Thursday, January 8, 2009

New York Personal Injury Lawyer John Q. Kelly

New York Lawyer John Q. Kelly is pleased to announce the launch of his new website for The Kelly Group P.C.

The website can be viewed at http://www.kellygrouppc.com and features notable cases and clients of Mr. Kelly.

About John Q. Kelly
One of the most renowned litigators in the country, Mr. Kelly has a proven track record in complex civil and corporate litigation nationwide.

His clients include some of the most widely publicized victims in recent times, including:

- Estate of Nicole Brown Simpson
- Parents of Natalee Holloway
- Estate of Kathleen Savio, ex-wife of Drew Peterson
- Estate of Heiress Anne Scripps Douglas
- Former Yankee great Joe Pepitone

Friday, September 26, 2008

Chatsworth Train Crash



www.rkallp.com

Friday, September 19, 2008

Los Angeles's Metrolink Had Similar Wreck in 2002

Metrolink worker sued Burlington Northern Santa Fe, saying his alcoholism returned after the fatal 2002 Placentia collision.

A metrolink conductor who said his drinking problems resumed after the Placentia train crash in 2002 will receive $8.5 million to settle his lawsuit against one of the nations largest railroads.

Patrick Phillips of Riverside agreed Tuesday to settle his suit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. The case was set to go to trial next week in Orange County Superior Court.

Phillips, now 52, suffered minor head injuries the morning of April 23, 2002 when a Burlington Northern Freight train crashed into a Metrolink commuter train in Placentia. Three people died and more than 260 were injured in the early morning crash.

Though his injuries were slight, the conductor alleged that the trauma was serious enough to trigger a resurgence of his severe alcoholism, which he said he had controlled since rehabilitation in the early 1990's.

"I have never seen a case like this in 30 years, yet it is indeed what happened here," said Jerome L. Ringler, Phillips' attorney.

"We had extensive medical evaluations by a variety of neurological specialists. All were in accord that his injury, although minor, changed his behavior."

After the train crash, Phillips was hospitalized for evaluation but released about two hours later, Ringler said. In the months after the crash, however, Phillips allegedly resumed his alcohol abuse, resulting in at least two other hospitalizations.

Ringler said his client was finally diagnosed with alcohol-related dementia, a sever mental deficiency.

Phillips, who is now disabled after working 12 years for Metrolink, was unavailable for comment. He is living with a sister in Riverside.

Under terms of the settlement, Phillips will receive $8.5 million, including interest, paid out over 20 years. The amount is worth about $4.5 million in today's dollars.
Officials for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the nations four largest railroads, confirmed the settlement but declined to discuss the case.

Phillips' lawsuit is one of more than 100 Civil cases stemming from the Placentia crash, which federal investigators said was caused by an inattentive Burlington Norther crew that missed a warning signal.

The lawsuits allege the collision could have been prevented by an automatic braking system, long sought by the federal National Transportation Safety Board.
They also contend that the freight train crew was fatigued by overwork and that the Burlington Northern conductor had a history of losing track of signals.

In December, an Orange County jury awarded Pamela Macek, 53, also of Riverside, about $9 million in damages for psychological and physical injuries suffered in the crash. Her case was the first to go to trial.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Two Traps that Smart, Hard-Working Professionals Fall Into

Bringing in new business for a firm requires a good prospect profile, quality content, constructive meetings, timely responses, good listening, multiple interactions, fit between services and needs…. And that supposes everything works without problems. What about addressing common mistakes that complicate rainmaking?

As for that question, rainmakers of professional services often fall into two traps. One trap is All-or-nothing thinking. Another is the Build-it-and-they-will-come attitude. Here's what they are and how to avoid them.

The All-or-Nothing Thinking Trap

I met with an actuary who attended an association meeting a month ago. He had planned to follow up with thirty people he had met there and admitted that he hadn't done so. I asked why not and he responded, "I haven't got time to follow up with thirty people."

While true, this answer is logically flawed. He could at least have followed up with the most important contact he made at the event, a senior vice president he was targeting. He might have even found time to follow up with five or maybe even ten. Instead, he had fallen into the trap of all-or-nothing thinking.

Here are two more examples:

* A business developer at a Big Four accounting firm helped a partner craft a letter to the CEO of a bank. A note came back from the CEO, saying he had passed the letter on to his CFO, and suggesting that the accountant follow up there.

The partner told the business developer, "You see, it didn't work." He had apparently defined success as immediate access to the CEO. It was get that meeting or nothing.

* A management consultant was developing the call discipline required to build a referral network and he found it onerous. Like the actuary described above, she was having difficulty finding time for making calls. "Besides," she added, "what can I possibly have to say to all these people every month?"

She had fallen into the all-or-nothing trap by thinking that she had to call everyone on her list once a month. That might be true of some of her contacts, but more infrequent intervals would be appropriate for most of them.

In my experience, this is a common kind of error. It seems so obvious that people feel embarrassed when you point out that they have made it.

All three of the professionals described here are extremely smart. They just haven't learned yet that rain making requires many small advances to win big every once in a while. They haven't yet parsed the effort down to the many small steps that they can make day after day. When they do, they will be well on their way to becoming rainmakers.

The Build-It-and-They-Will-Come Trap

People making this error assume that if they make one highly visible effort, business will come. They feel surprised and almost cheated when it doesn't.

The Brochure and Website Fallacies are, perhaps, the most common versions of this trap. They are especially common when professionals start a firm or a new practice. In many such cases professionals rush to create a brochure or a website and then wait for the business to come in. It doesn't.

Here are a two more examples of such thinking:

* Attorneys from a major law firm made a presentation to several members of a private equity firm to introduce their services, knowing that deals these people worked on produced millions of dollars in legal fees each year.

When no work resulted from the pitch within three months, the head of the Corporate Practice at the law firm declared the effort a failure. Actually, the attorneys had made a good impression on the people they presented to and that was about all the attorneys could expected from one meeting.

* Several partners at a management consulting firm said that giving speeches didn't work for their firm. Over the years, they have given many speeches and never turned up any new business from it. They had done little, if any, follow-up work after the speeches, apparently waiting at the phone for calls from prospective clients, who would say, "I heard what you said last week and thought it was so wonderful that I was hoping, just hoping, you could come to our company and…."

When they had an opportunity to speak, these partners often arrived at the events shortly before they were scheduled to speak and rushed back to their clients as soon at their speech was over. When they began to treat speeches as simply one element out of many needed to build relationships with prospective clients, they began to win business.

Remember, there are many steps to getting a client to hire you. One event is unlikely to generate business, and if it does, recognize that this is unusual and lucky, rather than the norm. You need persistence to get new clients.

* * *

The illogic of the people in these examples may seem laughably obvious as I describe it here. But I assure you it wasn't obvious to them at the time, and I consistently see examples of smart, hard-working professionals falling into the Build-It-and-They-Will-Come and the All-or-Nothing trap. Be careful that you are not one of them too.

Full Article

Willbros Group Agrees to Pay $22M Penalty

Willbros Group Inc. (Willbros Group), a publicly-traded company that provides construction, engineering and other services in the oil and gas industry, and Willbros International Inc. (Willbros International), the wholly owned subsidiary through which it conducts international operations, have agreed to pay a $22 million criminal penalty in connection with corrupt payments to Nigerian and Ecuadoran government officials in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Department of Justice announced today.

The Department filed a deferred prosecution agreement with Willbros Group and Willbros International, as well as criminal information against both entities (collectively referred to as Willbros) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The six-count criminal information charges Willbros with one count of conspiring to make bribe payments to Nigerian and Ecuadoran officials, two counts of violating the FCPA in connection with the authorization of specific corrupt payments to officials in those countries and three counts of violating the FCPA by falsifying books and records relating to corrupt payments and a tax fraud scheme.

According to the criminal information, from late 2003 through March 2005, Willbros employees agreed to make corrupt payments totaling more than $6.3 million to Nigerian government officials to assist in obtaining and retaining a $387 million contract for work on a major engineering, procurement and construction gas pipeline project known as the Eastern Gas Gathering System (EGGS). In exchange for the EGGS project, the conspirators corruptly paid, promised to pay and authorized payments to officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the state-owned oil company in Nigeria; NNPC�s subsidiary, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS); a senior official in the executive branch of the Nigerian federal government; officials of a multinational oil company serving as the operator of the EGGS joint venture; and a political party.

NNPC is responsible for developing Nigeria�s oil and gas wealth and regulating the industry, and is the majority shareholder in certain joint ventures with multinational oil companies. NAPIMS manages NNPC�s investments in the joint ventures. Among other functions, NAPIMS and NNPC approve the award of major oil and gas construction projects to private contractors, such as Willbros Group.

The criminal information further alleges that certain Willbros employees based in South America agreed to make approximately $300,000 in corrupt payments to Ecuadoran government officials of the state-owned oil company PetroEcuador and its subsidiary, PetroComercial, to assist in obtaining the Santo Domingo project, which involved the rehabilitation of approximately sixteen kilometers of a gas pipeline in Ecuador, running from Santo Domingo to El Beaterio.

In a related matter, Willbros Group reached a settlement today with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in which the company agreed to pay $10.3 million in disgorgement of all profits and pre-judgment interest in connection with the corrupt payments to the Nigerian government officials. In total, Willbros agreed to pay more than $32 million in penalties, disgorgement and interest in the criminal and SEC cases.

In recognition of Willbros' thorough review of the improper payments, the companies� exemplary cooperation, the companies� implementation of enhanced compliance policies and procedures, and the companies� engagement of an independent corporate monitor, the Department has agreed to defer prosecution of these companies for three years. If Willbros Group and Willbros International abide by the terms of the agreement, the Department will dismiss the criminal information when the term of the agreement ends.

This case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Mark F. Mendelsohn and Trial Attorney Stacey K. Luck of the Criminal Division�s Fraud Section. It was previously handled by former Trial Attorney Thomas E. Stevens, also with the Criminal Division�s Fraud Section. This case is being investigated by the FBI�s Washington Field Office, and Internal Revenue Service- Criminal Investigation Division. Substantial assistance was provided by the Criminal Division�s Office of International Affairs. The investigation is ongoing.

The Fraud Section acknowledges the assistance of the Fort Worth Regional Office of the SEC. In addition, the Department acknowledges the help provided, in the form of mutual legal assistance, by Nigeria�s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Solicitor General To Leave the Dept. of Justice

Today, the Department of Justice announced that Solicitor General Paul D. Clement will end his current service to the Department on June 2, 2008.

Nominated by President Bush on March 14, 2005, Clement was confirmed as Solicitor General on June 8, 2005, and was sworn in on June 13, 2005. Prior to his confirmation, he served for over four years as Principal Deputy Solicitor General, and during that period served for nearly a year as Acting Solicitor General. Clement�s tenure of over seven years in the Office of the Solicitor General is the longest period of continuous service in that office by an individual who served as Solicitor General since Samuel Phillips, who served from 1872-1885.

�Paul Clement is one of the nation�s finest appellate lawyers,� said Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey. �I am deeply grateful to Paul for his service to the Department and to the nation during his seven-year tenure in the Office of the Solicitor General. I will miss not only Paul�s superb advocacy on behalf of the United States, but also his wise counsel and keen legal analysis.�

During his time in the Office of the Solicitor General, Clement argued 49 cases before the Supreme Court, prevailing in the vast majority of them. Landmark cases argued by Clement include Tennessee v. Lane, McConnell v. FEC, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Gonzales v. Raich, and Gonzales v. Carhart. He also argued many other significant cases in both the Supreme Court and the lower courts involving novel and important legal issues concerning the conduct of the War on Terror.

The Office of the Solicitor General is responsible for conducting all litigation on behalf of the United States in the Supreme Court, and for supervising litigation in the federal appellate courts. Oral arguments for the 2007 Supreme Court term were completed in April 2008. The Department will submit all of its briefs for action during this term by the end of May 2008.

Prior to today�s announcement, Clement informed the President and the Attorney General of his plans to resign.

Michael Khouri Launches New Website

Los Angeles Professional Licensing and Health Care defense attorney, Michael Khouri’s law firm specializing in health care and criminal defense as well as licensing defense, announced the launch of its new Web site today, www.khourilaw.com. The website was designed by Los Angeles law firm web design company Law Promo.

The new Web site provides a comprehensive overview of the services provided by Los Angeles Defense Attorney, Michael Khouri. Mr. Khouri has been practicing law in Orange County for over 26 years, his expertise spans from Professional License Defense to Med-Care/Medi-Cal audit defense to Criminal Defense. The new website showcases Mr. Khouri’s extensive career and invaluable expertise.

About Michael Khouri:

Michael Khouri has been practicing law in Orange County for over 26 years.
He is considered an expert in professional licensing defense and the defense of Medi-Care/Medi-Cal audits, and has tried in excess of 100 cases. An expert in representing health care providers, Michael has proven his abilities with a number of cases and has spoken at multiple events. He is recognized throughout California and the Country for his integrity and firm resolve to help his clients get the best possible resolution to their licensing or criminal matters.

About Law Promo:

Law Promo understands that Law Firm Websites should be about more than graceful and compelling design. They must portray your firm's distinctiveness, make it easy to locate relevant experience and make a lasting impact on your audience. We bring strategy, creativity, technology and unmatched experience to bear as we develop unique websites that let you speak and be heard. We are the leading provider of web development services for attorneys, law firms and bar associations. With over 260 clients, we are experts at delivering effective web and online marketing solutions for the legal industry. Law Promo consistently provides powerful and effective web site designs that have met or exceeded their clients’ expectations.

If you would like more information about this topic or would like to talk with Michael Khouri, please contact Michael Khouri at (949) 336-2433.

Contact Information:
Michael Khouri
Khouri Law
(949) 336-2433
www.khourilaw.com

If you would like more information about Online legal marketing or law firm website design, please contact Law Promo:

Law Promo
3278 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 103
Los Angeles, CA 90010
1-866-886-0548
213-365-8325
www.lawpromo.com