Bogus Report of So-called Bogus Study by Bogus Organization That Does Evidently Not Even Exist.

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This report is clearly a fabrication:

Contact: Bill Schulz
202-944-2806 (Direct Dial)
240-678-9398 (Cell)
202-631-0929 (Chris Fleming)

Bogus National Chamber “Study”: Propaganda Attack Against Civil Justice System
Continues Effort to Eliminate Corporate Accountability for Wrongdoing and Negligence
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 (Washington, DC)—A bogus study released today by the national Chamber of Commerce claiming to rank so-called “anti-business” state legal systems is yet another baseless attack on the nation’s civil justice system in its campaign to eliminate corporate accountability for wrongdoing and negligence.

“This latest propaganda is a made-up survey primarily of corporate lawyers earning millions of dollars defending their CEOs from being held accountable,” said Jon Haber, chief executive officer of the American Association for Justice. “The Chamber will stop at nothing to destroy the civil justice system in America, which protects the rights of consumers, employees, and shareholders against corporate wrongdoing and negligence.”

As the largest lobby in the country and a front group for corporations seeking to evade accountability for wrongdoing and negligence, the national Chamber of Commerce has led the effort to eliminate access to justice for Americans.

The American Association for Justice today released “The Ten Worst States to Get Sick or Injured In” providing sobering examples of how the national Chamber’s efforts and those of big corporations seeking to evade accountability for wrongdoing and negligence puts corporate greed over public good. . . .

What "national Chamber of Commerce?" In the US, there is no "national Chamber of Commerce." We have a U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but this is a different name. Even though they use the wrong name, they must mean the US Chamber, who owns a registered trademark on National Chamber of Commerce®. This because The USCOC spends more money on lobbying than anyone else.

Veracity Problems

1. "Bogus study released today" uttered on April 25th. But the Report, if this is it, was released on April 16th, over a week ago.

2. "Bogus study" he says, but the study was done by The Harris Poll, which is the most highly regarded polling organization known to modern man! Calling a Harris Poll report "bogus" is defamatory and totally liable to cause liability for libel, Counsellor Haber. Govern your actions accordingly. If Harris signed it, it can't be bogus.

3. "Claiming to rank so-called 'anti-business' state legal systems": Looking through all the materials found on this report, there is nowhere where its producers or sponsors so-call anything "anti-business." Apparently, fabricated quotations are part of the plaintiff bar's stock in trade. The study's aim is "to explore how reasonable and balanced the tort liability system is perceived to be..."

4. "Front organization" is a most distorted and false characterization for a voluntary, legal, self-supported community-based advocacy group and for the U.S. Chamber particularly. A "front organization" is a deceit, a cover, and a hidden motive enterprise, which by definition is dishonest and crooked. None of those attributes are present here.

5. Quite the contrary, cursury research reveals that the class of pettyfogger represented by Attorney Haber regularly sets itself up behind front organizations:

USA Today`s editorial board thinks that special interest groups, including those which operate out of the various headquarters of state bar and trial lawyers associations, which give themselves deceptive names to shield their TRUE affiliations and intentions stink. I couldn`t agree more.

I suppose the American Medical Association, the state and county medical societies, the American College of Surgeons, the Politically Active Physicians Association, the Pennsylvania Physicians for the Protection of Specialty Care, the Alliance for Specialty Medicine, the Doctors for Medical Liability Reform and ALL the other physician specialty and related groups which advocate for medical liability reform on behalf of physicians and patients could take a lesson from ATLA, the state bar associations and trial lawyers associations on how to hide their identity and their agenda.....oh, wait.....doctors` groups don`t feel the NEED to hide their identity or their agenda. One wonders why those who oppose liability reform DO.....

Here`s a pretty reliable tip - if the group opposing medical liability reform has the words "consumer," "justice," "fairness," "citizens" or other high-sounding word or phrase in it, look CLOSELY at who created and who funds it. You may just discover, as I did quite easily with the "Utah Citizens Alliance For Safety and Accountability," that the organization is affiliated with a local lawyers` group to put a sympathetic face on purely financial incentives to oppose medical liability reform....

The "American Association for Justice" really is an Astroturf front organization for the American Association of Trail Lawyers and the Democrat Party.

The Legal Times
ATLA Conjures a New Reality
Emma Schwartz

Jon Haber`s effort to transform the image of the nation`s leading group of plaintiffs lawyers began, perhaps incongruously, in one of California`s golf and glitz capitals, Palm Springs. ((What`s incongruous about that?))

Haber, the incoming chief executive officer of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, was there last week to meet members, who are aching to fight back against years of Republican-led attacks on them as greedy, irresponsible threats to the nation`s economy and justice system.

ATLA members are hoping Haber can use his years as a Democratic political strategist and corporate public relations executive at PR giant Fleishman-Hillard to derail the GOP`s legal reform agenda.

"We want to get the truth of the message out to the American people, and Jon has the kind of talent that will help us do that," says Todd Smith, a trial lawyer and president of ATLA.

But after years of playing defense against the Republicans, the question may be whether ATLA has brought Haber into the game too late. To be sure, the organization has been a political powerhouse inside the Beltway, doling out millions in campaign contributions -- almost all of it to Democrats. And tort reform backers acknowledge that Haber is a smart political operative.

Yet the war to influence public opinion has been waged more effectively by the GOP and its corporate allies. President George W. Bush has made tort reform a key plank of his political platform since his days as governor of Texas. And groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have spent tens of millions on public education campaigns aimed at convincing Joe Six-Pack that reforming the legal system matters.

Even as ATLA met, GOP senators -- joined by a few Democrats -- were back in Washington advancing a bill to limit class actions. That legislation is expected to be the first in a series of legal reform measures to hit Congress this session.

"Unfortunately, we`ve spent the last 10 years with our finger in the dike trying to hold back the tide," says Fred Baron, a former ATLA president and head of Dallas-based plaintiffs firm Baron & Budd. "We`ve been playing more of an insider game and not spending the time and energy and money on public opinion."

((Could it be, perhaps, the public`s opinion is based on facts and likely can`t be influenced by slick marketing?))

He added: "The bottom line to it is that we have to get more aggressive."

((Well, we`ve certainly been seeing evidence of that....fake studies, bogus "consumer" groups, etc....looks like SOMEONE has been working overtime....))

[Looks like the pot is calling the kettle "bogus!"]

For his part, Haber -- who was named to the post Jan. 31 and officially starts his duties Feb. 14 -- has yet to reveal how exactly he`ll fight ATLA`s battle. Grass-roots work is likely to be a key, as is outreach to members of Congress who may be wavering on lawsuit reform. But the war of words and the effort to reposition the debate has already started.

"People who use neutral-sounding words like tort reform, what they are really asking for is taking away people`s rights," Haber says.

((They`ve been using that term for years now - but 63% of the American public STILL favors a cap on pain and suffering. Those who oppose reform deliberately confuse economic, non-economic and punitive damages in the hope of convincing people that pain and suffering is the ONLY category of damages which can compensate them for legitimate injuries - when, in fact, everything that a patient could possibly need and which can be quantified can be covered by ECONOMIC damages. Mr. Haber can try - but I think the public has already made up its mind on this one....))

Yet he acknowledges that the Bush administration is coming to the battle with key advantages. "I think the president has enormous power to control debate. It`s hard for a minority party to stand up and make a point," Haber says. "The biggest challenge is telling the story."

CAMPAIGN VETERAN

This is the second time in the last 13 months that Haber has been brought in to help perform a political makeover. In January 2004, he was hired by Howard Dean`s sinking presidential campaign. His primary task was to shore up day-to-day management, and he helped Dean stay on message.

It was the kind of thing Haber had done before. He is a campaign veteran who has worked on presidential bids by Democrats Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Richard Gephardt, and Bill Clinton.

Says Steve McMann, a Democratic strategist from the Dean campaign who has known Haber for 20 years: "When he would prepare a candidate for `Meet The Press` or shows like that, the first thing he`d ask was `What are we trying to get out of this? What do we want our headline to be?` "

Haber, of course, was too late to save Dean, and whatever advice he may have given the candidate about message was undone after Dean`s infamous scream that followed the Iowa Caucus.

He had better luck with some of his corporate clients during his seven years at Fleishman-Hillard. Haber was head of the firm`s D.C. public relations division and handled a portfolio of clients that included Yahoo Inc., AOL Time Warner, SBC Communications Inc., and National Public Radio.

Haber won`t reveal details about his work, citing client confidentiality. But Bill Black, a colleague of Haber`s from Fleishman, says Haber is "good at defining the motives and agenda of various combatants in any situation and drawing from that the best message. I think he`s able to do it having worked in so many different situations, each one being very political."

Indeed, even with a law degree from the University of San Francisco and a few years of general litigation practice under his belt, Haber has spent most of his career in Democratic politics and has deep ties to Capitol Hill.

From 1989 to 1992, he served as counsel and communications director on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Leahy is now ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- ground zero for tort reform legislation. He also served briefly as chief of staff to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), another Judiciary Committee member.

((Hopefully, Sen. Feinstein will reflect more on the positive impact medical liability reform has had on California than on party ties....))

Though he has liberal Democratic bona fides, Haber has corporate ties stemming from both his work at Fleishman and his two-year stint as special counsel to the Overseas Private Investment Corp. during the Clinton administration. That agency helps U.S. businesses invest abroad.

6. If this is the "bogus study" why not provide a ready link, a proper citation, a reference to the true title and the true creator and publisher? That's what you have to do for everything quoted or referenced in a submission to a COURT! Praps, Jon Haber is no longer practicing law precisely because he had a creative difference with that well-settled standard of advocacy. We know why. because the target of the deception might consult the true document and draw his own conclusions.

7. State rankings. Mr. Haber lists the 10 Worst states for plaintiffs, and the Harris Poll lists the ten worst states for defendants. [Summary]

Haber has the worst for his team alphebetically: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado. Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.

Harris has the ten worst ranked for the opposing team: Arkansaw, Alaska, Texas, California, Illinois, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.

What is wrong with this picture? AL, AK, IL, TX and WV. Five are best and the same five are worst!

FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NAUGHT.

The state has 266 ways to enter your home

By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 23/04/2007

The state now has 266 powers to draw upon when its agents want to enter homes, according to research.

A report from the Centre for Policy Studies says that an Englishman's home is less his castle and more "a right of way'' for police, local government officials and other bureaucrats.

English law has traditionally regarded a citizen's home as a privileged space

In the 1950s just 10 new powers of entry were granted by statute. In the 1980s and 1990s an extra 60 were added.

For the first time, Harry Snook, a barrister and the author of the study, Crossing the Threshold, has drawn together the full list of entry powers in the state's possession.

Force can be used in most cases.

The research comes at a time of heightened concern over the lengthening arm of the state, with ID cards around the corner and more sophisticated surveillance equipment being used to watch people.

Mr Snook says: "The state today enjoys widespread access to what was previously considered to be the private domain. Entry powers - some of which have their origins in EU legislation - have proliferated over recent decades.''

One of the most powerful bodies is HM Revenue and Customs whose officers can exercise a "writ of assistance" with almost unlimited rights of access.

Its holders can break into any private house to seize any goods which the customs officers believes are liable to be forfeit without seeking prior judicial approval.

However, Mr Snook discovered that HM Revenue and Customs does not keep a regular record of the use of this entry power.

advertisementUnder English law, a citizen's home has traditionally been regarded as a privileged space. Courts have insisted that servants of the state cannot enter a private home without the occupier's permission unless a specific law authorises them to do so.

However as the state's role in society has expanded so have the number of statutes that allow forcible entry.

"As a result of the proliferation and variety of entry powers, a citizen cannot realistically be aware of the circumstances in which his home may be entered by state officials without his consent, or what rights he has in such circumstances," says the report.

"Force can be used in the exercise of almost all these powers. In part this is due to its specific authorisation by law; in part to the courts' readiness to imply a right to use force on grounds of necessity."

It adds: "In many cases, discretion as to what is considered as reasonable behaviour in exercising an entry power is left to the judgment of those wielding the entry power.''

Laws now going through Parliament will give bailiffs additional powers to enter homes in pursuit of traffic penalty debts.

But Mr Snook says: "Many powers are drafted so broadly that the citizen has little or no protection if officials behave officiously or vindictively. Some carry draconian penalties for obstruction, including heavy fines and prison sentences of up to two years.''

His report says the disparate provisions should be harmonised under a new Act.

This should make clear that officials should always seek permission to enter a home; a reasonable time for entry should be specified; and state officials should always have to get a warrant before they can force entry to a private home.


Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

What class are you?

What class are you?
Christopher Howse
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 17/04/2007


The answers


Christopher Howse's tongue-in-cheek quiz

The sore questions of class are in the air again. Was Kate Middleton just too middle class for Prince William? Must the future Queen of England only be upper class? And just how easy is it to tell a person's class?


The social snobbery lampooned in My Fair Lady is still thriving in upper-class circles

According to Daily Telegraph letter writer Andrew Baxter, you can tell instantly the class of people by using the car test: "A couple taking another couple out for a drive would sit themselves thus: working class, men in the front. Middle class, man with his own partner in the front. Upper class, man with the other partner in the front."

So which class are you? Settle the matter once and for all with a tongue-in-cheek quiz...

1 Has your house got:

a A name and number?

b A name of your choosing?

c A name from time immemorial?

2 Sitting over drinks, do you:

a Say "Cheers"?

b Say "Cheers" and clink glasses?

c Say nothing?

3 Are you more likely to take a seaside holiday in:

a Cancun?

b Scotland?

c The Maldives?

4 Would you follow the hunt:

a At a distance by car?

b With an anti-hunt placard?

c On your own horse?

5 At breakfast do you like:

a Bio yogurt?

b Pop-Tarts?

c Porridge?

6 Have you got:

a A patio?

b Decking?

c A terrace?

7 At your children's weddings, will male guests wear:

a Morning dress?

b Dinner jackets?

c Lounge suits?

8 Do you ask for the:

a Lavatory?

b Bathroom?

c Toilet?

9 Do you send your children to:

a An old public school?

b A church school near which you have moved?

c The local school?

10 After dinner, do you:

a Leave your napkin loosely on the table?

b Fold your napkin neatly?

c Roll your napkin and put it in a ring?

11 Do your children have:

a PlayStation 3?

b A dressing-up box?

c Trivial Pursuit?

12 If you can't hear a remark, do you say:

a What?

b Say again?

c Pardon?

13 If you want butter with your roll at dinner, do you:

a Cut it in half and butter it?

b Break it in half and butter it?

c Break it up and butter bits as you eat them?

14 Would you prefer to read:

a Heat?

b The Field?

c The World of Interiors?

15 Do you associate Jordan with:

a Breakfast cereal?

b Petra?

c Peter André?

THE ANSWERS

1 a 10, b 20, c 30; 2 a 20, b 10, c 30; 3 a 10, b 30, c 20; 4 a 10, b 20, c 30; 5 a 20, b 10, c 30; 6 a 20, b 10, c 30; 7 a 30, b 10, c 20; 8 a 30, b 20, c 10; 9 a 30, b 20, c 10; 10 a 30, b 10, c 20; 11 a 10, b 30, c 20; 12 a 30, b 10, c 20; 13 a 10, b 20, c 30; 14 a 10, b 30, c 20; 15 a 20, b 30, c 10.

If you scored:

Below 200 You are cheerfully lower-class.

200 to 300 You are uneasily middle-class.

300 to 440 You probably have a coat of arms.

450 You are the Duke of Devonshire.




Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Time Out Tube Special

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Time Out Tube Special
This week's Time Out has a gloriously psychedelic and slightly Ann Summers-like front cover heralding its 11 page celebration of the London Underground.

From the lead editorial "As you struggle grim-faced up yet another broken escalator, indulge not the old gripes about the grime and crime. Succumb instead to Underground love....Think too of the men in stovepipe hats who died so that you could make it to work without mounting a Penny Farthing bike". They kindly acknowledge this blog, Geoff's mashed-up Tube maps and Hywel Williams' classic ghost station site amongst Tube websites to bookmark...

Books

How to overcome bad habits that hold you back. Click Here!
Renters rights for renters and for landlords. Click Here!

Save Your Dog From Food Poisoning

"At Last! A Comprehensive Guide to
The 68 Deadliest Dog Food Ingredients Every Dog Owner Should Know About.. Because Nearly Every Dog Food Brand Uses Them
..AND They Kill Dogs!"

A timely,new 70-page book titled..

"68 Dog Food Ingredients to Die For!"

Anyone using commercial dog food should have this information in their library.

It saves lives, period!

See for yourself... CLICK HERE

Commercial Dog Food is Killing Your Dog.

Do something NOW!

Read about what you can do: Click Here!

Finally Train Your Pet Like a Hollywood Wrangler

"How do they get the dog to do that?"

Find out how you can do it, too. Click Here!

Five Exponential Moving Average FOREX System

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Market Neutral Options Strategies

Up, down, or sideways. You win.

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ManTech International Corporation Careers

Govt Contractor

ManTech International Corporation Careers

From its beginning in 1968, ManTech International Corporation has consistently delivered innovative information technology and technical services solutions to federal government customers. Today, ManTech has grown to become one of the U.S. government’s leading providers of innovative technologies and solutions for mission-critical national security programs supporting the Intelligence Community; the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Justice; the Space Community; and other federal government agencies. Our expertise covers software development, enterprise security architecture, information assurance, intelligence operations support, network and critical infrastructure protection, information technology, communications integration and engineering support. ManTech’s solutions and support are built around our three pillars of service expertise:

New Yawk Tinges

link
QUOTATION OF THE DAY

"The bottom line is that insurance companies make money when they don’t pay claims. They’ll do anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long enough, they know the policyholders will die."
MARY BETH SENKEWICZ, who resigned last year as a senior executive at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

International Human Rights Research Guide

Globalex

By Grace M. Mills


Grace M. Mills is the Director of the Law Library at Florida A&M University. She has previously been affiliated with the law schools of City University of New York, North Carolina Central University and University of California at Berkeley.

Published March 2007

Table of Contents

Introduction

United Nations documentation

Charter bodies

Major Treaty bodies

Abbreviations

Basic Documents in International Human Rights

Guide to United Nations Symbols

United Nations Web Sites

United Nations Depository Library

Human Rights Documents listed by Subject Matter

International Organizations

International News Organizations

Educational Institutions Web Information

International Law Journals



Introduction
International human rights documents and decisions are primarily governed by the bodies of the United Nations. The United Nations was established on October 24, 1945, by the governments of 51 countries, including the victors of WWII -- the United States, England, France, Russia. The United Nations is a body committed to securing the world’s peace through international cooperation. Human rights issues affect all countries, whether they are active participants in the United Nations or not.

Talking Dog

In Tennessee, a guy sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog for Sale."

He rings the bell and the owner tells him the dog is in the backyard. The guy goes into the backyard and sees a black mutt just sitting there.
"You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the mutt replies.

"So, what's your story?"

The mutt looks up and says, "Well, I discovered this gift pretty young and I wanted to help the government, so I told the
CIA about my gift, and in no time they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of their most valuable spies eight years running."

"The jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger and I wanted to settle down. So I
signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings there and was awarded a batch of medals. Had a wife, a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog.

The owner says, "Ten dollars."

The guy says, "This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

The owner replies, "He's such a liar. He didn't do any of that shit."

When English Eyes Are Smiling

NYTimes


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 11, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor
When English Eyes Are Smiling
By WES DAVIS
New Haven

STUDENTS in the Irish literature seminar I teach latched onto some satisfying news last week, when this newspaper reported that scientists had found no significant genetic difference between the Irish and English. Midway through a semester spent wrestling with fictional representations of the troubled relationship between the two nations, here was scientific confirmation that an assumption long used to justify the inequality of that relationship was itself a fiction.

The discovery that the Irish and English belong to the same bloodline is probably more amusing than shocking to readers who have grown accustomed to understanding the history of Ireland in political rather than racial terms. But the notion of racial inferiority persisted in British writing on the Irish well into the 19th century.

Writing in “Races of Men” in 1850, the Scottish surgeon and ethnographer Robert Knox argued that because of its inherent “fanaticism” and “hatred for order and patient industry,” Ireland’s “Celtic race does not, and never could be made to comprehend the meaning of the word liberty.” In 1867 Matthew Arnold, even as he styled himself a champion of Irish literature, carried on the myth of an Irish racial type, writing in an essay that “the Celtic genius” has “sentiment as its main basis, with love of beauty, charm and spirituality for its excellence,” but with “ineffectualness and self-will for its defect.”

One of the most alarming 19th-century descriptions of the Irish comes from Charles Kingsley, author of “The Water Babies,” a novel that captured the imagination of Victorian children as surely as Harry Potter has charmed children today. In 1860, two years before he began writing the book, Kingsley traveled to Ireland.

“I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country,” he wrote in a letter to his wife. The apparent racial inferiority of the Irish was made more shocking for Kingsley by their superficial similarity to the English: “If they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.” By the time he described the Irish in “The Water Babies,” Kingsley had regained a measure of judgment. There they are “good-natured,” but still “untrustable” and “wild.”

In recent years, Irish writers have taken up the idea of racial difference themselves, turning it into an empowering distinction. Think of the white working-class musician in Roddy Doyle’s 1987 novel, “The Commitments,” whose identification with American soul music leads him to conclude that the “Irish are the niggers of Europe.” “Say it loud,” he tells his band, “I’m black and I’m proud.”

The new genetic evidence won’t do anything to undercut that kind of pride, or to repair the historical rift between the English and the Irish. But writers have already given us better ways to understand their differences.

In the early 1950s, Philip Larkin, who had left England to work as a librarian in Belfast, was mistaken for an Irish poet by an editor who used his poetry as an example of the “rootedness” of Irish writing. Larkin himself felt anything but rooted in Ireland. But he anticipated the geneticists in seeing the differences between the English and Irish as matters of place rather than race.

He also saw the value of those differences. In “The Importance of Elsewhere,” a poem he wrote the year he returned to England, Larkin remembers that the “draughty streets” and the horsy smell of the docks distinguished Ireland from England in a way that assuaged his natural sense of alienation. He was lonely in Ireland “since it was not home,” but for the same reason Ireland’s “strangeness made sense,” unlike the alienation he felt in England.

In the end, Larkin suggests that national difference gives us a point of contact and a way to understand the distinctions that separate us from one another, regardless of race. In Ireland, his poem goes on to say, “The salt rebuff of speech, / Insisting so on difference, made me welcome: / Once that was recognized, we were in touch.”

Wes Davis, an assistant professor of English at Yale, is editing the forthcoming “Yale Anthology of Contemporary Irish Poetry.”


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Everything is Miscellaneous » Blog Archive » Gather ye metadata while ye can - via Fuzzzy and Freebase

Everything is Miscellaneous » Blog Archive » Gather ye metadata while ye can - via Fuzzzy and Freebase: "Gather ye metadata while ye can - via Fuzzzy and Freebase
March 9th, 2007 by David Weinberger
Fuzzzy.com from Roy Lachica at the University of Oslo is a 'web2.0 organic collaborative ontology socio-semantic polyscopic web research project.' Got it!
But seriously, it lets you tag bookmarks and maintain a social network. The big words come in because Fuzzzy lets you position a tag in an ontology. Here's how the About page explains it: "

Greenbuck's Defense

American Lawyer

©2007 The American Lawyer On The Web
http://www.americanlawyer.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Miami Heat

Amy Kolz
The American Lawyer
03-01-2007


In the course of a decade, Greenberg Traurig has had the kind of growth usually reserved for businesses that sell oil or iPods. Revenues are up by more than 880 percent from 1996, and in 2006 they topped the billion-dollar mark. Profits per partner have soared from $480,000 to $1.2 million. The firm has opened 22 offices and added more than 1,400 attorneys. And it expects revenue to rise another 18-20 percent in 2007.

After years as a midmarket Florida player, Greenberg has amassed a national client list that includes Lowe's Companies, Inc., The Related Companies, LP, and Alcoa Inc. Its real estate, entertainment, and litigation practices are humming. And it has snagged roles in high-profile transactions, such as representing MetLife, Inc., in its $5.4 billion sale of New York's Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the biggest deal ever for a single piece of American property.

It's the kind of performance that would make any firm tout its business model. And that's certainly the case with Greenberg. The firm highlights its management structure: the fact that it is run like a closely held corporation, with a strong chief executive who possesses almost unlimited authority to make decisions. Partners disdain the bureaucracy that's part of committee-driven firms. They are in business to make money. And in that regard, partners-actually shareholders, in Greenberg's case-are held to high standards. At the beginning of the year, they set targets for annual earnings, and the firm's management tracks their progress. Meet the targets, and there are no questions asked. Slip, and management is on the phone.

One word is used more than any other by Greenberg lawyers to describe their firm: "entrepreneurial." Want to expand a practice area? Forget putting together a detailed business plan, just be sure that the idea makes money. "The Greenberg Traurig mantra is . . . get out of the way and let people grow their practice with our support," says Michael Lehr, managing partner of the Philadelphia office. Or as a former longtime partner puts it: "At other firms you have lawyers who engage in business; at Greenberg you have a lot of businessmen who practice law."

But Greenberg's story is far more complicated than one of exuberant expansion. This is the firm that hired and nurtured Jack Abramoff, the Washington, D.C., lobbyist who engineered a scheme to defraud Native American tribes out of millions and whose shady business deals have landed him in a Maryland federal prison. Abramoff's isn't the only recent imbroglio starring Greenberg lawyers. There's the Philadelphia of counsel convicted in a City Hall corruption case; the just-departed Chicago partner bogged down in another federal corruption probe; the Miami corporate partner banned from working with federally insured banks for allegedly helping to cover up a client's losses; the New York rainmaker who took kickbacks for steering clients to tax shelter operators; and the Philadelphia partner escorted from the office by federal marshals after being convicted of lying to conceal his theft of client funds in a real estate deal.

Though it won't provide an exact accounting, Greenberg has paid millions-perhaps tens of millions-in fines and settlements to clean up the messes. But the firm says the scandals are isolated incidents perpetrated by a few bad apples in a barrel of 1,680 lawyers. "We've had a couple of bad ones, no question," says Cesar Alvarez, the firm's CEO. "But every single major [professional] firm has items that are embarrassing to them," he says, pointing to the accounting firm scandals and the Enron-related issues at other law firms. Yet many former Greenberg lawyers say that the same qualities that yield great financial rewards-the emphasis on profit, the appetite for growth, the bureaucracy-free culture-have allowed rogue lawyers and lobbyists like Abramoff to join the firm and, until they're caught, thrive.

The firm has launched an initiative to tighten scrutiny of lateral partners and is taking a closer look at risk management. But partners are adamant that they won't do anything that will jeopardize the firm's business-minded approach. "You have to pick your poison," says Lehr. Firms that ask partners to get approval before spending $500 probably sacrifice growth and entrepreneurial behavior, he says: "At Greenberg, we do much better at growing our business, but my guess is that over time there might be two or three more problems than at those others firms."

Alvarez, the firm's 59-year-old leader, reminds Greenberg lawyers at every turn that "you begin to fail the minute you think you're successful." Such striving is nothing new for Alvarez. He emigrated from Cuba with his family when he was 13. By the time he was 26, he had earned an undergraduate degree in economics, an MBA, and a law degree from the University of Florida. He originally planned to open a bilingual practice in Miami with his brother. But Mel Greenberg persuaded Alvarez that he could do better at a somewhat larger firm. Alvarez joined Greenberg Traurig in 1973 as the firm's thirteenth lawyer.

Greenberg, Robert Traurig, and Larry Hoffman had founded the firm only six years earlier. The trio wanted to bring sophisticated New York-style legal services to Miami-area businesses. They started with the founders' specialties, tax, real estate, and corporate work, and then added a litigation practice in 1974 when deterioration of the local real estate market created a demand for foreclosure services.

From the beginning, the firm was known for its work ethic and dogged pursuit of business. Greenberg, often referred to as the "Sultan of Sweat," at one point instituted a Saturday workday. The ambitious young Alvarez ascended quickly, representing such local entrepreneurs as Miami-based Air Florida and Cosmo Communications Corp. in their initial public offerings.

Even in the early days, the firm had a single leader-Greenberg-and a closed compensation system. The structure allowed the firm to pay top dollar for high-profile lateral partners, such as former Florida governor Reubin Askew. The firm was also known for embracing social outsiders. The Jewish founders had faced discrimination and eagerly courted the Cuban exile community.

But Greenberg's ambitions stopped in Florida. He worried that offices outside the state would be a cash drain or would abandon the firm if they proved successful. It wasn't until Greenberg passed the reins to partner Larry Hoffman in 1991 that the firm began its geographic expansion. Hoffman concluded that the 125-person firm would eventually have to expand outside Florida or merge into a larger firm. Recognizing a "strong nexus" between New York and South Florida, Hoffman opened an office in New York that year. An office in Washington, D.C., followed. Hoffman set the stage, but Alvarez put the growth plan into overdrive when he took over as CEO in 1997. Within four years, the firm opened ten offices and head count more than doubled.

Not everyone was thrilled with the rapid expansion. Some partners disliked the cost of growth. Others worried about the impact on quality. Twenty-eight partners left the firm in 2001, representing approximately 8 percent of the partnership. But the majority of partners were happy with the moves. Profits were rising, and Alvarez had made a persuasive case for growth.

Besides, he calls the shots. Like his predecessors, Alvarez has almost unlimited authority over decisions, from partner compensation to firm expansion. Five years ago, Alvarez tweaked the firm's governance to help him manage the firm's astronomical growth. He appointed partners Richard Rosenbaum in New York and Matthew Gorson in Miami as national operating shareholders. Along with Hoffman, who is now executive committee chair, they help Alvarez hire, determine compensation, and plot business strategy. And a 14-person executive committee advises Alvarez and helps him take the pulse of the partnership. But power rests firmly in Alvarez's office.

Alvarez professes to "know everything about the numbers" at Greenberg. Every morning at ten o'clock he receives a five-page report detailing the firm's financials-hours, billings, cash collections, accounts receivables, and work in progress. He spends one day a month focusing on the financials of individual offices and practices. The reports show the performance for every timekeeper, with a year-over-year growth rate and red shading if the individual is behind the projected budget. Alvarez says he's not trying to micromanage-he simply wants to help lawyers and their managers avoid surprises at the end of the fiscal year in December. Alvarez dispatches Larry Harris, an accountant who serves as chief revenue officer, to meet with underperforming lawyers and to help identify how they might boost billings and collections.

The corporate model is pounded into Greenberg lawyers from day one, and they are expected to think about the revenues, costs, and growth of their practices. Incoming lateral partners negotiate one-year compensation guarantees based on a specific range of expected revenue. If they don't perform according to expectations, the guarantee is reduced. As part of an annual self-evaluation, partners complete a set of projections for the next year, detailing expected hours, collections, and potential nonbillable work such as pro bono. Annual reviews of partners are akin to business planning meetings, says former partner Robert King, who is now at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Alvarez, Rosenbaum, Gorson, or Hoffman meet with each partner to dig beneath the numbers-to find which areas of an individual's practice exceeded expectations, which fell short, and what they will achieve in the coming year.

The firm gives partners a strong incentive to remain focused. Bonuses, which are a big component of a partner's compensation, are based chiefly upon business performance. The calculation is not entirely based on dollars-leadership and pro bono can have an impact. But as Alvarez puts it: "Everyone likes to argue about the intangible value that they contribute. But I say, 'If you want to be rewarded for intangible value, then here's a hug-that's intangible.' " On average, bonuses account for half of a partner's total compensation, says Alvarez. And the highest earners might see as much as 80 percent of their compensation in the form of a bonus. According to these figures, Greenberg's 2006 $1.2 million profits-per-partner estimate could translate into bonuses in the $600,000-$1 million range. For the handful who might be making $3-4 million, bonuses may exceed $2 million.

Even after years of revenue and profit growth, the firm keeps a tight rein on expenses. New offices must be profitable on an accrual basis in the first year and profitable on a cash basis in the second. Alvarez abhors fancy food displays and ostentatious workplaces. He's been known to rail against oversize offices, and he has a special disdain for circular staircases, an architectural feature he considers pretentious and wasteful of space. When New York corporate and securities chair Alan Annex discusses potential venues for a corporate retreat, he starts with an evaluation of flight and hotel costs for the various cities. "I think lawyers at other firms tend to be less focused on costs-many think, 'I'll just have that car wait for two hours,' " he says. "But most of our lawyers take the subway."

The system seems to worK. The firm's beginning-of-year projections for gross revenue have been within 1 percent of the actual total in both 2005 and 2006. And in exchange for such strict financial discipline, lawyers earn a significant amount of autonomy in their day-to-day practices. There are no marketing budgets, no requirements for committee approvals. Partners are held accountable if they spend money and have nothing to show for it at the end of the year, but when it comes to business decisions, Alvarez has been known to say, "It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

When employee benefits partner Jeffrey Mamorsky joined Greenberg in 2000, he wanted to establish a subpractice that would assist retirement plan sponsors in avoiding Internal Revenue Service and Employee Retirement Income Security Act liability. After 14 years at Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, a New York-based firm with a more traditional partnership structure, his first step was to draw up a business plan for the effort. When he presented the plan to Alvarez and Rosenbaum, they said, " 'Why did you do a business plan? Just do it,' " Mamorsky remembers. Mamorsky, now the chairman of the global benefits and compensation group, has seen his practice grow 250 percent, to more than $5 million today, thanks in large part to his IRS/ERISA liability practice.

The autonomy extends beyond creating internal practice groups. Securities litigator Bradford Kaufman has been able to increase his practice tenfold, to $25 million, since joining Greenberg in 2000, in part because Greenberg allows him to discount his rates for cost-conscious financial institutions. Other firms would prohibit or strongly discourage such adjustments. "The firm has an adult attitude," he says. There is no need to ask for permission from firm management. And thinking like a businessman, Kaufman maintains his practice's profitability by running much of it out of lower-cost offices. Two-thirds of the lawyers in his practice group are in places like West Palm Beach, Florida; Denver; and Orlando, and he has struck a deal with lawyers in higher-cost locales to work at cheaper rates.

The emphasis on business results also encourages collaboration among lawyers and practice groups, say Greenberg partners. As entrepreneurs, lawyers say they recognize that their clients generate legal fees all over the country. They must involve colleagues in other offices and practice groups to both win and expand business with national clients. New York-based Robert Ivanhoe, Greenberg's chair of real estate, has been working with private developer The Related Companies for about five years. But when Related's president called him last fall about a potential deal to acquire Snowmass Mountain and Village near Aspen, Colorado, it was Greenberg's Denver office and an L.A.-based partner specializing in condominiums that won the business. "If it was just me sitting here in New York, he might have asked, 'How the hell are you going to do it?' " Ivanhoe says. Now two dozen Greenberg lawyers are working on the acquisition and financing for the $2-3 billion development.

The firm also takes a market-oriented approach with its recruiting. Though Greenberg's partner head count has climbed by 440 percent since 1996, the firm has done so largely by cherry-picking individual lawyers on the basis of their books of business and their reputations. "There are a lot of things you can see by looking at the numbers," Alvarez says. Lateral candidates with a $1 million book of business and a list of ten clients they have served for five years, for example, have passed what Alvarez calls a "market test." This isn't the only criteria for hiring, but it's by far the most important, Alvarez says.

Promising candidates don't need to pass a committee vote. They meet and earn the approval of one of the four firm leaders. Fans of the system argue that Greenberg can make decisions in hours, not weeks. Corporate partner Bruce March shook hands on a deal to bring over his five-partner group from Akerman Senterfitt in December 2004 within a half hour of meeting the Greenberg leaders. A former partner recalls that his "intake process" was a breakfast with Rosenbaum. Alvarez brags that the acquisition of the Phoenix office took less than two weeks in the summer of 1999. "We move quickly and opportunistically," he says. "It's our number one advantage."

The number one disadvantage: the firm's list of problem partners. They, too, have moved opportunistically-and it has cost the firm dearly. The problems have reached across practice areas and have included high-profile partners and clients.

Take the case of Jay Gordon, who joined the firm in 1996 and was the New York-based chair of Greenberg's tax practice. Between 1999 and 2003, Gordon accepted $1.2 million in kickbacks related to tax shelters he recommended to five wealthy clients. Gordon steered clients such as Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Peter Kalikow and New York real estate developers Leonard and Matthew Adell to various tax shelter sponsors who in turn directly paid Gordon more than $675,000 in referral fees, according to documents from the New York bar's disciplinary committee.

Gordon also used the fees to pad his billings at Greenberg-and pump up his bonuses. After steering one client to a tax shelter sponsored by Distressed Assets Corp., Gordon supervised a legal tax opinion in late 2002 for the shelter that generated $300,000 in legal fees for the firm. In January 2003 Gordon directed Distressed Assets to deposit his $600,000 referral fee into the Greenberg retainer account. Gordon then recorded 1,120 fictitious billable hours and created a series of client invoices. Gordon received a half-million-dollar fee collection credit that would count toward his bonus.

Greenberg learned of the scheme in 2004. The IRS had rejected one of Kalikow's shelters, and he informed Gordon in June that he intended to recoup his tax losses from the shelter sponsors and Greenberg. Gordon informed the firm of Kalikow's threat and of his fee arrangement with the shelter sponsors. The firm hired Michael Ross, a New York-based solo practitioner specializing in attorney ethics and discipline, to investigate and deliver a report on his findings. Greenberg disclosed and returned all referral fees to Gordon's clients. Gordon left the partnership on November 3, 2004. The same day, he and Greenberg sent separate reports to the New York bar's disciplinary committee. The committee filed charges seeking disbarment in October 2005. (The episode became public in November 2006 when Gordon resigned from the New York bar.) Greenberg emphasizes that it took action quickly and that it has "zero tolerance for this lawyer's ethical lapse." Alvarez says that he is "sickened" by Gordon's behavior, but he argues that "the frauds are difficult to catch" in any organization.

Then there were the firm's problems with Hamilton Bank, N.A. Greenberg and a Miami-based partner have paid more than $8.5 million in fines to federal regulators for allegedly helping to cover up financial misconduct at the now-defunct Miami bank. Hamilton had made a series of bad loans in Russia in the 1990s, and its audit committee hired Greenberg to report on whether the bank had misled external auditors. Greenberg issued a pair of reports in 2000 and 2001 clearing the bank's officers of wrongdoing.

Federal regulators, however, saw the reports as a whitewash. They closed the bank in 2002, and the bank's chairman and CEO, Eduardo Masferrer, was convicted on 16 counts of fraud in May 2006. In a notice of charges filed against former Greenberg partner Carlos Loumiet last November, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said that the Greenberg reports "protected the officers by making materially false and misleading assertions and by suppressing material evidence." Last fall Greenberg paid $750,000 and partner Robert L. Grossman paid $175,000 in fines to the OCC. Loumiet has filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him, saying the allegations would be "slander" if made outside the protection of the legal process. Neither Grossman nor Greenberg admitted or denied wrongdoing, but the OCC prohibited Grossman from undertaking any regulatory responsibility for any bank insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for five years. And Greenberg agreed to begin a training program for lawyers who represent banks and to retain documents relating to bank clients for at least five years. The firm's attorneys are also prohibited from making any materially inaccurate factual statement to an FDIC-insured bank or federal banking agency.

That was a bargain compared to what the FDIC demanded. Greenberg, according to a January article in The Wall Street Journal, agreed to pay the FDIC $7.6 million as part of a June 2006 settlement over Hamilton Bank. Despite the hefty fees, Greenberg denies wrongdoing. The firm agreed to both settlements "to put the matter behind us without incurring future expense or distraction to our firm," according to firm spokesperson Jill Perry.

Trouble also erupted in Philadelphia. In December 2005 Leonard Ross, an of counsel with close ties to Philadelphia city officials, was charged with fraud and corruption as part of a wide-ranging Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the city government. Ross was a close friend and ex-law partner of Mayor John Street and had been brought aboard soon after Street's 2000 election to boost the firm's relationship with city hall. Ross's offer letter stated that he would generate legal business for Greenberg in municipal finance and by representing clients wanting to do business with the city. For his efforts, he would receive $10,000 a month and an annual incentive payment based on the business he brought in. The agreement "would continue for so long as John Street is mayor of Philadelphia."

The agreement worked out well for Greenberg. A former bank executive described Ross's influence with city hall in a 2001 memo that was part of the court record in another corruption case: "The mayor made it very clear that Len and Greenberg will be first among equals." In fact, the firm earned $690,000 in city-related legal fees, including work on ten bond deals over a four-year period. It was a significant share of city bond business for one firm, say public finance partners at two other Philadelphia firms.

Unfortunately for Greenberg, Ross would abuse his influence. In 2003 Mayor Street appointed Ross to chair a committee that would pick a developer for Penn's Landing, a 13-acre historic site on the Delaware River. Ross used this position to extract more than $50,000 in political contributions from prospective developers for Street's reelection. The lawyer also lined his own pockets. In August 2003 a state court judge threatened to hold Ross in contempt over his failure to disburse $125,000 from a two-year-old medical malpractice settlement he had won for a client. Ross was also facing potential action from the disciplinary board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Desperate for funds, he gave insider information about the Penn's Landing selection process to Ronald White, a lobbyist representing a development bidder. White sat on the Pennsylvania board of Commerce Bancorp, Inc., and was able to help Ross obtain a $150,000 line of credit in September 2003.

Transcripts of FBI-wiretapped conversations between Ross and White emerged in early 2005. Amid rumors of his imminent indictment, Ross resigned from Greenberg in November 2005. Less than a month later, he pled guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges. He is currently serving a 30-month sentence in federal prison. Greenberg has minimized Ross's association with the firm. Rosenbaum emphasizes that Ross was an of counsel who had "a relatively minor relationship with the firm" and maintained a separate law office from his space at Greenberg. "You can't monitor what people are going to do in their private or civic lives," says Lehr, who manages the Philadelphia office. "People who are going to commit crimes are going to commit crimes."

But Ross's contract specifically put pressure on him to use his city ties to drum up business. Prosecutors said that Ross's employment at Greenberg Traurig was "entirely dependent on his relationship with Mayor Street" and "a motive for selling his office as a PLC [Penns Landing Corporation] board member." Says Alvarez, "In retrospect, I wish it hadn't been written that way." But he also thinks the contract was "misinterpreted" by prosecutors and that there was "no evil intent in writing it."

Ross wasn't the only felon to emerge from Greenberg's Philadelphia office in the fall of 2005. In November, U.S. marshals arrived at the office to escort partner Robert S. Grossman (no relation to Robert L. Grossman in Miami) to serve a four-month sentence in federal prison. The previous May, Grossman had pled guilty to federal charges that he lied in a 1996 bankruptcy proceeding to cover up his diversion of more than $100,000 to a personal account while he was working as a real estate developer in Virginia. He was sentenced in August to four months in prison, but the judge delayed his reporting date so that Grossman could close his practice. The visit from the marshals came as a surprise to Greenberg partners-they say they knew nothing of his conviction.

Alvarez says that Grossman didn't disclose his legal problems when he joined the firm in 2002 and that the Virginia charges were unrelated to his practice at Greenberg. But Alvarez is quick to add that the firm now hires a private investigator to do background checks on all new employees, and Greenberg has "toughened" the questions it asks incoming lawyers about previous criminal convictions and charges.

Around the time Grossman was being carted away to jail, another Greenberg partner, Victor Reyes of Chicago, was facing trouble of his own. Like Ross in Philadelphia, Reyes had political juice. He was head of the Hispanic Democratic Organization in Chicago, and prior to joining the firm in 2001 he was Mayor Richard Daley's head of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Once at Greenberg, Reyes led the firm's Chicago lobbying effort, giving the firm a newfound credibility in city government affairs, say local lobbyists. From 2001 until 2005, Greenberg earned $3.5 million in city-related legal fees, including payments for representing the city of Chicago in the bankruptcies of United Airlines, Inc., and RCN Cable TV of Chicago Inc.

Federal prosecutors now allege that Reyes's office was central to an effort to funnel city jobs and promotions to pro-Daley campaign workers. Reyes resigned from Greenberg in August 2005. In September federal prosecutors indicted five city workers, including a former Reyes aide, in the patronage scheme. Reyes wasn't charged, but prosecutors labeled him as a coschemer in the indictment. After leaving the firm, Reyes founded a lobbying shop with three others from Greenberg. Reyes, who has not been charged with a crime, and the firm maintain that the departure was voluntary. Reyes said in local news reports that conflicts of interest had prevented him from representing some clients at Greenberg. "We had a very positive experience with Victor," says Keith Shapiro, the co-managing partner of the Chicago office. Shapiro says there were no quality issues with respect to Reyes and no issues from clients concerning his work. Alvarez concurs: "I don't know about anything he did in the firm that was wrong. I can only know what I have seen, and I only know that he hasn't been charged."

The firm's stance with the two Grossmans, Ross, and Reyes isn't too far from the defense it has offered in the Jack Abramoff affair. The firm says that it had no idea about what Abramoff was up to with Indian gaming clients and that Abramoff hid his activities from the firm. When firm leaders learned what he was doing, they reacted quickly-apologizing and negotiating settlements with all but one of Abramoff's Native American clients. (One tribe, the Louisiana Coushatta, is still seeking more than $30 million in damages from Greenberg, Abramoff, and Abramoff's business partner Michael Scanlon.) Those familiar with the confidential settlements said that in many cases, Greenberg reimbursed tribes for a significant portion of the kickback fees that Abramoff and Scanlon took, as well as the fees paid directly to the law firm. Abramoff and Scanlon were said to have earned at least $66 million as part of their kickback scheme.

Abramoff, already a superstar in Republican circles, joined Greenberg from Preston Gates & Ellis in January 2001. The interview process wasn't a grueling one for Abramoff. He spent a half hour with Alvarez, and talked with Fred Baggett, the Tallahassee-based head of the firm's government affairs practice. "Jack was the golden boy," Alvarez says. "Everyone wanted him at the time. I just wish we would have come in second. He's as good a con man as I ever met."

Clearly, Abramoff hid many of his activities. But it was not news to the firm that he had outside business arrangements. One former lobbyist in the D.C. office recalls how Abramoff told stories around the office about his involvement in SunCruz Casinos. Abramoff and another business partner, Adam Kidan, had purchased SunCruz, a Florida operator of gambling boats, for $147 million in September 2000. By July 2001, just seven months after Abramoff joined Greenberg, the Miami businessman who had sold Abramoff the gambling company had been murdered; SunCruz had filed for bankruptcy; a federal magistrate ruled that the $23 million down payment put up by Abramoff and his partners was never actually paid; and Kidan admitted to paying $30,000 to an individual once indicted with John Gotti's brother. Abramoff disclosed these incidents to his colleagues in the D.C. office in a meeting that summer, according to the former colleague. "The most frightening story about Jack was a story he told himself," he says. (Alvarez says he wasn't aware of those stories.)

By the summer of 2003, SunCruz's financial lenders had sued Abramoff and his partners, claiming they were defrauded of more than $60 million in loans. Greenberg stepped in to help. Two lawyers with close ties to Abramoff say that Greenberg pushed to represent him in the SunCruz matters, promising Abramoff that he would only have to pay associate fees. These lawyers also say that Greenberg offered to pay a portion of a potential settlement that was negotiated with the financial lenders during the fall of 2003. And they say that as a part of this negotiation, Greenberg partners who represented Abramoff, a group that included Hal Hirsch, Richard Edlin, and Rosenbaum, requested and obtained Abramoff personal tax returns for the years 2000-02. These returns, according to several who have seen them, showed that Abramoff had more than $10 million in income from companies owned by Scanlon.

Alvarez declined to provide details about SunCruz, citing attorney-client privilege. He defends the firm's involvement, saying that at the time, he "had no reason to believe Jack was not a good human being."

If the tax returns weren't enough to tip off the firm that Abramoff was somehow collecting millions in outside income, his actions inside the firm also provided clues that something was amiss, say former Greenberg employees, partners, and lobbyists. Abramoff brought in more than $15 million from the Native Americans over the course of three years, with monthly rates that were significantly in excess of industry norms. Firm leaders say that these fees seemed to be justified by Abramoff's reputation. "He was one of the most connected lobbyists in D.C.," says Rosenbaum. "The fact that someone would pay Jack more than others because of his [perceived] unique abilities was not shocking. Very few firms would have had a problem with that." However, several D.C. lobbyists interviewed for this article confirmed that the fees were much larger than normal and should have provoked questions. But Greenberg was seeing an explosive increase in its lobbying practice in Washington, with Abramoff's hefty book of business propelling Washington lobbying revenue from $7 million in 2000 to almost $22 million in 2001 and a peak of $25 million in 2003, according to Legal Times, a sibling publication of The American Lawyer. The year Abramoff joined, the firm jumped from number 31 among Washington lobbying practices to number five.

Abramoff also shuffled money through the firm's tightly controlled accounting system to Scanlon and Capital Athletic Foundation, a nonprofit he controlled. In November 2001 a $1 million check from the Coushatta tribe of Louisiana arrived at the firm. The previous month, Abramoff had the idea to increase the amount of lobbying revenue that Greenberg was publicly reporting to the Senate by running some of the money from his kickback scheme through the firm. Such a move would ensure that Greenberg's ranking among lobbying firms wouldn't slip, he said. To execute the idea, Scanlon created a phony Greenberg invoice for the Coushatta tribe, telling them that they should send $1 million of their fee directly to the firm instead of Scanlon's company.

Baggett testified to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that the firm "had no knowledge of [Scanlon's phony] invoice being sent." He even called attention to the fact that Scanlon had misspelled the firm name as "Greenburg" Traurig. Yet the firm also did not question that a million-dollar check, with the firm's name misspelled, came in, unattached to an invoice. According to Baggett's testimony, the check was immediately deposited into the firm's trust account.

The money didn't stay at the firm for long. On November 5 Abramoff sent an e-mail to Baggett entitled "Coushatta million-dollar check." He wrote: "It is burning a hole in my pocket," and requested a meeting that day to "get it worked out." According to Baggett's testimony, Abramoff told him in a subsequent phone call that the Coushatta tribe had intended to make a contribution to Capital Athletic Foundation. Within four days, Greenberg wired the tribe's million dollars to the foundation. A few months later, Abramoff reminded his associates in an e-mail to include the "extra $1 million in expenses" for the Coushatta tribe when filling out lobbying disclosure forms, according to documents released by the Senate.

It took a troubling interview with The Washington Post and a client dismissal to prompt an internal investigation of Abramoff. A Post reporter interviewed Abramoff and others at the firm on February 3, 2004, and Alvarez soon learned from his general counsel that the Saginaw Chippewa tribe in Michigan had fired the firm. Abramoff "had always told us that clients were perfectly happy; then to find out-without him telling me-that they fired us, that was such an important point," Alvarez says. At a face-to-face meeting with Alvarez in late February, Abramoff disclosed that he had received money from Scanlon in connection with the Indian tribe work. Three days later, Abramoff resigned from the firm.

"There weren't lots of signals that made you question this guy," says Rosenbaum. "He was an Orthodox Jew beloved by the powers that be in D.C." Those who might question whether Greenberg knew something of Abramoff's activities also should look to the judgments of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the U.S. Department of Justice, say Alvarez and others. The Justice Department portrays Greenberg as a victim in several of the paragraphs in Abramoff's plea agreement. However, lobbyists and an official close to the Senate investigation caution against drawing too many conclusions from the Justice Department's wording in a plea agreement and comments by the committee. The Justice Department continues to investigate the lobbying scandal. And the Senate Indian Affairs Committee only oversees matters relating to the tribes; a law firm-centric inquiry would be outside the scope of its investigation.

Greenberg leaders, and Alvarez in particular, say the firm's business model makes it no more vulnerable to problem partners than other firms. Treating lawyers like adults but holding them accountable is a legitimate way to manage risk. "I've heard these comments for the past ten years," says Alvarez. "We were not invited to the party [of] the top ten firms in the country. Others see us moving up, and they question everything we do."

They may be the only ones. Former partners say that asking questions at Greenberg can be dangerous for your career. Because management holds so much power over compensation, hiring, and firing, partners are reluctant to speak honestly about problems. There's also a perception, the former partners say, that top managers don't want to hear about issues unless they hurt the bottom line. Alvarez occasionally jokes about the silence during the question-and-answer period of his bimonthly conference call with partners, quipping that the conference operator should do her best to manage the rush of calls. Alvarez says that he receives plenty of questions in private. He has regular conversations with practice group leaders and managing partners, and he regularly invites other partners to call or send him an e-mail if there is a problem, idea, or question to discuss. Partners can also submit suggestions or criticisms during their annual review.

To Alvarez, the firm's growth is proof of its quality. Greenberg would not be able to attract and retain lawyers if there were issues with quality control. "Every [lateral] lawyer does his or her due diligence on us," he says. And Greenberg has been a leader on the lateral market, luring candidates from powerhouse firms such as as DLA Piper and Kirkland & Ellis. Between October 2005 and September 2006, Greenberg brought aboard 63 lateral partners (more than any other Am Law 200 firm), and lost only 23 [The Lateral Report, February]. The year before, the firm hired 87 partners and lost 21.

But hiring based on books of business doesn't necessarily ensure that lawyers and lobbyists will do quality work. Just ask the tribes bilked by Abramoff. "The assumption is that you have a book of business, therefore you must be good," says Mary Pivec, a former partner who speaks highly of Alvarez's leadership and business judgment. "Sometimes that's correct, but sometimes it's not."

Greenberg hasn't completely rejected the need for adjustments to quality control. Since 2004, Rosenbaum has led a firmwide quality initiative that encompasses a range of programs, from formalizing training across locations to appointing risk managers in each practice area. These senior lawyers evaluate risks in each area and serve as an "800 number" for lawyers to report wrongdoing, says Alvarez. A senior practice group member in another office now vets each lateral partner candidate, in addition to a national operating shareholder and the firm's private investigator. And all current lawyers sign a document attesting to their compliance with firm and employment policies each year.

Rosenbaum and Alvarez deny that Abramoff or any of the other incidents were catalysts for such efforts, though the Abramoff experience reinforced the importance of such an initiative. Nonetheless, the firm is now more alert to the risks of the government affairs practice. Despite the institutional bias against committees, an eight-person group has been named to oversee lobbying group standards and sign off on hiring.

Greenberg isn't putting the brakes on its growth in head count. The firm is eyeing new locations in the South and the West, areas of the country with double-digit growth forecasts. Seattle and additional offices in Texas are possibilities, says Alvarez. Greenberg will also make international additions. But Alvarez emphasizes that the firm will remain focused on the U.S. market, which represents 60 percent of the global market for legal services.

For Greenberg, then, the plan is more of the same. More growth. More revenue. More opportunistic hires. But, they hope, no more partners led away in handcuffs.

E-mail: akolz@alm.com.

Candidate Cliche

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Candidate Clinton, Embracing the Trite and the True

By Dana Milbank
Friday, March 9, 2007; A02

Are you in it to win? Would you regard civil rights as the gift that keeps on giving? Do you believe in the American Dream, stupid?

If you answered yes to any of the above, you might consider supporting Hillary Clinton, the person to send to the White House when you care enough to send the very best. More than any other candidate, Clinton has brought the sensibility of Hallmark greeting cards to the 2008 presidential race.

Yesterday, the Democratic front-runner took a number of provocative stands as she spoke about soldiers and veterans at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank:

"If you serve your country, your country should serve you."

"I'm here to say that the buck does stop with this president."

"Let us work . . . to take care of those who are taking care of us."

The controversy didn't end there. She also offered her view that American soldiers are simultaneously "giving their all," "holding their breath" and "stretched to the breaking point." Candidate Cliche continued: "Who's on their side? Who's standing up for them? . . . We owe these young men and women the very best."

We do not owe them the very best rhetoric, however. Abraham Lincoln gave the last full measure of devotion to support-the-troops language 142 years ago, when he called on the nation "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan." Yesterday, Clinton had this to say of the troops: "They don't have the luxury of passing the buck to somebody else. They step forward and they step up."

In fairness, the current occupant of the White House has left future generations little to work with, should they ever decide to etch his words in marble. Bring 'em on? Smoke 'em out? With us or against us? But Clinton's platitudes are deliberate, not innate. As the Democrats' front-runner, she needs to be as anodyne as possible if she is to overcome her polarizing reputation.

"I come to share the memories of a troubled past and a hope for a better tomorrow," Clinton said in Selma, Ala., on Sunday. "Our future matters, and it is up to us to take it back, put it into our hands, start marching toward a better tomorrow." Any objections?

Clinton reserved her loftiest words for the "blood, sweat and tears" put into the Voting Rights Act, which "gave more Americans from every corner of our nation the chance to live out their dreams," she said. "And it is the gift that keeps on giving." Clinton kept giving, too: "Let us join together and complete that march for freedom, justice, opportunity and everything America should be," she said.

A month earlier, she appeared before a Democratic National Committee crowd. "I'm in, and I'm in to win, because we have to take our country back!" she announced. She mixed metaphors like a Cuisinart: "Take our country back and put it on the right track. . . . I am not running for president to put Band-Aids on our problems. . . . Let's plow ahead."

On the Senate floor, Clinton's observations have been sharp and trenchant. On national security: "Keeping our nation strong and our people safe requires that we employ the best and smartest strategies available." On Iraq: "Standing on the sidelines is no way to stand up for the troops." On civil rights: "The endurance of our democracy requires constant vigilance."

But it is on the campaign trail where Clinton's language really soars. According to The Post's Anne Kornblut, a veteran Clinton watcher, the candidate's greatest moment on the stump came last summer in Denver, when she gave an updated version of "It's the economy, stupid," an unofficial slogan of her husband's 1992 campaign. "It's the American Dream, stupid," she proposed. A few weeks earlier, Clinton laid out her legislative agenda, including: "I believe in the chance for every person to pursue his or her dreams"; "we are safer and stronger when we work together"; "we are a resilient people"; and "we care deeply about the future."

Excerpts in advance of Clinton's speech yesterday hinted at similarly courageous stands. She promised the troops that "your country will have your back" and pledged: "They've given their all, and so must we."

In the flesh, Clinton didn't disappoint. "When the injured soldiers return home," she told the crowd of 200, "they should be greeted with open arms, not a wall of bureaucratic red tape." If there was dissent in the room, it was not audible. "Our soldiers are facing some very difficult challenges," she allowed, but she vowed to "put in place a system to get everybody to the front of the line."

Don't understand the logistics of getting everybody to the front of the line? It's the American Dream, stupid.

FOREX trade

WSJ

MARGIN VOLATILITY: Although the Bank of Japan is likely to keep raising interest rates, causing the yen to strengthen, Japan's rates will remain relatively low for a long time, maintaining the attractiveness of the so-called carry trade, in which investors borrow at low interest rates in yen and invest in other currencies at much higher yields. The carry trade is believed to have intensified last week's global market dive when investors needed to sell their foreign-currency holdings to buy yen to cover their losses.

But even though we're through the period of volatility caused by the yen's reversing direction and rising since its Jan. 29 low, such currency plays may continue to amplify market volatility because of a significant change in Japanese investors' habits. A combination of technology, deregulation and low interest rates is enabling individual Japanese to use the same kind of investment techniques as big-money professional investors, global corporations or hedge funds. Borrowing money to trade currencies has become so popular in Japan that individuals sitting at their computers in homes across the country now trade tens of billions of dollars a day. Some days in recent months, they are estimated to have held foreign currency valued at more than five trillion yen, or $43 billion -- roughly equivalent to the amount of yen loans taken out by professional investors to speculate in foreign currencies.

The change flows from a 2005 financial-industry deregulation that made currency trading with borrowed money accessible to ordinary investors, as Yuka Hayashi reports. And instead of banks, which charge high fees, traders increasingly use low-cost online-trading services. More than 100 such companies were set up after the deregulation in 2005. And because Japanese interest rates are so low, they can borrow money against a deposit to trade, say, 20 times as much.

But investing borrowed money is highly risky because it can dramatically amplify losses as well as gains. Some brokers allow individuals to borrow 100 times the amount of money they deposit as collateral. Online-trading companies normally try to protect clients from losing too much money, typically by automatically selling off and closing down a client's investment if it threatens to spiral out of control and cause losses that would devour the collateral on deposit. That happened to many investors last week as the yen rose against the dollar. This type of selling, along with selling by hedge funds and other institutional players, pushed up the yen against the dollar and other currencies. It can do so again.

Read Yuka Hayashi's fascinating report from Tokyo:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB117338616555931381,00.html?mod=djemeurolinks

Uncontrollable Impulses Pre-exist Coke Addiction

Sci. STKE, 6 March 2007
Vol. 2007, Issue 376, p. tw79
[DOI: 10.1126/stke.3762007tw79]

EDITORS' CHOICE
Neuroscience
Drugs, Dopamine, and Disposition
Peter Stern

Science, AAAS, Cambridge CB2 1LQ, UK

Individual differences in drug abuse reflect distinct behavioral and physiological traits. Dalley et al. found that, compared with controls, spontaneously impulsive rats had decreased dopamine D2/3 receptors in the nucleus accumbens even before exposure to cocaine. Trait impulsivity in rats was predictive of subsequent high rates of intravenous cocaine self-administration. Impulsivity is thus an important mediator of drug abuse vulnerability and not a consequence of chronic drug exposure.

J. W. Dalley, T. D. Fryer, L. Brichard, E. S. J. Robinson, D. E. H. Theobald, K. Lääne, Y. Peña, E. R. Murphy, Y. Shah, K. Probst, I. Abakumova, F. I. Aigbirhio, H. K. Richards, Y. Hong, J.-C. Baron, B. J. Everitt, T. W. Robbins, Nucleus accumbens D2/3 receptors predict trait impulsivity and cocaine reinforcement. Science 315, 1267-1270 (2007).


Citation: P. Stern, Drugs, Dopamine, and Disposition. Sci. STKE 2007, tw79 (2007).

The KGB's good spy guide to British cities

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Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 01/03/2007


Click to enlarge: Map of London

Russian spy maps of the UK produced by the KGB during the Cold War have been released for the first time.

They were produced by the Russian military between 1950 and 1997 as part of a worldwide strategy for global domination.

The maps feature details not present on Ordnance Survey maps because of political and military sensitivities at the time.

Using aerial photos, satellite images, local knowledge and even spies to compile their maps, the Russians mapped 6,178 square miles of the UK, including 103 major UK towns and cities.


Click to enlarge: Map of Manchester


The mapping operation formed part of the most comprehensive global survey ever attempted, with the Russian military creating detailed, accurate maps of almost every country in the world.

The maps reveal the exact location and purpose of every structure of possible military importance including the width of roads, the height of bridges, the depth of rivers, train and bus stations and prisons.

The maps, bought by the digital mapping provider Landmark Information Group from East View Cartographics, include London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle, York, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and smaller coastal towns such as Weymouth in Dorset, and Falmouth, in Cornwall.


Click to enlarge: Map of Newcastle


John Davies, an expert on Russian maps, said: "Realising the military, economic and political benefits of topographic information, the Soviet military set about mapping the whole world — a mammoth task which took over 50 years before, during and after the Cold War, to complete.

"Today very little is known about how the organisation was structured and how such incredible results were achieved. Certainly the operation was militarily driven, very well controlled, achieving spectacular results.

"Ultimately futile of course, if the purpose was world domination, but for mapping professionals they provide a fascinating and invaluable insight as to the structure of our towns and use of land during this period."Gallery

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

He Would Lie Around, Playing With His Phone

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Injured biker now obsessed by sex
By Telegraph Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 02/03/2007

A man who became obsessed with mobile phones and sex after suffering brain damage in a road accident is expected to receive a multi million-pound damages award.

Kunal Karl Lindsay had made a remarkable physical recovery after his motorcycle crash near Bourton on the Hill, Gloucs, in September 2002, said Mr Justice Mackay at the High Court in London.

But he had a personality disorder which made him unemployable and was threatening his three-year marriage to his Australian wife, Susan.

Mrs Lindsay, who lives in Queensland with their son, Jesse, two, said his "sexual harassment" and refusal to attend to personal hygiene made her want to "run away".

The judge said Mr Lindsay, 28, of Pegsdon Way, Pegsdon, Herts, became "obsessed" with sex and would pester his wife daily — sometimes in "pornographic" terms — becoming angry if she declined.

He had no motivation and would lie around, playing with his phone.

The obsession led him to access his favourite game 8,000 times in the past 12 months and his general susceptibility caused him to enter into unwise phone contracts and to want to buy everything he saw.

Lawyers for Mr Lindsay and the insurers of the car driver in the crash, Kenneth Wood, of Ferguson Road, Walkington, Beverley, East Yorks, have agreed damages of £1.2 million. But a dispute over future care has hinged on the question of whether Mr Lindsay can move to Australia.

The judge said the chances of his receiving a visa were only 20 per cent and if this did not happen, the marriage was over because Mrs Lindsay refused to return to Britain.

He assessed the cost of care with his wife in Australia at £29,500, against £100,000 a year by himself in Britain.

The hearing was adjourned.

Accounting Literature

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Accounting Literature
The following sample searches illustrate common methods for searching various Accounting Literature materials on the LexisNexis® research services:

Sample Searches: Financial Accounting Statement Board (FASB) Statement
Government Accounting Standard Board (GASB) Statement
Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS)
Statement of Position (SOP)
Accounting Principles Board (APB)

Some of these searches use a search method called segment searching.


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Financial Accounting Statement Board (FASB)
Use a free-text search to find information on a FASB Statement. For example, take the following steps to find FASB Statement number 143:

Click Power Search on the LexisNexis® at www.nexis.com Home page.
Click Find More Sources to open the Source Directory.
Click the following links in the order listed to find the Journal of Accountancy: Area of Law By Topic / Accounting / Accounting Journals and Literature
Click Add next to Journal of Accountancy to move it to the Selected Source(s) field on the right side of the screen.
Click Done Search Now to return to the Power Search form.
Enter statement of financial accounting standard or sfas or fasb pre/3 143 and title ( official lit! or official release ) in the Enter terms and connectors to create your full-text search field.
Enter Project ID.
Click Search.
NOTE: Use the Title segment to narrow your search to titles that contain the words official literature or official release.

Use the exclamation mark ( ! ) to find all forms of the word literature, including lit, and literature.

Use the OR connector to join words you want to search as alternative terms.

Use the PRE/3 connector to allow for spacing and punctuation variations or additional terms when you search for one concept that precedes another concept.


[Top]


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Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) Statements
Use a free-text search to find information on a GASB Statement. For example, take the following steps to find GASB Statement number 8:

Click Power Search on the LexisNexis® at www.nexis.com Home page.
Click Find More Sources to open the Source Directory.
Click the following links in the . . .

Who Are You Sleeping With?

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Prevalence of HPV Infection Among Females in the United States
Eileen F. Dunne, MD, MPH; Elizabeth R. Unger, PhD, MD; Maya Sternberg, PhD; Geraldine McQuillan, PhD; David C. Swan, PhD; Sonya S. Patel, BS; Lauri E. Markowitz, MD


JAMA. 2007;297:813-819.

Prevalence of HPV DNA in a representative sample of US females aged 14 to 59 years was 26.8%, with the highest prevalence (44.8%) among women aged 20 to 24 years. The overall prevalence of HPV among females aged 14 to 24 years was 33.8%. This prevalence corresponds with 7.5 million females with HPV infection, which is higher than the previous estimate of 4.6 million prevalent HPV infections among females in this same age group in the United States.1 The overall prevalences of high-risk HPV types 16 and 18 were 1.5% (95% CI, 0.9%-2.6%) and 0.8% (95% CI, 0.4%-1.5%), respectively.

Google Dominates

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Stats Show Google Dominates the International Search Landscape

By Greg Jarboe
February 22, 2007

A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference, February 13-15, 2007, London, UK.

What is the most popular search engine in the UK? In Europe? In the world?

According to representatives from major ratings and traffic analysis services who shared their latest stats during "The Search Landscape" session at SES London, the answers to these questions are: Google, Google, and Google.

The Search Landscape session was one of the first on the opening day of the conference. It was moderated by Julian Smith, insight and research director at MEC Interaction, EMEA, part of Mediaedge:cia. Speakers included Alex Burmaster . . .

Young Lawyers Sue, and Little Changes - New York Times

Young Lawyers Sue, and Little Changes - New York Times: "More than 80,500 people took a state’s bar exam in 2005, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners; just under two-thirds — 64 percent — passed. And BAR/BRI sells at least 40,000 bar review courses annually, according to a judge hearing one of the antitrust lawsuits against the company."

Ticket Insurance

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New Cover Could Give Ticket Buyers Another Reason to Celebrate


RICHMOND, Va. February 01 (BestWire) — It launched just six months ago, but ticket insurance -– sold through a handful of online ticket vendors -– is a major hit, according to the product’s creator, World Access.

So far, Richmond, Va.-based World Access, a member of Mondial Assistance Group which is part of the Allianz family of companies, has insured more than $4 million worth of tickets, company spokeswoman Emily Porter said. “It’s very popular.”

The product provides buyers of tickets -– to events like concerts, sports matches and games, theatre and opera — full refunds of the purchase price if there’s an emergency that prevents them from attending the event. To be reimbursed, however, the emergency has to be a covered risk, such as sudden illness, losing a job, or having a loved one fall ill or injured.

Porter said there are lots of covered reasons, including if a ticket buyer had an accident on the way to the game or on the way to catch a flight to the game or if they were called to jury duty, or suffered vandalism or house fire. So far, “the most common claim is getting sick or injured right before the event."

Steve Weisz, the chief executive and founder of In Ticketing, an online ticket service best known for facilitating ticketing for popular international music events such as Rainbow Serpent Festival and Burning Man Festival, said his company began selling ticket insurance just weeks ago. When the product first launched, the original idea was for vendors to insure only purchases from their Web site, but Weisz is a licensed broker who also sells travel insurance, and is allowed to insure other tickets. “So you can go to one of our competitors, a major ticketing company, and buy Super Bowl tickets or Brittany Spears tickets, you can come to our insurance page and insure that purchase,” Weisz said.

Weisz said he’s getting a lot of inquiries about the coverage. “New clients are expressing interest in working with us, people that are doing ski trips or theater groups that are traveling and want to insure tickets for their 5,000 members,” he said.

The rate for ticket coverage is a minimum of $3 per ticket or 5% of the cost. So, a $100 ticket for example, would cost $5. Shipping fees, taxes and convenience fees are all covered and refundable, Weisz said.

World Access and its vendors expect ticket insurance to increase in popularity. Porter said the cover would also drive up sales of tickets in general as events become more expensive.

Sporting events, such as the upcoming Super Bowl in Miami, can run in the thousands of dollars, as do theater tickets, Broadway and opera tickets. Porter said the harder the tickets are to get, the more people would want to buy them further out in advance. And the further out an event is, the higher the risk that a buyer may have to cancel for some unforeseen reason. "So the cost of event and the desire to purchase it further out in advance will makes the ticket insurance more desirable,” she said.
(By David Dankwa, associate editor, BestWeek: David.Dankwa@ambest.com) BN-NJ-02-01-2007 1637 ET #

ProShares Launches 22 New Leveraged and Inverse Leveraged Sector ETFs

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Posted on Feb 2nd, 2007 with stocks: DIG, DUG, REW, ROM, RXD, RXL, SCC, SDP, SIJ, SKF, SMN, SRS, SSG, SZK, UCC, UGE, UPW, URE, USD, UXI, UYG, UYM

Matt Hougan (IndexUniverse) submits: ProShares will continue the expansion of its line-up of leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds Wednesday morning, with the simultaneous launch of 22 new sector ETFs. In a twist, however, the group will only be launching two sets of funds for each index: leveraged (200 percent exposure) and inverse leveraged (-200 percent exposure). In previous launches, ProShares had also included a straight short (-100 percent exposure) version of the funds.

It’s not immediately clear if ProShares will launch the straight short funds later; the group has already filed for these funds . Those have always been the least interesting products in the ProShares line-up, as investors can short traditional ETFs and earn the same exposure. The short funds seemed to be a legacy of ProShares’ days selling traditional mutual funds, where being able to go short was a big innovation.

The new funds are tied to Dow Jones indexes, and will list on the American Stock Exchange. The names and tickers are:


Ultra Sector ProShares (200 percent exposure)
Ultra Basic Materials (UYM)
Ultra Consumer Goods (UGE)
Ultra Consumer Services (UCC)
Ultra Financials (UYG)
Ultra Health Care (RXL)
Ultra Industrials (UXI)
Ultra Oil & Gas (DIG)
Ultra Real Estate (URE)
Ultra Semiconductors (USD)
Ultra Technology (ROM)
Ultra Utilities (UPW)

UltraShort Sector ProShares (-200 percent exposure)

UltraShort Basic Materials (SMN)

UltraShort Consumer Goods (SZK)

UltraShort Consumer Services (SCC)

UltraShort Financials (SKF)

UltraShort Health Care (RXD)

UltraShort Industrials (SIJ)

UltraShort Oil & Gas (DUG)

UltraShort Real Estate (SRS)

UltraShort Semiconductors (SSG)

UltraShort Technology (REW)
UltraShort Utilities (SDP)

The prospectus is available here.

The ProShares ETFs have been a huge hit with traders, racking up over $2 billion in assets in the first few months on the market. The sector funds will likely be successful as well, as the sector market is popular with traders and momentum folks, who will look to the leveraged ETFs to get the most bang for their trading buck.

Last week, ProShares rolled out six ETFs offering leveraged, short and inverse leveraged exposure to the S&P 600 SmallCap and Russell 2000 Indexes.

PhDiva: Ecology Endangering Eating in Mexico

Quote of the Day!
PhDiva: Ecology Endangering Eating in Mexico: "'It is absolutely crucial for our population to keep eating tortillas,' Gálvez said."