Bankruptcy Attorneys

LEAD: This morning at 8:30 sharp, a swarm of lawyers and journalists descended on the Federal Bankruptcy Court here to get the first public look at the mounds of documents in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of the Campeau Corporation’s American retailing operations.

This morning at 8:30 sharp, a swarm of lawyers and journalists descended on the Federal Bankruptcy Court here to get the first public look at the mounds of documents in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of the Campeau Corporation’s American retailing operations.

The filing is expected to create a tremendous amount of work for local law firms, and attorneys were on hand to begin familiarizing themselves with the mass of information.

”It will be a boon for the local bankruptcy bar,” said J. Vincent Aug, a prominent Cincinnati attorney who will not be involved in the procedure. His son, J. Vincent Aug Jr., is the Federal bankruptcy judge presiding over the case.

The documents have information about the financial condition of the Allied Stores Corporation and Federated Department Stores Inc., the two retailing divisions of Campeau, which is based in Toronto. Included in the information is a list of creditors, whose liabilities vary widely. The First Boston Corporation is owed $430 million by Federated, and the United Way of Dallas was promised a $99.66 contribution by a Federated unit but has never received it.

While Federated and Allied applied for bankruptcy protection in Federal court here, the American real estate holding companies of Campeau filed similar actions in Federal Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco.

Ethics rules prohibit attorneys from soliciting clients from the list of creditors. But local law firms obtain copies of the documents to familiarize themselves with the details in case they are eventually hired to represent a creditor. One lawyer, Louis F. Solimine, said his firm, Thompson, Hine & Flory, had received several calls from potential clients.

Ohio has rules limiting the ability of out-of-state lawyers to practice in the state, generally requiring them to pass an examination before they can appear in court. While Judge Aug could waive that rule, Mr. Solimine said, ”the chances are that the bankruptcy bar in Cincinnati will be fully occupied for the next year or two.”

A number of courthouse clerks worked on the complex bankruptcy filing of Baldwin United in 1983. ”They had a framework set up for handling these monster cases,” Mr. Solimine said.

But not everyone was a veteran of the paper wars. ”I’m just a cab driver getting paid $40 an hour to do this,” said one man who said he had been hired to gather documents for an out-of-state law firm. ”All I know is this is for New York.”

The gang planned to hack their way into the computer systems at Sumitomo Mitsui, Japan’s third largest bank, and transfer money electronically to ten bank accounts around the world.

The plot would have dwarfed traditional robberies such as the £26 million raid on the Northern Bank in Belfast last year and sent shockwaves throughout the financial world.

As British detectives questioned an Israeli suspected of being a frontman for the gang yesterday, financial institutions across London’s banking and money markets were on their guard against other attempts.

The hackers infiltrated the bank’s system using “keystroking” equipment that enabled them to record and sift every key stroke made on computers. The gang could then learn account numbers, passwords and other sensitive information that they would use to order electronic transfers of cash round the world.

But last October the bank’s IT security staff realised that they were under attack, reported their suspicions to Britain’s National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and detectives began an international manhunt.

Takashi Morita, head of communications at Sumitomo in Tokyo, said the company had not suffered any financial loss and investigations were still under way. New security measures have been introduced.

In Israel a lawyer representing Yaron Bolondi, 31, an odd- job man accused of money laundering and trying to transfer £13.9 million from the bank, said his client knew nothing of any international conspiracy. Ilan Mizrahi said Mr Bolondi was approached by a stranger who asked if he would receive several million pounds through a dormant business account he controlled.

Mr Bolondi passed on details of a company called Varo Petrol Distribution. Mr Mizrahi said his client “met this guy he didn’t know some place. He just thought the whole thing was a joke and so in the spirit of a joke he gave the guy details of his bank account. When he was arrested he had no idea what it was about.”

But Israeli officers believe Mr Bolondi is a frontman for others in the plot and he was remanded in custody on Wednesday. Police claimed that Mr Bolondi had given a large number of false addresses to cover his tracks. The addresses given for both his company’s registered office and bank account proved to be fake.

In London investigators remain reluctant to say anything publicly but computer experts said the case highlighted the growing threat to financial institutions from organised gangs of cyber-criminals.

Another British-based bank discovered that 80 of its Swift banking machines, which are used to transfer money internationally, had been fitted with “keystroke monitoring” adaptors in December. They were forced to replace their keyboards with more secure equipment.

Steve Purdham, of SurfControl, an internet security company, said the Sumitomo plot “must act as a wake-up call for the banking and finance sector and business in general”.

Graham Cluley, an anti-virus specialist at the computer security firm Sophos, said this type of electronic attack was becoming increasingly popular with criminals.

Richard Archdeacon, of the internet security firm Symantec, said: “We have seen a meteoric rise in cyberfraud that specifically targets confidential data.”

Gangs are known to have breached security at several British banks in the past year but financial institutions are reluctant to disclose potentially damaging information to police. One in five financial institutions admitted it was a victim of fraud in a police survey last year but only 56 per cent of them contacted officers.

One British bank recently discovered a member of staff making two copies of data back-up tapes. He took one of them home, altered the information to give himself a bank account with “significant” funds from other accounts and then swapped it with the original back-up tape.

Another large multinational bank had “source code” computer programme data which can be used by hackers stolen using a £29 USB memory stick.

For Sumitomo Mitsui, a successful plot would have been a new disaster for the bank that has struggled with a history of bad luck. In the late 1990s, it lost £1.3 billion after auditors uncovered the world’s biggest rogue trading fraud at the bank. Over the course of ten years, Yasuo Hamanaka hid losses after a huge bet on the future price of copper turned sour.

In 1998, Hamanaka was jailed for eight years after pleading guilty to charges of fraud and forgery but a legal battle between Sumitomo and some of the City firms with which Hamanka dealt rumbled on until October last year, when the bank settled a £500 million law suit with a French broking firm.

In 1990, the bank’s chairman had to resign after police arrested a branch manager who allegedly helped to finance a share-price manipulation ring.

The bank was in trouble again a year later, when executives were heavily criticised for lending millions to Itoman, a Japanese trading house that subsequently became embroiled in allegedly illegal art deals worth £242 million.

In 1994, a senior Sumitomo manager was murdered, allegedly by the Japanese mafia. The banker had been responsible for dealing with sokaiya — criminals who threatened to disrupt annual general meetings unless they were paid off.

Special finance institutions in Turkey see their total assets reaching $26 billion by 2014 as they grab market share from the banking sector, an industry official said on Tuesday.

As of 2004, total assets of special finance institutions, which operate according to Islamic principles, amounted to YTL 7.3 billion and represented 2.34 percent of the Turkish banking sector, according to Ufuk Uyan, chairman of the Special Finance Institutions Union, at a press conference in Istanbul.

“We expect the share of special finance institutions of bank assets to reach 10 percent in the coming decade,” Uyan said.

Total assets collected by these institutions, which engage in no-interest banking, reached YTL 6 billion at the end of 2004, 82 percent of which has been loaned to the private sector, Uyan said.

Once it clears Parliament, new banking sector legislation drafted by the government is expected to give a boost to the share of special finance institutions in the banking sector as it extends a deposit guarantee to funds collected by these organizations. The guarantee has an upper limit of YTL 50,000.

These institutions have been collectively managing their own insurance fund and the new legislation will empower the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund to administer it.

The new legislation also defines these organizations as participatory banks, which Uyan said would facilitate international transactions.

Special finance institutions had a total of 264 branches in Turkey as of the end of 2004, with net earnings of YTL 115 million, up 36 percent from the previous year. They employ more than 5,250 people.

By 2014, special finance institutions are expected to have 750 branches and employ more than 10,000.

He cautioned that Basel II banking principles, which will be adopted by Turkey as of 2007, will increase borrowing costs both for banks and special finance institutions and, in turn, reduce funds available to the manufacturing sector. “This is an issue that needs serious attention.”

He predicted that the principles would also expose a need for additional capital, calling for more efficient supervision by the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency. He said steps should be taken to reduce costs both for the banking and manufacturing sectors, such as not cutting the resource utilization support fund (KKDF).

Economy Minister Ali Babacan has hinted at plans to curb such cuts and other taxes that boost costs in the banking sector.

Dwelling on prospects of foreign investment in special finance institutions, Uyan said Dubai Islamic Bank has already opened a representative office in Istanbul and that Arab Banking Corporation has similar plans. “Why would someone open a representative office? To do preliminary research,” said Uyan.

The bright sunshine, unseasonably warm weather and honks from supportive passersby helped energize United Auto Workers strikers outside three General Motors plants here who found themselves suddenly — and surprisingly — walking off the job and onto the picket line Monday.

Even as workers shouted and waved blue-and-white “UAW On Strike” placards, they admitted they are unnerved and are willing to make some concessions to help GM (GM) cut costs.

“I don’t think anyone feels good right now,” said Barb Clay, who has worked at GM for 29 years and has seen her wages and benefits shrink over the years. “It’s terrible. And miserable. But they had to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough.”

Members of the UAW, which represents 73,000 workers at 82 U.S. GM assembly plants, component plants and parts warehouses, walked out moments after the 11 a.m. ET strike deadline. The union set the deadline after it couldn’t come to an agreement with GM on a new contract because of differences on job security, benefits and other issues.

It is the first nationwide strike against GM since 1970 and the first against any Detroit automaker since a 1976 nationwide action against Ford Motor. (F) The contract negotiations this year are considered a landmark because Detroit’s automakers, struggling under pressure from foreign competitors, made it clear they needed concessions from the UAW.

After negotiating nine days past the expiration of its last four-year contract with GM, the UAW set the strike deadline and told workers to wait to hear from their local leaders. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger began feeling a strike was looming as early as last Thursday, he said in a press conference, when GM stopped bargaining on most issues. Both sides worked through the night Sunday into Monday, but Gettelfinger said GM refused to move its position on all but one issue.

“The company walked right up to the deadline like they really didn’t care,” he said.

He said job security is his priority, and he stressed that the talks did not break down over a proposed trust to deal with retiree health care, which GM wants to create so it can move about $5.1 billion in costs off its books.

“This is very serious, but there’s not a single person here who wanted this to result in a strike,” he said. “There comes a time when you have to draw the line. We were pushed into a strike.”

In a statement, GM said it is “disappointed in the UAW’s decision to call a national strike.”

“The bargaining involves complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. workforce and the long-term viability of the company,” the statement read. “We are fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing General Motors.”

After a break during the morning, GM and the UAW started talking again. They recessed about 8 p.m. ET and will start again Tuesday. Investors did not seem perturbed by the strike. GM shares closed down 20 cents, less than 1%, to $34.74. The price is up 14.8% since the day before the UAW named GM its strike target.

Many believed the strike deadline was just a bluff. Or a sign that the UAW was on the verge of signing an agreement with GM.

But just after 11 a.m., Don Syring, a worker at the Flint Metal Fabrication plant, saw the tops of an American flag and UAW flag heading down the line, followed by a crowd of people. “I went over to my plant manager and shook his hand and said, ‘I hope I see you soon,’ ” Syring said. “And I got my stuff and walked out.”

Syring is living paycheck to paycheck supporting his family and is nervous about how long the strike will last. Just minutes into the strike, he said the union needs to work with the automaker. “It feels good they are fighting for us, but on the same turn, there has to be some give and take.”

It’s all about the length

The strike’s impact could range anywhere from a minor blip on GM’s earnings to the catalyst throwing the whole nation into a recession, industry watchers say. It all depends on how long workers are on strike.

GM had a little more than 952,000 vehicles in inventory on dealers’ lots at the beginning of September. That’s about 67 days’ worth of cars and trucks, which is near the industry average and is enough to keep dealers satisfied on many models for at least a month.

Overall, buyers and GM dealers probably will go about business as usual. The strike “doesn’t have much affect on what’s happening at this moment,” said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. The only immediate impact could be on the rare buyer who is dead-set on a particular model and orders it from the factory rather than buying off the lot, Nerad said.

By Jim Drinkard and Laurence McQuillan, USA TODAY
Just about every person in South Dakota who has donated $1,000 or more to President Bush’s re-election campaign is in Tom Everist’s pocket PC.

Tom Everist, far left, a Board members of Sioux Falls-based Raven Industries, has raised more than $150,000 for Bush.
Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader

As a result, Everist, a wealthy businessman from Sioux Falls, is well on his way to becoming one of Bush’s elite Rangers — people who have raised at least $200,000 for the campaign by collecting checks of no more than $2,000 each from their friends, family and business associates. (Related link: Bush’s ‘Rangers’)

“I’ve met all these people and figured out their potential for strong support for George Bush,” Everist says.

Everist, 53, is part of a network of aggressive money raisers around the country that forms the backbone of the Bush money machine. From May 16, when fundraising began, through Sept. 30, the campaign amassed $83.9 million — meaning people like Everist have raised close to $25,000 an hour, around the clock, seven days a week.

In totals released Tuesday, 100 Bush fundraisers had achieved Ranger status by Sept. 30, the end of the third quarter. Another 185 were designated “Pioneers” for hitting the $100,000 mark. Everist, who topped $100,000 by June 30, the end of the second quarter, has since raised more than $50,000 in a push to become a Ranger.

Bush collected $1.75 million at two more fundraising events Wednesday in California on the way to a goal of about $170 million. The money will pay for staff — 130 people so far, and growing — and for an extensive advertising campaign next year.

Bush’s elite fundraisers span the worlds of finance, real estate, industry and politics. The common denominator: each is wealthy and has access to others with fortunes. With few exceptions, they are white, male and over 50.

The Rangers include:

• William DeWitt Jr. of Cincinnati, head of an investment firm and co-owner of the St. Louis Cardinals.

• Billionaire Richard Egan of Hopkinton, Mass., founder of EMC Corp., which makes computer data storage units. He is the president’s former ambassador to Ireland. His sons Christopher and Michael also are Rangers.

• Art dealer Frank Fowler of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., who represents the work of American artist Andrew Wyeth.

• Alex Spanos of Stockton, Calif., a real estate developer and owner of the San Diego Chargers.

The practice of rounding up contributions from your friends is known as “bundling.” And under a campaign-finance law that took effect last November, those who do it, in both parties, are the new kings of political money. “This is the wave of the future,” says Scott Reed, a Republican political strategist and manager of Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign.

The law bars the national parties from collecting huge corporate, union and individual donations, so people who can round up lots of smaller checks from their friends and business associates have become the most sought-after volunteers in politics. The new maximum contribution to a presidential candidate is $2,000 for the primaries. (The general election is financed by the government.) It takes a lot of individual contributions to fuel today’s advertising-intensive campaigns.

BOSTON — The days of political drama on the floor of a national party convention are a distant memory, replaced by an orgy of lobbying, fundraising and special-interest schmoozing far outside the range of the TV cameras.

Teresa Heinz Kerry talks with Thomas Finneran, speaker of the Massachusetts House, on Sunday at the Pennsylvania delegation party.
By Michael Dwyer, AP

With few official duties, the governors, senators, House members and other top officials attending the Democratic convention in Boston this week and the Republican convention in New York in August will have a lot of free time.

“So everybody has expensive parties to get access to these decision-makers,” says Don Fowler, who as Democratic chairman ran the party’s 1996 convention in Chicago. “It is a tremendous boon for special interests, and they take advantage of it. Some of the best lobbying in the world is done at these conventions.”

Among the opportunities this week in Boston:

• For $5,000 a couple, donors to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee could take in Sunday night’s baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Their vantage point was among the best in Fenway Park: the new seats atop the “Green Monster” wall in left field.

• Mickey Kantor, a former Commerce secretary and U.S. trade representative in the Clinton administration, hosts a lunch today for Sen. Max Baucus of Montana and Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, the top Democrats on the tax-writing committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. They’ll report on the upcoming agendas for their committees on issues important to the lobbying practice of Kantor’s law firm.

• Two of the entertainment industry’s biggest lobbies, the Creative Coalition and the Recording Industry Association of America, are taking over one of Boston’s hottest locales for a Wednesday night bash featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The party will be at Louis Boston, a 100-year-old store transformed into an upscale clothier, where you are warned the correct pronunciation is “Loooeeeez.”

FLINT, Mich. � The bright sunshine, unseasonably warm weather and honks from supportive passersby helped energize United Auto Workers strikers outside three General Motors plants here who found themselves suddenly � and surprisingly � walking off the job and onto the picket line Monday.

Even as workers shouted and waved blue-and-white “UAW On Strike” placards, they admitted they are unnerved and are willing to make some concessions to help GM cut costs.

“I don’t think anyone feels good right now,” said Barb Clay, who has worked at GM for 29 years and has seen her wages and benefits shrink over the years. “It’s terrible. And miserable. But they had to draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough.”

Members of the UAW, which represents 73,000 workers at 82 U.S. GM assembly plants, component plants and parts warehouses, walked out moments after the 11 a.m. ET strike deadline. The union set the deadline after it couldn’t come to an agreement with GM on a new contract because of differences on job security, benefits and other issues.

It is the first nationwide strike against GM since 1970 and the first against any Detroit automaker since a 1976 nationwide action against Ford Motor. The contract negotiations this year are considered a landmark because Detroit’s automakers, struggling under pressure from foreign competitors, made it clear they needed concessions from the UAW.

After negotiating nine days past the expiration of its last four-year contract with GM, the UAW set the strike deadline and told workers to wait to hear from their local leaders. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger began feeling a strike was looming as early as last Thursday, he said in a press conference, when GM stopped bargaining on most issues. Both sides worked through the night Sunday into Monday, but Gettelfinger said GM refused to move its position on all but one issue.

“The company walked right up to the deadline like they really didn’t care,” he said.

He said job security is his priority, and he stressed that the talks did not break down over a proposed trust to deal with retiree health care, which GM wants to create so it can move about $5.1 billion in costs off its books.

“This is very serious, but there’s not a single person here who wanted this to result in a strike,” he said. “There comes a time when you have to draw the line. We were pushed into a strike.”

In a statement, GM said it is “disappointed in the UAW’s decision to call a national strike.”

“The bargaining involves complex, difficult issues that affect the job security of our U.S. workforce and the long-term viability of the company,” the statement read. “We are fully committed to working with the UAW to develop solutions together to address the competitive challenges facing General Motors.”

After a break during the morning, GM and the UAW started talking again. They recessed about 8 p.m. ET and will start again today. Investors did not seem perturbed by the strike. GM shares closed down 20 cents, less than 1%, to $34.74. The price is up 14.8% since the day before the UAW named GM its strike target.

Many believed the strike deadline was just a bluff. Or a sign that the UAW was on the verge of signing an agreement with GM.

But just after 11 a.m., Don Syring, a worker at the Flint Metal Fabrication plant, saw the tops of an American flag and UAW flag heading down the line, followed by a crowd of people. “I went over to my plant manager and shook his hand and said, ‘I hope I see you soon,’ ” Syring said. “And I got my stuff and walked out.”

Syring is living paycheck to paycheck supporting his family and is nervous about how long the strike will last. Just minutes into the strike, he said the union needs to work with the automaker. “It feels good they are fighting for us, but on the same turn, there has to be some give and take.”

The strike’s impact could range anywhere from a minor blip on GM’s earnings to the catalyst throwing the whole nation into a recession, industry watchers say. It all depends on how long workers are on strike.

GM had a little more than 952,000 vehicles in inventory on dealers’ lots at the beginning of September. That’s about 67 days’ worth of cars and trucks, which is near the industry average and is enough to keep dealers satisfied on many models for at least a month.

Overall, buyers and GM dealers probably will go about business as usual. The strike “doesn’t have much affect on what’s happening at this moment,” said Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. The only immediate impact could be on the rare buyer who is dead-set on a particular model and orders it from the factory rather than buying off the lot, Nerad said.

Customers coming off a lease may be forced to make another choice if their primary option isn’t available, said Mark McCready of online buying service Carsdirect.com. Otherwise, the strike “is not going to be an issue, unless you are trying to get one of their hot products,” McCready said. “If you were waiting in line for one, you may have to wait longer.”

GM will be able to keep some production flowing from plants in Mexico, where workers aren’t represented by the UAW. The automaker, for instance, imports Chevy Suburban SUVs from its plant in Silao, Mexico. But those plants rely on parts made by GM in the USA, so they can’t operate indefinitely.

American and Canadian plants are so intertwined, one Canadian transmission plant shut down shortly after the U.S. strike began.

Peter Kennedy, a spokesman for the Canadian Auto Workers union, said CAW members won’t join in on the UAW strike.

Still, the Oshawa, Ontario, car plant that produces the Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo was to close at 3 a.m. today. Oshawa Plant No. 2, which builds the Pontiac Grand Prix, will close at the end of the day shift today, according to the CAW.

A factory at Oshawa that makes the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra can last three more days.

The last nationwide action against GM was a 67-day strike in 1970. But smaller walkouts since then have turned into major shutdowns.

That’s because automakers have quit the expensive, but previously common, practice of keeping significant inventories of parts. Shifting from large inventories to what’s called just-in-time parts delivery has cut costs, but has made car companies vulnerable to walkouts.

After spinning me heavily a few weeks ago about how Hispanic-targeted ads by the New Democrat Network had moved the needle in favor of Sen. John F. Kerry’s presidential bid in key battleground states, NDN president and founder Simon Rosenberg pointed out that NDN’s goal is to inform, not influence the presidential election.

You see, despite whatever impact they may have had, the NDN ads that have run in heavy rotation on Spanish-language television and radio in Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona do not explicitly encourage people to vote for Kerry.

(In the War for the Hispanic Vote, Education Is the First Battle, May 28, 2004)

This is what is known outside the Beltway as Washington Talk — and it is now being replicated by groups on the other side of the spectrum who are running ads both accusing Kerry of lying about his war record and mocking his commitment to African Americans.

(Group Runs Anti-Kerry Ads on Black Radio Stations, August 12, 2004).

A proliferation of outside, “independent” groups known as “527’s” (named for the section of the tax code that governs their activities), have been pouring millions of dollars into advertising campaigns designed with the obvious purpose of influencing the November elections. Talking Points has written about how NDN and other groups, such as the George Soros-backed Media Fund, have dominated this game made possible by a semantic loophole in the new campaign finance law and the Federal Election Commission’s reluctance to do anything about it.

Republicans, after initially expressing outrage over what it saw as a hypocritical shell game being played by the left (remember, Democrats were the primary backers of the effort to reform campaign finance laws), jumped in wholeheartedly after the FEC refused to put the kibosh on such activity at a meeting in May.

Before I go any further, let’s discuss, in layman’s terms, why the average voter should care. The argument to reform the nation’s antiquated campaign finance laws, as presented by people such as Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), was that both parties had become beholden to a relatively small group of people who could donate so-called “soft money” in unlimited amounts.

Despite the protests of politicians and party officials that this money did not and could not purchase influence, McCain, Feingold and others argued that it did just that on issues ranging from health care to energy regulation to banking and commerce and military contracting. And the influence that money bought was rarely used to the benefit of Joe Sixpack, who didn’t have an army of lobbyists and influence peddlers in Washington working on his behalf.

McCain bucked the majority in his party with his crusade to reform the system. When the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 passed, it did so only because political pressure had forced reluctant GOP leaders to play ball. The reform act eliminated the ability of rich people and corporations to pour unlimited, unrestricted money into the parties.

This year, left-leaning groups, led by Democrats who were McCain-Feingold’s backers, decided that the reform bill actually worked to their disadvantage since Republicans were always going to have a deeper pool of people who could offer up the max $2,000 donations for a general election. Jim Jordan, a former top official at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, who later served as Kerry’s campaign manager until he was fired in December, now is at the nexus of the left’s effort to exploit the reform loophole. His consulting firm, Thunder Road Group, is serving as the message manager for the Media Fund, America Coming Together and other well-funded groups seeking to influence the November election.

But this week it’s another group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that’s getting all of the ink with ads accusing Kerry of being a liar and war coward. The ads come as two of the group’s leaders, John O’Neill and Jerome Corsi, release their anti-Kerry book, “Unfit for Command,” which hits bookstores this month.

Mike Russell, a spokesman for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said the ad is legal because it does not tell viewers which candidate they should vote for in the presidential race.

“The ads are not meant to influence the presidential election,” Russell said. “The ads are meant to tell the truth about John Kerry’s service record so people can make their own decisions.”

The veterans group said it has at least 5,000 new contributors and has raised more than $230,000 since the ad started running last week.

Partisan? Who, Me?

In an interview with Talking Points on Wednesday, O’Neill took it a step further. He insisted Swift Boats Veterans for Truth was not partisan at all, but was merely an educational group put together to let people know the full truth about Kerry’s record in Vietnam. As proof, he said he himself had planned on voting for John Edwards if the North Carolina Democrat had been his party’s presidential nominee.

So if Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was completely nonpartisan and its sole purpose is to educate the public about what politicians did during Vietnam, why not raise the issue of how a Bush-family friend helped a young George W. Bush jump to the front of the waiting list for the National Guard and how Bush may not have shown up for all of his duty in his final year of service?

“We have urged the president to release all documents that would shed light on this,” O’Neill said. “But the bottom line is, we didn’t serve with Bush. We served with Kerry.”

O’Neill and the group make the argument that Kerry lied or exaggerated facts to receive his three purple hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star. O’Neill said he talked to more than 60 eyewitnesses, including former Swift boat crewmen who served in the same division with Kerry during Vietnam and who take issue with his interpretation of events.

Ultra-strict Singapore has passed some of the world’s toughest laws against computer hackers and virus writers, allowing police to arrest suspects before they strike, official documents show.

Drawing comparisons with the island’s harsh Internal Security Act that allows detention without trial, the revised Computer Misuse Act gives authorities wide-ranging powers to police the Internet.

Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, said the law aimed to fight “cyberterrorism,” but would be used sparingly — chiefly against threats to national security, essential services such as banking and finance, and foreign relations.

Passed on Monday, the bill allows police to take “pre-emptive action” based on credible information before hackers strike to protect computer networks from unauthorised entry.

People who hack or deface a Web site may be jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$10,000 ($5,800).

Singapore, a wealthy, predominantly ethnic Chinese state, hardened security in the aftermath of last year’s Bali bomb attacks in neighbouring Indonesia and again this year after a car bomb exploded in Jakarta killing 12.

“Instead of a backpack of explosives, a terrorist can create just as much devastation by sending a carefully engineered packet of data into the computer systems which control the network for essential services, for example the power stations,” Ho said.

Critics said the legislation echoed Singapore’s Internal Security Act, a Draconian law written by the island’s former British colonial rules that allows for detention without trial and was used to halt communism in Singapore in the 1950s.

“Indeed it sounds very much like the cyber-space equivalent of the Internal Security Act,” said Ho Geok Choo, a member of parliament.

“How does the police cybercrime unit intend to differentiate between a real intent to compromise our national computer networks from those that are merely ‘wild’ talk?,” she said.

Singapore authorities have detained 33 suspected Muslim militants associated with the Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian network of Islamic radicals accused of planning to blow up the U.S. embassy and bomb other Western targets in Singapore.

In the latest security move, police banned street parking along the popular Mohamed Sultan Road bar district this week.

Ho Peng Kee told parliament on Monday that security services had seen a big increase in the number and sophistication of hacking attempts and “cyberattacks.”

Instances of successful hacking in Singapore, known for its high broadband Internet penetration rates, climbed from 10 in 2000 to 19 in 2001 and 41 last year, he said. There were 24 cases in just the first half of this year.

“The number of unsuccessful attempts is probably many times more,” he said. One network saw 6,000 hacking attempts in a three-month period, he added.

Féde Lourdes Morales Marks, 51, a former Fannie Mae executive and D.C. banking official who in 2001 was recognized by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the top 50 women in business, died Feb. 23 at Reston Hospital Center.

The cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, said her husband, Kenneth Hicks Marks Jr. He said she had recently returned from California and had complained of dizziness. She was hospitalized a day before her death.

Mrs. Marks, who lived in Reston, had been with Fannie Mae for about 10 years until she retired in December. Kenneth Marks said his wife planned to take time off before deciding her next career move.

At Fannie Mae, Mrs. Marks was vice president of public policy for housing and community development. She led the company’s anti-predatory lending efforts, managed several information service groups and ran the homebuyer education initiative.

She also was an active member of Fannie Mae’s Hispanic Employee Networking Group, past president of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia and a member of the board of directors of Ayuda Inc., a nonprofit legal clinic for low-income Latinos and immigrants.

“She was all about mentoring and helping, especially other young Hispanic lawyers,” Kenneth Marks said. “Coming from humble beginnings, she was always looking for ways to give back to the community.”

Mrs. Marks, who had lived in the Washington area since 1981, was a native of the South Bronx in New York. She was one of five children in a family raised by her mother, a costume jewelry designer from the Dominican Republic.

An ambitious student, Mrs. Marks received a scholarship to attend Barnard College, where she excelled academically and in three years graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in political science. In 1979, she received a law degree from Columbia University.

From 1982 to 1991, she was a lawyer with the D.C. firm of Krooth & Altman, specializing in corporate, finance and securities law, initially as an associate and later as a partner.

In 1991, then-D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt appointed Mrs. Marks to the post of superintendent of the D.C. Office of Banking and Financial Institutions.

About two years later, Mrs. Marks left the D.C. government to join the Treasury Department as deputy assistant secretary for financial institutions policy, a post she held until 1996.

This morning, I had the pleasure of attending the swearing-in ceremony for Governor Tom Ridge as the head of the Office of Homeland Security.

The tragic events of September 11 show how critical it is to have a coordinated and a comprehensive national strategy to protect the United States against terrorist attacks.

I welcome Governor Ridge wholeheartedly and I look forward to working with him on the difficult tasks that together we face and of course in the challenges that he faces.

Yesterday, the president ordered the United States military to begin strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Consistent with this development, I have instructed federal law enforcement to be at the and on the highest level of alert to strengthen America’s protections.

We are taking strong precautions and other appropriate steps to protect American people while we win this war.

The FBI, through the National Threat Warning System, has contacted 18,000 law enforcement organizations and 27,000 corporate security managers, advising them of this highest state of alert.

We get some multiplier affect out of those notifications, particularly in the corporate system, because many of the corporate individuals and institutions on the alert sheet have call lists which they undertake and share information with others.

Similar warnings have been sent to information sharing and analysis centers. All law enforcement agencies have been asked to evaluate whether additional local security measures are warranted in the light of the current threat level.

In addition, authorities in telecommunications, electrical power generation and distribution, banking and finance, oil and gas, information technology, water service providers and railroads have been similarly advised and are the subject of regular communication.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has implemented a heightened border security plan, and all United States Attorneys’ Offices continue to be on heightened alert.

To safeguard our nuclear facilities, all have been placed at the highest state of alert and have increased the physical security in and around the facilities. Thorough screening of all employees and of individuals with access to those facilities is also being undertaken.

Similar steps are being taken in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency with regard to industrial, chemical and petrochemical facilities.

The FAA will continue restrictions implemented to protect populated areas and sporting events and certain critical infrastructure components of our industrial base.

I believe, as the president does, that the best defense against terrorism is a multi-front offensive. And since September 11, we have arrested or detained 614 persons. We continue to look for 229 additional individuals.

Our national law enforcement network, involving millions of Americans, will continue working around the clock to find the people who were involved in the September 11 attacks and to disrupt any future plans for terrorism in America.

I encourage all Americans to continue to have a heightened sense of awareness of their surroundings. I ask for them to report suspicious activity to our partners in law enforcement at every level of law enforcement, from local law enforcement to state authorities to federal authorities.

Every American should be vigilant, and we’re counting on each American to help us defend our nation in this war.

I also encourage the Congress to pass quickly the anti-terrorism legislation proposed by the administration so that law enforcement may have at its immediate disposal all appropriate anti-terrorism tools to fight this war.

Osama bin Laden broadcast a message yesterday celebrating the attacks of September 11. He glorifies the terrorists who kill thousands of innocent men, women and children with no warning and no mercy. He distorts religion to promote death and to destroy life. He seeks fear, chaos and terror for the American people, and he swears to steal our sense of security in America. This is the face of evil.

A media bill to go before the Turkish parliament Tuesday could cripple the Internet industry, harm the nation’s struggling economy and hobble free speech on the Web, observers say.

The bill would expand already stringent regulations on all forms of media and would require websites to submit two hard copies of pages to be posted on the Internet to a government agency for prior approval.

It also would require those who wish to open a website to obtain permission from local authorities, and to inform them every time the site is changed.

Those who don’t comply or are found in violation could face fines ranging from about $95,000 to $195,000, enough to financially devastate most Web content and service providers in a country where per capita income is less than $2,200.

The legislation comes at a time when European Union-hopeful Turkey is struggling to meet Brussels’ political criteria for membership, including overhauling its often dismal human rights record and expanding civil liberties.

Dozens of journalists, politicians and intellectuals have been jailed under already draconian laws curbing free speech, and some fear vagaries in the proposed legislation could be used as tools for political prosecution.

The burdens proposed in the bill would cause an exodus of Turkish websites abroad and deal a major blow to content provision and Internet expansion, said Savas Unsal, CEO of Superonline, Turkey’s biggest ISP with 950,000 dial-up and 2,500 corporate subscribers.

Unsal said a lack of Turkish language content would further widen the nation’s digital divide in favor of the rich, who are educated enough to take advantage of the Internet in English.

“We don’t want to provide access to just the elite,” Unsal said. “We want the government to let us do our jobs and open the gates to technology and the future.”

The bill focuses mostly on print and broadcast media, Unsal said, and the Internet provision was tacked on as a result of e-mails and Internet news critical of the leaders of the nation’s three-party coalition government.

“It was a quick and dirty job done by people who don’t understand the Internet or what they’re asking,” he said.

Unsal also said the bill is incompatible with Turkey’s European Union membership bid, which requires more press freedom than exists under current law.

European Union representatives have said the bill would harm democracy, and that it runs counter to the government’s publicly stated goal of loosening the country’s constitutional restrictions on speech and expression.

The bill was killed last year by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who blasted it in his veto statement, saying parts of the proposed law were not “compatible with democratic traditions, basic rights and freedoms or constitutional principles.”

If parliament members pass the bill again without change, though, Sezer’s hands will be tied. He’ll have to accept the law, and his only recourse will be to refer it to Turkey’s constitutional court.

The court’s decision could take from a few months to a few years, hampering Internet growth in a country where Unsal says it already has been slowed by economic crisis.

A LEEDS law firm which has been connected with dozens of major corporate deals has changed its name after undergoing a management buyout.
Greg Wright
The buyout of LCL Law has been led by lawyer Jeremy Bennett, who secured £150,000 funding from Bank of Scotland Corporate.
Mr Bennett has bought out existing shareholders Tim Pope, Duncan Haymes and Philip Holden to become the sole owner of the firm, based in Park Cross Street, which is to be renamed JB Law Solicitors.
Mr Bennett, a former head of finance law at Hammonds in Leeds, founded LCL Law with Mr Pope, Mr Haymes, and Mr Holden in 2002.
The firm regularly works alongside the big four

accountants and a number of national banks and asset based lenders.
It focuses on banking, corporate finance, property, insolvency and corporate recovery. It has advised on more than a dozen management buy-outs and management buy-ins in the past year.
Mr Bennett said: “I hope to achieve continued success with JB Law Solicitors, which I see as a partner-led practice that offers the experience and expertise you’d expect from a top 10 law firm, without the associated cost implications for clients.”
JB Law employs eight people. There will be no internal restructuring following the MBO. It expects to achieve a fee income of £1m in the first year.
Mr Bennett will use funding from Bank of Scotland Corporate to establish new clients and grow the business in Leeds.
He plans to turn it into a multi-million pound practice within the next three years, and open a Manchester office by mid-2006.

Division of Financial Regulation has ordered Frederick C. Lee Jr. and his Georgia company, Financial Independence Group, to stop all mortgage-related business after discovering that Lee and his company were originating loans in Maryland without a license.

The state issued an cease-and-desist order on Thursday, saying it wanted to “protect the public interest.”

No one associated with Financial Independence Group “is allowed to do business by assisting a borrower with a loan application,” said Joseph E. Rooney, Maryland’s deputy commissioner of financial regulation. “If we find evidence that anyone is doing loans, we will prosecute to the full extent of the law.”

Originating loans without a license is a felony and can result in a fine of up to $25,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.

The state alleges that Lee, a Georgia resident, has originated 42 loans since January. Rooney said his office is continuing its investigation to determine whether others working for Financial Independence have acted as loan officers in violation of the law.

“We will go after each and every person operating without a license,” he said.

Lee has 15 days to request a hearing to dispute the allegations.

Neither Lee nor his attorney responded to phone calls and e-mails seeking a response to questions about the cease-and-desist order. Contacted on his cellphone, Lee said he wanted to meet to discuss the questions but as soon as he was asked about the order, the line went dead. Subsequent efforts to reach him failed.

If the state issues a final order against Lee, he and others working on behalf of his company could face civil penalties of up to $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each subsequent violation. The case also may be referred to the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office for criminal prosecution, Rooney said.

Maryland is the second state to issue a cease-and-desist order for Lee and his mortgage operation, whose activities were described in the Color of Money column. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance issued final cease-and-desist orders within the last year for Lee and several of his companies for running a mortgage business without a license.

Rooney said borrowers who have closed loans since January that were arranged by Lee or someone working on behalf of Financial Independence Group should call the Maryland’s Financial Regulation division at 888-784-0136 and ask for Stephen Prozeralik, director of enforcement.

Watching my grandmother, Big Mama, struggle to make ends meet, I’ve come to understand the desire that many people have in finding a way to build wealth.

Unfortunately, people sometimes become mesmerized by smooth operators who promise to help them reach their financial dreams. In some cases, these operators use religion to entice people into their schemes. In others, they use a community or professional connection. And then sometimes, they use race.

Frederick C. Lee Jr., founder of Financial Independence Group, markets himself as a self-made black man trying to help other blacks make it rich. However, he has only enriched some top lieutenants while using a network of associates to feed a mortgage-loan scheme that has recently run afoul of regulators in two states, according to former salespeople.

Since I began investigating and writing columns on his operations two months ago, Lee and Financial Independence Group have been ordered to stop all mortgage-related activity in Maryland. He had already been ordered to stop originating loans in Georgia.

My reports have prompted a dozen former associates to come forward with their stories. They provide an inside look into how Lee has fashioned his mortgage brokering scheme. It’s a tale of suspect business activities, multiple company names and false relationships with other financial institutions. Former associates say Lee promised them vast wealth. To reach their goals, they mainly focus on getting fellow blacks to refinance into a specific type of mortgage laden with exorbitant fees.

These former salespeople, who paid $100 to join the company, said they wound up disillusioned by Lee and disappointed at their own blindness — and in some cases at their own greed.

Neither Lee nor his attorney would respond to telephone calls or e-mails requesting comment for this column.

The men and women I interviewed said they didn’t at first question Lee and his behavior because they were transfixed by the potential prosperity he offered them. They said they believed that Lee wanted to help blacks achieve financial security.

Now they feel deceived.

During recruitment presentations, prospects are pumped up with stories of how others have made lots of money. Top performers are rewarded in front of the audience. Financial Independence Group’s Web site, which has been taken down since my columns began appearing, boasted that top salespeople received luxury cars — Range Rovers and Jaguars — and expensive Breitling and Tag Heuer watches.

Former associates said they realized soon that the road to riches meant getting as many borrowers as possible to agree to refinance into high-fee mortgages. During a Financial Independence Group presentation, I was told I could earn $500 if two homeowners I referred closed on loans through the company. All I needed to do was provide the referrals.

Although not commenting specifically about what I heard at the presentation or on Financial Independence Group, Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that the payment of referral fees for mortgages is prohibited under the federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

“RESPA is clear that giving or receiving anything of value in exchange for the referral of business is against the law,” Sullivan said.

In their quest for borrowers, Lee’s troops are deployed into black communities to sell a particular type of mortgage that some real estate experts say is inappropriate for most people. These salespeople — many of whom have little if any experience as loan originators — are sent out to meet borrowers in their homes to conduct what they call kitchen table presentations.

The product they tout is a payment option, adjustable-rate mortgage. It allows homeowners to choose the kind of payment to make each month — either a minimum payment, principal and interest, or interest-only. With a minimum payment, a borrower could face “negative amortization,” which means that the unpaid interest is added to the mortgage balance. With negative amortization you end up owing more on your mortgage than you originally borrowed. That’s a bad position to be in if you need to sell or refinance because you could end up owing more than the home is worth.

Do you think that the long hours and stress that City workers often endure are outrageous, or are they more than compensated for by the large salaries and bonuses on offer? Whether you are already working in the City or you are a graduate looking for career advice, we want to hear from you. To submit your questions to our panel, e-mail career@thetimes.co.uk. Questions and answers below.

Debbie Harrison author of our Working in the City series, is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Pensions Institute, Cass Business School, and the author of a wide range of financial books and reports. She is a consultant to major financial institutions and the Department for Works & Pensions.

Polly Courtney is the author of Golden Handcuffs, the City-based novel that exposes the truth about life as a “high flyer” in London’s Square Mile. She joined the graduate scheme of a large US investment bank in 2002, having graduated from Cambridge with a first class degree in mechanical engineering. Much of her writing is based on her own experience

Clare Harris has been with Lovells, a law firm, for nine years. She is responsible for attracting and selecting candidates to join the firm’s two-year training programme. Clare and her team also have HR responsibility for the firm’s 140 trainee solicitors as they go through the training programme.

Hugh Karseras is the author of From New Recruit to High Flyer. He began his career in Deutche Bank, where he rose from analyst to associate in two years. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has worked for McKinsey and Company in London and is now director in a leading investment bank.

Q&As:

I am currently studying for my A levels and in October I will be starting at either Durham or Bath to study combined social sciences. I have decided on social sciences as it allows me to spend three years studying the subjects that really interest me. After completing my degree I plan to study for the law conversion course and them try and get on a graduate recruitment scheme. I have consistently achieved highly throughout my academic history (ie, AAAA at AS) and believe i possess many of the skills required for a career in a competitive industry such as law. I would like to know what are my chances of being selected by a “magic circle” law firm or a reputable London law firm and which university do you think would give me the best chance of getting on a conversion course and future employment? Catherine McNally

Clare Harris replies: The best advice I can give is to continue to achieve the good grades you are already achieving. Most City firms will be looking for people who consistently do well academically so A grades and a minimum of a 2.1 degree (or to be on target for this). Recruiters will also want to ensure that you are well-rounded in terms of extra-curricular activities and interests, so hobbies and activities where you really get involved and make a difference will useful. These will be personal to each individual but could include sports, drama, charity work, music, social services or community work or interesting work experience generally. The key is the level of involvement you can demonstrate and the contribution you make.

Both universities mentioned rank well in the university league table and are certainly universities where City firms would recruit from. Durham does have a law faculty so it may be a little easier to access information from fellow law students or through their student law society. However, at the end of the day it’s important that you visit both universities, carefully assess the courses they offer and that you want to pursue and make your own decision about which you feel is the right place for you. If you continue to achieve the standards you are already meeting, both universities have a good reputation and will give you a sound basis to move on to your chosen career.

The five-strong legal function of Citigroup corporate finance - headed by co-directors James Gledhill and Claire Jones - has had to act on a string of massive jobs in the past year and a half: MyTravel, Yukos and Parmalat are just three of the vastly complex restructurings that the bank’s in-house counsel have handled with aplomb. The demands are vast; the legal function spans three major businesses - loans, global capital restructuring and institutional recovery management. Given Citigroup’s own business in lending to top-tier corporates, the downturn meant a series not just of technical legal problems, but also franchise issues for the bank. Its in-house lawyers have garnered accolades both internally and externally for their commercial approach.

Second: Standard Chartered

In 2003, Standard Chartered achieved record results and the bank’s relatively small legal team played an intrinsic part of this success. The eight-strong team, led by group head of legal David Brimacombe, was involved in a large volume of work, including the disposal of the group’s operation in Greece to Aspis Bank, the sale of Standard Chartered Trust Corporation in Jersey, and the purchase of a 9.8 per cent stake in KorAm Bank in Korea. Additionally, the team reviewed its international panel and its five separate country panels, which resulted in significant savings for the bank and improved relationship management.

Third: Amex

Led by Mark Chambers, the American Express legal team is small but hard working. The 13 lawyers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa do the majority of the work, using few external advisers. They are also experienced, with lawyers last year winning 15 and 25-year service awards. Highlights from the past 12 months include launching co-branded cards for KLM in the Netherlands; negotiating card distribution agreements with HSBC and Germany’s E-Plus; and successfully intervening in the test case brought against Lloyds TSB and Tesco Personal Finance by the Office of Fair Trading.

Banks object to a mere province telling them what to do when they sell insurance.

So, they have asked the highest court in the land to rule they are immune from provincial consumer protection laws, at least for insurance products that federal law permits the banks to sell through their many branches. The Supreme Court of Canada is to rule on the major constitutional issue today.

A loss for the banks would mean they will continue to need a certificate of authority to sell Alberta consumers insurance to repay their loans or to cover them for medical emergencies while travelling outside Canada.

The province brought in legislation in 2001 that applied also to automobile dealers, sales finance companies, credit unions, trust companies and travel agents who sell customers certificates for group insurance.

Banks have since abided by the law, which requires them to ensure sales staff are knowledgeable; to turn over information and documents to authorities upon request; and to provide consumers with specified information about product features, compensation and full or partial refunds. No institution’s certificate of authority has been revoked since the law came into force, said Joanne Abram, chief executive of the Alberta Insurance Council.

Alberta amended its insurance act to address concerns expressed over three decades about sales practices such as tied selling, over-charging and the sale of second policies when a client refinanced a loan part way through the initial term. British Columbia’s court of appeal has ruled the province’s insurance regulator could not require a bank to get a licence to employ a telemarketer to sell creditor insurance for the bank’s credit cards. But Alberta’s court of appeal backed the government’s right to license banks.

To resolve the issue, the banks appealed to the Supreme Court. It has taken about 14 months for the court to issue its decision.

Ontario and other provinces have stood with Alberta, while Ottawa has backed the position of eight banks that brought the appeal. But it would seem Ontario stepped in only to make a point, not to follow the lead of the western province.

Scott Blodgett, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Finance, said it would be premature to comment before the court issues its ruling. But, speaking broadly, he said “at this time the government thinks the regulations are sufficient.”

The province licenses insurance companies, but not the sellers of certificates of group insurance.

Under federal law, banks may require a borrower to have insurance but may not coerce or pressure the client to buy from the bank or an affiliated company. They face restrictions on use of private information. Banks also have an industry code of ethics that covers that sale of creditor insurance. The voluntary code is monitored by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, which can report non-compliance.

Steve Howard, who represents insurance sales advisers as president of Advocis, said yesterday advisers and consumers would both be disappointed if the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the banks.

“It’s only fair that all who sell insurance products abide by the same rules. In Alberta, a two-tier insurance regulatory regime would … leave the consumer with a different level of protection depending on who is serving them.”

Howard speculated that a ruling in favour of the banks could throw into disarray the regulations governing the sale of other financial products banks may sell, such as securities and trusts.

“Would these areas then come under federal jurisdiction, too?”

Hunton & Williams LLP is proud to announce it was recognized in Chambers USA 2007: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, a client-identified guidebook to the well-regarded legal practitioners. Eighty-one lawyers were named among the nation’s leading practitioners across a variety of legal disciplines. This includes number one rankings nationally in transportation and Real Estate Investment Trusts plus national rankings in five other practice areas.

In Atlanta, Robert E. Hogfoss, partner in the resources, regulatory & environmental law practice, was ranked as the No. 1 attorney in the state on environmental issues. The Atlanta office was also ranked No. 2 for environmental and labor & employment practices in Georgia. In addition, Hunton was ranked as one of the leading law firms for banking & finance, litigation and intellectual property practices in the state.

Regional Rankings: Georgia

Practice: Environment

No. 1 Environment Lawyer in Georgia: Robert Hogfoss’ practice focuses exclusively on energy, environmental and administrative law - with an emphasis on Pipeline Safety Act, Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, NEPA, RCRA, CERCLA and TSCA issues.

Regionally Ranked Environment Lawyers: Catherine D. Little, partner in the resources, regulatory & environmental law practice, specializes in energy-related, environmental and administrative law at the federal, state and local levels.

Practice: Intellectual Property

Regionally Ranked Intellectual Property Lawyer: William M. Ragland Jr., partner and senior member in the litigation & intellectual property practice, advises clients on complex business litigation, intellectual property litigation and licensing and technology issues. Ragland, a former president of the Atlanta Bar Association, has worked with clients in several industries, including computer/software, telecommunications, life sciences, manufacturing, financial institutions and more.

Practice: Litigation: General Commercial

Regionally Ranked Litigation: General Commercial Lawyer: Matthew J. Calvert, partner in the litigation and intellectual property practice, specializes in commercial disputes, consumer class actions and product liability, including medical device and pharmaceutical litigation and eminent domain issues.

Practice: Labor & Employment

Regionally Ranked Labor & Employment: General Commercial Lawyer: Kurt A. Powell, managing partner of the Atlanta office and member of the labor and employment practice, L. Traywick Duffie, partner and co-head of Atlanta labor and employment practice, and Chris W. Arbery, partner in the labor and employment practice.

Powell focuses on representing management in labor and employment issues and has extensive experience in representing financial services, life sciences, healthcare, chemical manufacturing, and technology clients.

Duffie, who has represented management in countering numerous union organization attempts in more than 40 states, advises and defends management and corporate clients on employment issues including affirmative action/OFCCP, union organizing, discrimination, OSHA, trade secrets, employment non-competition issues and more.

Arbery’s labor and employment practice covers a wide range of issues, including litigation and counseling on employment discrimination, workplace harassment, wage and hour compliance, trade secrets protection and employee benefits.

Bill Blair QC, the Prime Minister’s brother, will influence whether banks need to check that they transfer money into accounts bearing the right name.

Mr Blair, an expert in banking and finance law, has been asked for his legal opinion by APACS, the banks’ payments association.

The association’s current legal opinion, which dates back to 1993, is that the account name is the “primary identifier” of the intended beneficiary of a payment and that the receiving bank has a duty of care obligation to ensure all details are correct.
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But this opinion is ignored by many members, including its chairman Mark Fisher, who is also chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s manufacturing division.

The automatic transfer system that deals with payments like direct debits, credit cards and the autopay service used by many businesses is not, however, designed to check the account name.

It has led to claims that small businesses are wide open to employee fraud because their owners believe they need only ensure payments are being made to the correct names on the receipts they receive back from the autopay system when, in fact, they also need to check each account number.

Sandra Quinn, of APACs, said the association sought Mr Blair’s opinion because it “had been looking at what strategic position we need to take” in light of the huge growth in automated payments in the UK and moves in Europe to introduce legislation that would establish the primacy of account numbers over beneficiary names across member states.

Ms Quinn asked: “Do we prefer name to have primacy over number or number over name? At the moment we have an opinion that name has primacy over number, but it’s only an opinion.”

The current opinion came from Mr Blair’s chambers, 3 Verulam Buildings, in 1993.

Ms Quinn said: “The issues that we have raised are the same ones that were raised 12 years ago. If an instruction is given to a bank and that is not followed through where does fault lie? We think there will be a change from 12 years ago. A judge may well consider that allocating payments by number rather than name may well be a way forward. But we don’t know.”

In 1990 the number of daily automated payments including direct debits, credits, and standing orders stood at 6.4m, with plastic cards at 4.2m. In 2004, these had risen to 18.3m and 22.2m. “When you have millions of transactions every day you can’t do it by name,” said Ms Quinn.

Mark Radin, of Bank Charge Auditors, which specialises in recovering excess charges, said the banks give the impression that the beneficiary name is important and that they check to see that it is consistent with account and sort code numbers when payments are requested.