TPM Muckraker: Blackwater Sues Former Lawyers for Malpractice

[Coexist]

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/005153.php

For years, the families of the four Blackwater guards killed in the infamous Fallujah incident have carried on a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. A House oversight committee investigation faulted the company's cost-cutting for leaving the guards vulnerable to the ambush.

But Blackwater, always in need of very good lawyering, says that if it weren't for some lousy (though very expensive) lawyers, they would have easily disposed of the lawsuit already. From Legal Times:

Blackwater Security filed a $30 million malpractice suit against Wiley Rein on Wednesday, alleging that the firm made costly missteps in a wrongful death case brought on behalf of four former Blackwater employees who were killed in Iraq in 2004.

Somewhat awkwardly, one of the lawyers who was on that Wiley, Rein team being sued for incompetence is current White House counsel Fred Fielding. It's nothing personal, I guess.

Blackwater dropped Wiley, Rein back in 2005, opting for another heavy-hitting firm, Greenberg, Traurig. The suit is ongoing.

“Madness is badness of spirit, when one seeks profit from all sources” Aristotle

(for those of you who don't recall, Greenberg, Traurig has a bit of a history with political filth already.

1. Represented President Bush in the Bush-Gore 2000 Florida election vote recount.
2. Personally represents Florida Governor Jeb Bush
3. Hired son of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on election day 2000--after which Justice Scalia cast one of the 5 to 4 deciding votes which placed Bush in presidency.
4. Miami-headquartered firm partially funded/sponsored delegation to Israel by House-Senate Armed Services Committee members and government contractors to witnes and be briefed on interrogation resistance procedures and torture techniques ... One of lobbyists joining them to Israel included Jack London, CEO, CACI International, the American defense contractor implicated by Major General Antonio M. Taguba in outsourced Iraqi torture at Abu Ghraib prison.

lots more at link)

[Sanity Claws]

1. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

I think any attorney would be wary of representing them in the future.

[Coexist]

2. small victory, but an important one!