Karen L. Martin include a county judge and a magistrate.

Palm Beach County Judge Gregory M. Keyser, who is moving from the main courthouse to the south county branch Dec. 12, is in the running along with Magistrate Sara Alijewicz.

Other candidates submitted by the Palm Beach Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission include Melanie L. Casper, an appellate attorney with the regional conflict counsel’s office; civil litigator Christopher B. Hopkins, a shareholder in the West Palm Beach office of Akerman Senterfitt; G. Steven Brannock, a commercial law solo practitioner from Boynton Beach; and Marshall J. Osofsky, a litigator and commercial mediator in West Palm Beach.

Martin’s resignation is effective Jan. 31.

19 apply to fill vacant Miami-Dade Circuit seat

Six judges and 13 attorneys have applied to fill the vacancy left by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Robert Scola Jr.’s departure to federal court.

The list includes two from the civil division, County Court Judges Norma Lindsey and Gladys Perez, and four from the criminal division, County Court Judges Andrew Hague, Cristina Miranda, Maria Ortiz and Deborah White-Labora.

The attorneys are Steven P. Befera, Donald Cannava, Manuel L. Casabielle, Marie Abigail Davidson, Miguel de la O, Vincent P. Farina, Richard Hersch, Lisa Lehner, Madelyn Simon Lozano, Bonnie Riley, Alan D. Sackrin, Maria de Jesus Santovenia and Angelica Zayas.

Only one lawyer, Hersch, also has filed to run for circuit judge.

21 apply for Circuit Judge Karen Martin's old job

The Palm Beach Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission received 21 applications for the vacancy left by the retirement of Circuit Judge Karen Martin.

The applicants include Palm Beach County Magistrates Sara Alijewicz and Thomas R. Baker III, Assistant Attorney General Mark John Hamel, Assistant Delray Beach City Attorney Catherine Marie Kozol and Assistant Regional Conflict Counsel Melanie Lynn Casper.

Other applicants are attorneys Patricia Ann Ash, Steven G. Brannock, Joyce R. Cohen, Laurie Stillwell Cohen, Randy Kaye Garvey, Francis B. Geary, Christopher Benton Hopkins, Gregory M. Keyser, Wellington Craig Lawson, Elizabeth Threatt McBride, Jean Marie Middleton, Marshall Joel Osofsky, Mark W. Rickard, Christy Rogers, Jeremy E. Slusher and Charles Wender.

Applicants will be interviewed Dec. 1.

Weston firm’s law review article goes viral

Articles written for law journals tend to be dry and rarely grab the attention of news organizations or the blogosphere. But a 30-page essay by the Weston-based Oppenheim Law firm on mortgage-backed securities has circulated from Hawaii to Vermont.

Roy Oppenheim and associate Jacquelyn K. Trask wrote the article for the Stetson Law Review’s spring 2012 issue.

He announced it Oct. 24 on his website and circulated word about it on the PR Newswire over the next few days.

Close to 200 news organizations, mostly television stations, republished the release, which also drew responses from consumer-based foreclosure bloggers.

Neal Garfield, blogger of LivingLies, wrote the article “explicitly articulates the basic problem with foreclosures today, as well as providing insight into the changing mortgage approval process.”

Was this a hot topic gone viral or a savvy public relations pitch? Oppenheim latched onto the “gone viral” theme in a YouTube video, but he does credit his news release for the exposure.

“The press release was picked up by hundreds of media outlets, including Yahoo Finance. It’s like throwing a bottle in the ocean. It travels around the world and it comes back,” he said. “I got the article re-sent to me five times from different list serves. It was rather humbling, I have to tell you.”

It may have helped that the otherwise scholarly, staid essay had a catchy title: “Deconstructing the Black Magic of Securitized Trusts.”

Norma Lindsey and Deborah White-Labora on shortlist to replace Amy Steele Donner

Miami-Dade County Court Judges Norma Lindsey and Deborah White-Labora are on the shortlist to replace retiring Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner.

State Department of Children and Families Donald Cannava has the distinction of being a finalist for both Donner’s and departing Circuit Judge Rosa Figarola’s seats.

Other finalists named today for Donner’s seat are appellate attorney Miguel de la O of de la O Marko Magolnick & Leyton in Miami, criminal defense attorney Richard Hersch of Hersch & Talisman in Miami and Assistant State Attorney Angelica Zayas.