At the request of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan Koschik, four lobbyists at the international law firm of Akin Gump submitted affidavits earlier this month outlining their activities related to the $60 million racketeering case brought by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four Ohio based political consultants in regards to Ohio H.B. 6, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.Householder and the Ohio political consultants used the money for personal and political benefits to pass a $1.2 billion state-funded bailout of the bankruptcy First Energy Solutions (FES), which owns two aging nuclear plants in the state, according to the federal lawsuit.
The Akin Gump lobbyists, based in Washington, D.C., are Sean D’Arcy, Henry A. Terhune, James R. Tucker and Geoffrey K. Verhoff, according to court documents.
According to Barge, the issue currently before the court is whether millions in lobbying fees and expenses submitted to the court by Akin Gump involving H.B. 6 were for legitimate activities that should be paid by the court, or whether those millions should be denied and disgorged by Akin Gump.
After reading the affidavits, Mr Barge made several recommendations to the Court based on what he believes Ohio citizens would want to see happen:
1. Because the activities undertaken by Akin Gump when they entered the state of Ohio caused such severe harm to the state, Akin Gump should be prevented or at least strongly discouraged from doing business in the state of Ohio for at least five years, Barge recommended. Another option would be to refer the firm for action to the Discipline Committee of the District of Columbia.
In his letters, Barge recommended that the Court should hire a legal ethics advisor to go over the affidavits and draw up conclusions and recommendations for action before Judge Koschik decides whether to disallow the legal fees.
In the letter, Barge recommends ethics law professors Stephen Gillers, Leslie Levin and Adam Winkler as potential candidates. Also, Lawrence Fox, who is active in the ABA, is very involved in ethics issues.
2. Barge recommends in the letter that the entire $67 million invoice of Akin Gump be audited by one of several firms specializing in legal bill audits, given that the fee examiner in this case failed to spot or to demand the repayment of the lobbying fees in question, which clearly shows that the bill was not adequately reviewed.
(Barge also pointed to the Affidavit of Vilis Inde that is part of the court record, which indicated that in the portion of the Akin bill examined by Mr. Inde, over 30 percent of the fees charged should not have been allowed. That situation was never decided based on the merits.)
Barge notes that overbilling by major law firms has become quite common in the Midwest. Lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis, Lewis Brisbois, Reed Smith and Vedder Price have recently been caught padding their bills in Illinois, according to the American Lawyer magazine.
Why Do Big Law Attorneys Keep Getting Caught Overbilling in Illinois? | The American Lawyer
3. Barge recommended that a code of ethics for the lobbying arm of Akin Gump be voluntarily drafted by the firm for submission and approval by Judge Koschik, and that a committee of attorneys at the firm be formed to supervise the activities of the lobbying arm in the future.
According to Barge, the Akin depositions made it clear that the firm devised the lobbying strategy for obtaining $1.2 billion in nuclear subsidies from the state of Ohio through H.B. 6. During those legislative hearings FES submitted not a single financial document to demonstrate that they needed the money, a totally bizarre decision admittedly made by Akin Gump, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. If you ask for money but refuse to provide financial documents proving that you need that money, that clearly shows that you have inside knowledge that a decision had already been behind the scenes, and perhaps through bribery, that the bill would be passed, wrote Barge.
