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Washington, D. C. Super Lawyers 2007 & 2008
Lynne Bernabei has been recognized as one of the Top Washington D.C. Lawyers two years in a row by Super Lawyers. See Superlawyers.com. |
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April 28, 2008
The April 28, 2008 issue of The New Yorker has an article, “State Secrets: A Government Misstep in a Wiretapping Case,” by Patrick Radden Keefe. This article is about the government’s disclosure to our law firm of classified information that apparently disclosed the existence of the government’s warrantless wiretapping of attorney-client communications with several clients in early 2004. Mr. Keefe’s article also discusses how the courts and Congress have struggled to resolve these and related issues that arise when the Department of Justice asserts the state secrets privilege as a bar to bringing legal claims against the government.
Click here to read article. |
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March 21, 2008
Kerry Beal, a client of Bernabei & Wachtel PLLC, was a whistleblower at the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Pennsylvania, which is operated by Exelon. Mr. Beal lost his job in November 2007 after he complained openly about security guards sleeping on the job at Peach Bottom. In March 2007, in an effort to protect the community and his job, a friend, John Jasinski, had made a complaint to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), without disclosing Mr. Beal’s identity. NRC took no action on these complaints other than refer the complaints to Exelon, for an internal investigation that failed to substantiate any allegation of sleeping on duty. Not until after a videotape was publicly broadcast, showing the sleeping guards, did the NRC take any action, and Exelon belatedly ended its contract with Wackenhut to provide the security guards at its nuclear power plants, thereby vindicating Mr. Beal.
On February 28, 2008, the U.S. Senate, Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety, held an oversight hearing on “Security of Our Nation’s Nuclear Plants.” At that hearing, Senator Bob Casey (Pennsylvania) testified that the sleeping by the security guards was “inexcusable,” that it was necessary to “fix this serious problem at our nation’s nuclear security plants,” and that he had met with Mr. Beal, “the whistleblower who alerted us to the sleeping guards in the first place.” Read Casey Testimony
David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer with the Union of Concerned Scientists, testified that NRC, Exelon, and Wackenhut all knew about these problems, but failed to take any action. He emphasized that: “It is impossible to determine which is more unacceptable and intolerable – sleeping on duty or ignoring security warnings from conscientious workers. Both behaviors allowed sleeping to continue until outside force was brought to bear on the matter.” Read Lochbaum Testimony. Mr. Lochbaum documented that not until there was a rumor that a videotape existed did the NRC finally conduct its own investigation, months later.
Dale Klein, the NRC Chairman, admitted in his testimony that “this behavior is unacceptable,” since the NRC “requires that security personnel ... be attentive at all times.” Read Klein Testimony. Gregory Jaczko, an NRC Commissioner, also admitted that: “I, too, was very concerned to discover that security guards on duty at Peach Bottom Nuclear Station conspired to sleep during their shift. That is absolutely unacceptable and you can rest assured that the NRC takes this situation very seriously and is vigorously pursuing it. We are focused on two things: investigating those directly involved - and holding the licensee and the contractor accountable - and taking a long hard look at our own performance as an agency.” Read Jaczko Testimony. However, neither Chairman Klein, nor the other NRC commissioners who also testified, were able to explain why the NRC uncritically accepted Exelon’s whitewash report, and failed to take any substantive action until after the existence of the video became known.
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March 14, 2008
Do the wrong thing
Despite all the cries for change, politicians continue to betray their constituents
FROM NEW YORK to Oklahoma to Maryland, politicians demonstrated this week that they still don’t get it. The ubiquitous cries for change we’ve heard on the campaign trail this year are clearly not being heard.
Click here to read article. |
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February 8, 2008
DNC seeks to halt leaks stemming from lawsuit Gay
Revelations in discrimination case called ‘embarrassing, damaging’
To stop what it calls an “abuse of the discovery process,” the Democratic National Committee is seeking new safeguards as it fights a gay man’s discrimination lawsuit.
Click here to read article. |
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February 8, 2008
Dems’ love for us is on the down-low
Gay Democratic donors and voters deserve better treatment from the party
THE LAWSUIT FILED by a gay man alleging the Democratic National Committee discriminated against him is yielding more insights into how the party interacts with gay media outlets and the sometimes tortured positions it takes on gay issues.
Click here to read article. |
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January 23, 2008
The print media and bloggers are continuing to cover the defamation and discrimination lawsuit filed against the Democratic National Committee and several of its officers. These articles discuss the ongoing controversy over the refusal of one witness to testify because she claims to be a resident of California since early 2005, even though she is a registered voter in D.C., voted here in 2006, and maintained her personal residence for tax purposes in D.C. through 2007. These articles also report on the derogatory remarks made by DNC officers about the Washington Blade, a weekly newspaper that generally had favorable coverage of the Democratic Party, indicating the DNC’s dismissive attitude towards some of its most loyal supporters. |
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January 18, 2008
The Washington Blade, a weekly newspaper, published a cover story, “DNC Lawsuit Ensnares Lesbian Activist, Donor” which arose from a defamation and employment discrimination lawsuit filed by a Bernabei & Wachtel client, Donald Hitchcock, against his former employer, the Democratic National Committee. In that lawsuit, a witness, Claire Lucas, was served with a deposition subpoena in November 2007, but she filed a motion to quash that subpoena in which she claimed that she was a resident of California, not D.C., since 2005. Mr. Hitchcock filed an opposition to her motion to quash, which pointed out that Ms. Lucas owned property in D.C., for which she took the homeowners’ deduction (which requires the owner to be a legal resident of D.C.); was registered to vote in D.C. and voted in the D.C. elections as recently as September 2006; held positions with the Clinton campaign and the National Stonewall Democrats by virtue of being a D.C. resident; and otherwise held herself out to the public as a resident of D.C., not of California.
The Washington Blade also published an editorial, “Democrats’ Gay Problem” which criticized the Democratic National Committee’s cavalier and unjustified treatment of Mr. Hitchcock, and gays and lesbians more generally, based on evidence obtained in Mr. Hitchcock’s lawsuit. |
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January 10, 2008
The Washington Post published a commentary in the Sunday “Outlook” section (Dec. 23, 2006) by Robin Ingle, a Bernabei & Wachtel client who formerly worked at the Consumer Product Safety Commission as a statistician on various safety issues. Ms. Ingle resigned after realizing that the CPSC would only delay in releasing statistics that safety problems with certain products had actually gotten worse, not better, and that the CPSC’s attorneys would insist that reports be rewritten to claim, falsely, that those products were safer than in the past. Ms. Ingle concluded her article by calling upon the agency to focus on its mission: to save lives, not to cover up for the industry:
It's easy to be outraged because the agency has allowed dangerous products to be imported from China, or because its chairman has taken trips paid for by the industries she regulates. But it's important to look more closely at CPSC and ask what really drives it and what currency it deals in. The agency was formed for one reason: to save lives. People of all ages die every day in incidents associated with some of the 15,000 products that it's meant to oversee. The agency should listen to its own scientists and stop silencing the life-saving research happening in its buildings.
Subsequently, OMB Watch, a non-profit group that monitors the lack of government oversight and accountability in many critical areas, discussed Ms. Ingle’s article, and the pending legislation in Congress that would force the CPSC to focus on safety, not covering up for the industry. |
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January 10, 2008
The Washington Post, in “Executive Resigns in Storm over Sleeping Guards,” reported that Wackenhut fired its Chief Executive Officer as a result of Exelon having terminated Wackenhut’s contract to provide security guards at nuclear power plants. This began when Kerry Beal, a Bernabei & Wachtel client, reported to his managers and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that security guards were sleeping on the job at a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Since Wackenhut, Exelon, and the NRC took no action, Mr. Beal then provided a videotape to a CBS station. Only then did the NRC take belated action, which was largely a whitewash. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold an investigative hearing later this month into the NRC’s failure to take action in response to Mr. Beal’s whistleblowing complaint.
Click here to read article. |
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January 10, 2008
Philip Agee, a former CIA officer and author, died earlier this month. Lynne Bernabei represented Mr. Agee in his defamation lawsuit against Barbara Bush, and successfully obtained a public apology from Ms. Bush, who also agreed that all future printings of her autobiography would not have any defamatory or untrue statements about Mr. Agee. |
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