In August, Balch & Bingham met with a highly-respected RICO attorney (and former Assistant U.S. Attorney) representing Burt Newsome. What initially, we were told, was an effort to get the matter for all parties “behind them” ended up turning into an additional hour about us, the CDLU, and this website.

The RICO attorney appears to have been blind-sided. He did not know much about us or details about the site, although he knew of the existence of the site. He agreed to reach out to us as an interlocutor.

Balch was indeed seeking to settle the Newsome Conspiracy Case if and only if the CDLU stops publishing critical, investigative posts about Balch and signs a non-disparaging agreement.

Besides briefing the RICO attorney about the numerous scandals and alleged unsavory conduct related to Balch, we told him unequivocally:

The CDLU has no needs. We have no needs whatsoever. We are not a party in this lawsuit. We will continue our fight to reform the legal system and end corruption inside law firms, especially now that Michael Cohen has pleaded guilty. We are simply working with Balch in good faith to help the community at large and the victims of alleged misconduct. Even though Balch & Bingham has approached us through back channels, their outreach will not deter nor compromise our efforts to post news and discourage publicly traded companies from utilizing Balch & Bingham until the matters are settled and/or a plan of action is agreed to.

When the CDLU took on Tenet Healthcare, we took them to task for almost a full-year until they lost $1.6 billion in acquisitions. Even though we were not parties in the lawsuit, CDLU’s two co-founders settled the matter in an enormous conference room table before a dozen or more Tenet Healthcare executives and lawyers.

We, the CDLU, praised Tenet’s leadership in correcting a wrong, and that bold step became an industry-wide change four years later.

We honored and commended Tenet Healthcare (and even signed a non-disclosure agreement about the settlement provisions)  after ripping them to shreds for a year.

Out of courtesy, we have kept our recent communication from Balch & Bingham confidential. However, we learned recently that the civil RICO litigation about the Newsome Conspiracy Case is proceeding forward and that Balch and their attorneys, wishing to believe the worst is behind them, have ended all discussions.

But look what’s coming:

• Next week, bought-and-paid-for politician Oliver Robinson will be sentenced to prison.
• Soon a major effort will be launched to educate and discourage Fortune 500 and energy companies from using Balch & Bingham.
• In October, convicted felon and former Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert is to be sentenced to prison.
• Dark money sources tied to disgraced former Governor-in-boxers Robert  Bentley may be allowed to be revealed in October.
• Also in October, the RICO Case regarding the Newsome Conspiracy Case will be filed.

On Friday, we wrote that Balch’s acts of impunity are no longer tolerated by the public; and acts of contrition, reconciliation, and forgiveness are the only path forward to salvage the firm.

Obviously someone with common sense at Balch & Bingham tried, in good faith, to reach out to us and put the matters behind them.

Instead, now, Balch & Bingham have reversed themselves and appears to be on a path of self-destruction.

The many honorable, ethical and professional Balch partners and their colleagues appear to have been ignored again by their leadership.