A Victory for Public Employees
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that public employee personal emails, sent from work email addresses, are generally not subject to disclosure under the Wisconsin Public Records Law. Attorneys Tamara Packard and Lester Pines filed an amicus brief on behalf of Madison Teachers, Inc. urging the Court to protect employee personal emails from public scrutiny. In the lead opinion, Chief Justice Abrahamson adopted the primary arguments advanced by Attorneys Packard and Pines (sections C and D of her opinion), noting that those considerations were important in reaching the conclusion that she did. July 2010.
Supreme Court Vacates $2 Million Judgment
Attorneys Lester Pines and Kira Loehr secured a significant victory in the Wisconsin Supreme Court today. In a 7-0 decision, the Court vacated a $2 million default judgment against CWPB's client, Zurich American Insurance Company. The Court agreed with Pines and Loehr that there were numerous mistakes, procedural and otherwise, made by opposing counsel and the circuit court personnel, and that the circuit court erred when it denied Zurich's motion for relief from the default judgment. July 2010.
Pines Receives Leadership Award
On June 2, 2010, Lester Pines received a Leadership Award from Fair Wisconsin, the state's most respected advocacy group for LGBT equality. Pines was recognized for his legal efforts to protect and advance the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in Wisconsin. In accepting the award, Pines said that his commitment to equality came from the civil rights and women's movements, which taught him "that just because things have always been done a certain way does not mean that they must forever remain that way" and that he believes, to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that "people should be judged on the content of their character, not their sexual orientation." June 2010.
State Agency Ordered to Pay Client's Fees
Dane County Circuit Court Judge John Markson has ordered the Medical Examining Board to pay the attorney's fees and costs incurred by a physician represented by Attorney Lester Pines. Judge Markson first found that the Board's legal position had not been substantially justified when it commenced and continued its case. He then found that Attorney Pines and Cullen Weston Pines & Bach were uniquely qualified to represent the physician. Assessment of fees against administrative agencies in judicial review proceeding is rare.
In making the award of over $173,000, Judge Markson noted that the charges involved "the intersection of criminal, civil, and administrative law . . ." and that the defense of those charges "called upon a special knowledge of various areas of law. . . . Attorney Pines and his firm provide expertise in all of these areas." The judge also said that this range of expertise "is unusual," and that "there are very few attorneys who bring the expertise that Attorney Pines and his firm bring to this type of case, given the layers of complexity and the layers of application of different substantive and procedural areas of the law. It probably wouldn't be entirely true to say that Mr. Pines was unique in this community in that respect, but it would be accurate to say that he is one of very few attorneys who could supply this expertise in this very important case." May 2010.
Guidance Provided to Cooperative Businesses
Attorney Jeff Vercauteren was a featured presenter at a cooperative business development training program in Madison this week. The program, hosted by Cooperation Works, educates business professionals and provides them with practical tools for starting new cooperative enterprises. Jeff gave a presentation titled Taking Charge of Our Energy Future, which provided a framework for developing community-owned renewable energy projects. Community wind energy development is a special focus of the Energy & Telecommunications practice group at CWPB. May 2010.
CWPB Coordinates Passage of Energy Efficiency Bill
The Wisconsin state legislature last week unanimously passed an energy efficiency bill that will reduce energy costs for businesses and provide economic development opportunities for municipalities. Attorneys Lee Cullen and Jeff Vercauteren represented the primary supporter of the bill and coordinated with other stakeholders to pass the bill. The bill, SB-624, authored by Senator Lehman and Representative Fields, enables Milwaukee, Madison, and Racine to fully utilize a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, plus an additional estimated $100 million in private sector financing. The bill was supported by Johnson Controls, the City of Milwaukee, the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, the Wisconsin Realtors Association, Wisconsin Laborers, and the Sierra Club. April 2010.
Sexual Conversation Not a Crime
Attorney Lester Pines obtained dismissal of felony charges brought against a teacher for having a sexual conversation with a student. On a motion to dismiss the criminal complaint, the trial court agreed that the discussion was not a crime because it did not involve the teacher communicating obscene content to the student. The teacher faced jail time and sex offender registration had the charges not been dismissed. April 2010.
Physician Cleared
Judge John Markson of the Dane County Circuit Court set aside and dismissed all factual findings, sanctions and license limitations that the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board had imposed on Dr. Frank Salvi. The court's ruling culminated three years of effort by Attorney Lester Pines on Dr. Salvi's behalf. Judge Markson found that the Board had made numerous serious legal errors and that the "facts" that it found were not supported by the evidence. March 2010.
Packard Recognized for Success
Attorney Tamara B. Packard has been selected by the Wisconsin Law Journal as one of the 2010 Women in the Law. This award is to "honor outstanding achievement by the top women in the practice of law." Those chosen, "by achieving success, have also paved the way for success for other women in the law." A luncheon honoring Wisconsin's Women in the Law will be held in Milwaukee on May 21. March 2010.
Bach Shares Knowledge
Attorney Steve Bach, widely recognized as one of the best family Law attorneys in Wisconsin, shared his knowledge and skills with other Wisconsin attorneys as one of the faculty for a State Bar-sponsored continuing legal education seminar. Titled Build your Practice: Handling a Basic Divorce, the day-long comprehensive program introduced attorneys to issues and resolutions unique to divorce proceedings and supplied valuable information to successfully manage divorce actions from beginning to end. March 2010.
Character Approved
For the third time in a year, Attorney Tamara Packard helped a client successfully pass the character and fitness evaluation by the Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners and gain admission to the Wisconsin Bar. January 2010.
CWPB Facilitates Acquisition of Wind Energy Facility
On behalf of Emerging Energies of Wisconsin, LLC, CWPB successfully completed the sale of a controlling interest in the Shirley Wind Project in the Town of Glenmore, near Green Bay. The project will feature eight state-of-the-art 2.5-megawatt Nordex N100 turbines and produce 64 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, supplying enough energy for approximately 8,000 homes.
Attorneys Lee Cullen, Carol Grob, Curt Pawlisch, and Jeff Vercauteren have represented Emerging Energies since 2006 in the development of the project. CWPB facilitated the acquisition and $50 million investment by a subsidiary of CH Energy Group, Inc. CWPB also negotiated a twenty-year power purchase agreement with Wisconsin Public Service Corporation. The project will use local contractors and provide the State of Wisconsin with approximately two-thirds of the required energy to meet its Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements for state-owned facilities. December 2009.
CWPB 2, Dirty Coal 0
Attorneys Kira Loehr and Lester Pines continue to rack up victories in environmental litigation. Earlier this month, Kentucky's Energy Secretary issued a Final Order prohibiting Kentucky Mountain Power from building a coal plant on its property in Knott County, Kentucky, without obtaining a new permit under current environmental laws. The Secretary found that a prior permit, issued when the environmental laws were less stringent, had expired. Attorney Loehr represented the Sierra Club in that case, which opposed the building of the plant.
In another case handled for the Sierra Club, Attorneys Loehr and Pines secured an award of $475,000 against EnviroPower and Khanjee Holding, after the United States Supreme Court declined an appeal of a lower court's finding that the two companies violated the Clean Air Act by proposing to construct a power plant in Benton, Illinois without the required permit. The award includes a $100,000 fine, to be paid to two Habitat for Humanity programs in the Benton area. The balance of the award is attorney's fees and costs associated with winning the case. December 2009.
