“Judge sets hearing in bid to remove Mavis lawyers from limo cases” —

• “The judge overseeing civil litigation in the deadly 2018 limousine crash in Schoharie will conduct a hearing next month to determine whether the firm that represents Mavis Discount Tire, Yankwitt LLP, should be removed from the case.”
• “Brian Premo, who represents one of the two plaintiffs still suing the repair chain for work done on the limousine before the crash, wants the lawyers for the firm disqualified.”
• “The White Plains law firm has been leading the legal defense of Mavis in the civil courts. The families of the 20 people killed in the Oct. 6, 2018, crash filed wrongful death lawsuits within a few months of the tragedy. The civil cases were filed in several different counties, but acting state Supreme Court Justice Denise Hartman was assigned to coordinate the collection of evidence and the taking of depositions from witnesses.”
• “Mavis struck legal settlements in all of the civil lawsuits that Hartman has been overseeing, except for two. In each case, it is believed that Mavis agreed to pay roughly $2.25 million per victim.”
• “Lawyers for the Ukaj and Lisinicchia estates, led by Albany attorney Premo, have not settled with Mavis and are seeking to amend their lawsuits to include evidence the State Police collected as part of its investigation into the crash.”
• “They argue that internal Mavis security video recordings show that Mavis mechanics knew that the brakes in the Excursion were dangerous and would stop working at times, contrary to how the firm’s actions were portrayed at the May 2023 criminal trial of Nauman Hussain, who oversaw the limousine company founded by his father. Hussain, 35, was the only person ever charged with a crime in the case. He’s serving a prison term of 5 to 15 years after a Schoharie County jury last year convicted him of 20 counts of second-degree manslaughter. “
• “Mavis, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. Benjamin Allee, the Yankwitt partner who is leading the case, is a former criminal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. He did not respond to a detailed request for comment. In the past, the law firm has said it did nothing to merit disqualification.”
• “Premo and Francis Young, a downstate attorney who represents the Lisinicchia estate, filed a motion with Hartman seeking the disqualification of Yankwitt from the case.”
• “Hartman has granted a request to hear oral arguments from the lawyers on Sept. 11. Premo and Young allege that Yankwitt attorneys had assisted prosecutors and police so much in the criminal investigation, including with arranging interviews with former Mavis employees, that they could not continue to represent Mavis in the civil cases.”
• “The limo departed from Amsterdam and was making its way to a brewery outside of Cooperstown when its brakes failed on a steep hill. “
• “In his motion to disqualify Yankwitt, Premo alleges that Allee and Yankwitt were given a leg up in negotiating the Mavis financial settlements with the families from their work on the criminal case. He also alleges that former Mavis mechanics who worked on the limo before the crash lied on the stand. Premo says after reviewing the internal videos from the Mavis store in Saratoga Springs, he believes that Mavis mechanics were aware the stretch limo’s brakes had serious mechanical issues and the pedal would drop to the floor at unexplained times, making the limo’s brakes useless.”
• “Hussain never had the limo properly inspected by the state Department of Transportation and lied on state Department of Motor Vehicles registration forms in order to conceal his use of the vehicle for weddings, proms and parties. “
• “In his most recent filing in the motion to disqualify Yankwitt, Premo points out that during Hussain’s trial, former Mavis mechanic Chikezie Okoro told Schoharie Country District Attorney Susan Mallery on direct examination that he never got under the Excursion when it was brought into the shop for work because the shop didn’t have the correct lift for a limo that size. The Excursion weighed about 6 tons.”

“Jackson Walker Settles Judge Romance Claims For $485K” —

• “Jackson Walker LLP has reached a $485,000 settlement with two former bankruptcy clients to resolve a dispute related to the concealed romance of a former partner and former Texas bankruptcy judge David R. Jones, according to a motion filed Friday.”
• “The settlement would resolve claims between Jackson Walker and two related offshore drilling companies, Seadrill Partners LLC and Seadrill Ltd., which hired Jackson Walker to handle their bankruptcy that concluded in 2021 and was overseen by then-judge Jones. The $485,000 settlement would recover more than half of the fees awarded to Jackson Walker in the underlying matter.”
• “‘The settlement amount provides a significant recovery for Seadrill, eliminates the litigation risk associated with continuing to litigate the claims, and eliminates the need for continued attorney fees and costs (including U.S. Trustee quarterly fees) associated with the litigation,’ the companies wrote in their motion for approval of the settlement.”
• “The settlement comes just 10 days after the U.S. Trustee and Jackson Walker told the judge overseeing the instant dispute, U.S. District Judge Alia Moses, that the parties had not been able to reach a deal by her deadline of July 15 and a few months after Seadrill participated in another mediation that failed in the spring.”
• “The Seadrill companies are two of many former Jackson Walker clients whose fee awards to Jackson Walker could be vacated in an action brought by the U.S. Trustee’s Office following revelations of a secret romantic relationship between Jones and former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman.”
• “Although Freeman no longer worked at the firm when news of the relationship became public, she was involved in over 30 cases before him while during the relationship. Jones resigned in October 2023 amid an ethics investigation. The controversy has spawned accusations that Jones unjustly favored parties represented by Jackson Walker when they appeared in his courtroom.”
• “The trustee’s office has argued that judgments or orders approving the law firm’s fees in a slew of bankruptcy cases should be rescinded in light of the undisclosed relationship.”

“Trump Got His Judge, But Bove Must Sit Out the President’s Cases” —

• “Emil Bove, who recently was confirmed in a 50-49 Senate vote to be a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, can and legally must be disqualified from hearing cases involving challenges to President Donald Trump’s actions and policies.”
• “Trump is clearly counting on Bove’s personal loyalty to rule in his favor in any cases that come before Bove. His expectation was confirmed when he posted on Truth Social: ‘He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Emil Bove will never let you down.'”
• “But Trump may have been too clever by half. Federal law requires judges who have a personal relationship with a party to recuse themselves from cases. The president may have used a judicial appointment slot to appoint an appeals court judge who will be barred from hearing Trump-related cases, just the opposite of what he wanted.”
• “Justices and judges whose impartiality might ‘reasonably be questioned’ must disqualify themselves from proceedings, under 28 U.S. Code Sec. 455. The code includes a litany of reasons a judge must be disqualified, including conflicts as vague as having ‘personal bias’ to specific instances of serving as an attorney for one of the parties or expressing a public opinion about the merits of the case they are hearing.”
• “Additionally, the US Supreme Court has been emphatic that due process of law, guaranteed by the Constitution, requires an impartial decision-maker.”
• “Bove was previously Trump’s private personal defense attorney in multiple criminal cases. In People v. Trump, Bove unsuccessfully defended Trump against 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.”
• “Trump then hand-picked Bove as principal deputy attorney general, a role in which he did Trump’s bidding at the Department of Justice. According to a high-level whistleblower, Bove told subordinate DOJ lawyers they may need to tell courts ‘fuck you’ if they don’t like courts’ decisions and instructed them to ignore court orders during a contentious legal battle in an immigration case. Bove has denied the accusations.”
• “At the DOJ, Bove sent memos to the acting FBI director instructing the FBI to ‘effectuate the termination’ of FBI employees involved in investigating and prosecuting Jan. 6 insurrectionists and directed the firing of numerous line prosecutors working on the cases.”
• “It is all but self-evident that Bove’s personal and professional loyalty to Trump demonstrates that his ‘impartiality might reasonably be questioned’ when it comes to matters involving Trump.”
• “Recusal isn’t optional. Both state and federal laws provide that judges are required to recuse themselves if grounds exist to do so.”
• “A judge may be subject to punishment for not recusing themselves, depending on the circumstances. If proper grounds for recusal did exist, and the judge was aware, there may be penalties levied against the judge for not doing so. Wrongful failure to recuse may also be grounds for appeal which could result in the case being dismissed or remanded for a new trial. If a judge refuses a recusal request, a party may move to have him recused.”
• “Because it’s unlikely Bove will agree to recusal, parties challenging Trump may need to regularly move for Bove’s recusal from cases involving Trump, citing reasonable questions as to Bove’s impartiality.”