Lawyer of the Year Nominees – 2010

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The last year brought a devastating earthquake in Haiti, the biggest sports celebrity divorce ever, constitutional cases over gay rights, a new supreme court justice, a landmark election and more – whew! So, to start the new year, we’re recognizing lawyers and legal professionals who were part of the major news stories of the past year. It’s our first annual Lawyer of the Year award, and here are the nominees for 2010.  Read the whole article and then tell us who you think made the biggest news and deserves to be our Lawyer of the Year!

1. Andrew Richards and Ralph Delouis (McCarter & English)
These two New York-based lawyers were recruited by the International Senior Lawyers Project to go to help expand a non-profit micro-finance organisation providing crucial loans to Haitian farmers affected by the catastrophic January 12th earthquake. Small-scale farmers can’t get micro-loans (as little as $200) for equipment, seeds and fertilizer from commercial banks, which are concerned by the risks of investing in agriculture, but the farmers are no longer getting remittances from family in the (now destroyed) capital.

Working pro bono, the lawyers restructured the micro-finance organization to make it an official banking organization, so that it could be recognized and receive funding from international donors. During their June trip, Richards and Delouis put together a banking charter and an application to the central bank of Haiti.

2. Josefin Lonnborg (McGuireWoods)
Lonnborg is licensed to practice corporate and commercial law in England and Sweden, so how did she end up on this list? By being a rainmaker for her firm. Lonnborg’s identical twin sister Elin Nordegren needed legal representation in her high-profile divorce from golfer Tiger Woods, and decided to go with family ties, hiring McGuireWoods. Despite not being a divorce lawyer, Lonnberg also joined Nordegren’s legal team. You can find out more about the terms of the divorce here.

3. Kenneth Feinberg (Feinberg Rozen LLP)
The Master of Disaster, Feinberg is the go-to lawyer for mediation and claims programs in emergency and disaster situations. After running the 9-11 victims fund, Feinberg was brought on to set up and run the BP claims fund after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf. Here, he had the unpopular task of determining who gets compensated, and by how much. At the same time, he’s apparently the only man for the job, as the only lawyer in America specializing in mass-dispute resolution and national disasters (a limited field, to be sure).

While there’s now some controversy over Feinberg‘s potential bias in the Deepwater Horizon case (he’s currently paid by BP to help resolve disputes with residents affected by the spill), it can’t be denied that his big settlement funds are having a massive impact on tort law.

4. Theodore Olson (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) and David Boies (Boies Schiller)
While the issue of gay rights has hardly been resolved, 2010 saw several landmark strides towards equality: Congress voted to retire Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and Olson and Boies won Perry v. Schwarzenegger in the federal United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Their win struck down Prop 8, the controversial ballot proposition that passed in 2008, which restricted the legal definition of marriage to opposite sex couples. Many were surprised that the former Bush v. Gore opponents formed the team that took up the case for gay marriage.

“We do not put the Bill of Rights to a vote,” Olson (a conservative) said. “We ask judges to make sure that when we vote for something we’re not depriving minorities of their constitutional rights, and that’s what the judge did.” Their work isn’t done yet though, as the judge’s ruling has been put on hold by the 9th Circuit, and may soon be going to the California Supreme Court.

5. Gloria Allred (Allred, Maroko & Goldberg)
Gloria Allred is one of the few lawyers that has entered pop culture. Mostly concerned with feminist rights, this year she seemed to be involved (at least tangentially) in every major news story. She filed the first lawsuit challenging California’s denial of marriage licenses to to gay and lesbian couples, she represented a couple of Tiger Woods’ alleged mistresses, the housekeeper in the Meg Whitman scandal, and she represented Jodie Fisher in the case against former HP CEO Mark Hurd. She’s even been mentioned repeatedly on the popular TV show Glee.

6. Lisa Simpson (Orrick)
Speaking of pop culture… yes, Lisa Simpson is a nominee. This Orrick lawyer is representing Facebook in the suit from one Paul Ceglia, who claims a 2003 contract with Mark Zuckerberg gives him an 84% stake in the company. If you own a multi-billion dollar company, it’s only a matter of time before someone comes out of the woodwork with a claim, and you’d better hope you have a lawyer who can protect your business. Indeed, Facebook’s been famous for protecting its assets from claimants and other early partners— just rent The Social Network. It’s no easy task to be the lawyer when there’s so much at stake, but then again, Ceglia has made Simpson’s job simpler by not producing evidence. And considering that Zuckerberg, not Ceglia, was just named Time person of the year, it looks like Simpson did her job and made the case go away.

7. Elena Kagan (U.S. Supreme Court)
Former White House Counsel and policy advisor, first female Dean of Harvard Law School, first female Solicitor General, and as of August 7th, the fourth female Supreme Court Justice — all without any prior trial experience, let alone any experience on a bench as a judge. She must be doing something right.

Then again, trial experience may not be necessary if you’re going to be sitting on the Supreme Court: what really counts is interpretation of the Constitution. Kagan is widely known as one of the country’s top constitutional and administrative law scholars, having taught at both the University of Chicago and Harvard Law School. We’ll have to wait and see how her experiences will affect her rulings on upcoming issues.

8. Edgardo Reinoso Lundstedt (Derecho de Daños)
During the two months that the Chilean miners were stuck in the bottom of the mine, they had plenty of time to think about their media strategy for when they’d be freed. From the bottom of the mine, the miners requested a lawyer to draw up the contract, to ensure that they would all equally profit from the media deals they expect to secure for sharing their story. Reinoso Lundstedt came to the rescue (long before the drill did), and currently represents the miners, who hope that as a result of their contract, they’ll each make enough to never have to work— even above ground— again. Who knows, some of them may be cast in the rumored movie from Brad Pitt’s production company.

9. Elizabeth Warren (Harvard Law School)
Considering that the economy dominated most of the news this year, we figured there had to be a lawyer involved in investigating the causes and fixes. Lo and behold, we found Elizabeth Warren, the Leo Gottleib Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, who is now a Special Advisor for the newly-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created to safeguard middle class consumers in their dealings with banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions. Warren’s job is one that many Americans probably wish existed earlier: to regulate financial products and services, and investigate emerging market trends. She is also chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel.

10.  Henry E. Hudson (19th Judicial Circuit Court Judge)
The judge who convicted Michael Vick for dog fighting made news again when he ruled that a provision in the Obama health care bill was unconstitutional. Henry E. Hudson was the presiding judge for the lawsuit brought against the US Government by Virginia over a mandate requiring people to buy health insurance by 2014. Virginia governor Cuccinelli feels the mandate violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by obliging individuals to involuntarily enter the market. Meanwhile, the federal government argues that congress does have the right to regulate insurance because it involves interstate commerce. While the issue hasn’t been resolved yet, Hudson’s ruling has ensured that Obamacare becomes a legal issue in the coming year.

Visit our facebook page to vote on your top pick! Choose one of our nominees, or enter your own candidate.

Related articles

• Feinberg strikes deals to settle oil spill claims (reuters.com)
• Feinberg Says Half of $20 Billion BP Fund Should Cover Claims (businessweek.com)
• Medicare to Pay for Advance Health Care Planning (legallyeasy.com)
• Tiger Woods’ Celebrity Divorce Deal: How Does It Compare? (press.rocketlawyer.com)