In a shocking revelation in open court today, ex-Drummond executive Dave Roberson’s wife Anna, who grew up in Jasper, Alabama attempted suicide twice because of her husband’s troubles allegedly caused by Balch and Bingham’s bad legal advice and Drummond Company’s alleged greed. The bad legal advice was central to the criminal case known as the … Continue reading Roberson’s Wife Attempted Suicide Twice
Breaking news tonight from AL.com: A California business executive was sentenced to six months in federal prison Tuesday for conspiring to bribe the former majority leader of the Alabama House of Representatives. G. Ford Gilbert, 71, paid former Alabama House Majority Leader Micky Hammon $2,000 to drum up support for a bill that would force … Continue reading Watch Out! $2,000 Bribe Lands Businessman 6 Months in Federal Prison
Southern Company has released its annual corporate responsibility report and they list their values including: Unquestionable Trust Honesty, respect, fairness and integrity drive our behavior. We keep our promises, and ethical behavior is our standard. As we approach more publicly-traded companies about the controversies surrounding Balch & Bingham, Balch’s alleged dishonesty, disrespect, unfairness, and lack … Continue reading Balch & Bingham’s “Owed No Duty” Goes Contrary to Southern Company’s Values
[This post was originally published last year on April 30, 2018. Today is the annual shareholders meeting of Southern Company. With a federal probe emanating from Mississippi, cost overruns at a nuclear power plant in Georgia, and Balch & Bingham’s alleged shenanigans in Alabama, Southern Company has many issues to confront; however, CEO Tom Fanning … Continue reading Southern Company and Balch’s Third-Party Risk
Does Balch & Bingham truly believe that hiring one white-male attorney in Augusta while letting go of the only black female attorney in Birmingham is a public relations coup? Last week, trying to deflect their troubles with blinders on, Balch & Bingham announced the opening of a one-attorney office in Augusta, Georgia and tried to … Continue reading Opposition to Balch & Bingham Builds Nationally
[This post originally was published on February 23, 2018 before the conviction of Balch-made millionaire Joel I. Gilbert. We think this post is a sobering story about when good people go astray.] Greed. Power. Selfish pride. They lead to the downfall and the crumbling of inherent goodness for many people and institutions. In January of … Continue reading When the Good Go Bad
Of the 203 attorneys, staff, and partners we counted on Balch & Bingham’s webpage, only three are African-American women. Scattered each in a different regional office, none are located in Balch’s principal office in Birmingham. Kimberly Bell appears to have been the only African-American female attorney in Balch’s central office in Birmingham. No more we … Continue reading Do Black Women Need Not Apply at Balch & Bingham?
When we, the CDLU, started our outreach to Balch & Bingham in January of 2017, never would we have thought that we would end up with one of the most widely read blogs in Alabama or that our posts would have been read by over 1.5 million users on Facebook Trying to serve as a … Continue reading Saving Balch & Bingham
The bombshell from Kyle Whitmire’s column yesterday: The Justice Department could pursue its case further. So far, the US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, Jay Town, has said only the men convicted already [ex Balch partner Joel I. Gilbert, ex State Rep. Oliver Robinson, and Drummond Executive Dave Roberson] were responsible. Does that … Continue reading Sorry Balch & Bingham, Drummond: The Fat Lady Has Not Sung!
The $50 million civil lawsuit against Balch & Bingham and Drummond Company by Dave Roberson may open Balch’s internal behavior to new scrutiny. The Washington Post reported yesterday: The Balch billing department balked at instructions from [convicted felon and now ex-Balch partner Joel I.] Gilbert to scrub the Oliver Robinson Foundation’s name from certain invoices … Continue reading Balch’s Behavior Open to New Scrutiny in Roberson Suit
Breaking News: The Washington Post reports how Drummond Company Executive Dave Roberson was thrown over the side of the bridge by Drummond Company. Is Drummond more loyal now to Balch & Bingham than their employees? From today’s breaking news story: Drummond initially stuck by Roberson, its executive. “While we respect the judicial process, we consider … Continue reading The Washington Post: Drummond Company and Balch Sued for $50 Million by “Fall Guy” Dave Roberson
Ex-Balch & Bingham partner Jeffrey H. Wood, one of President Donald J. Trump’s first nominees to the U.S. Department of Justice after he was inaugurated as President, appears to have been shown the door by U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr, according to our sources. Only days after the North Birmingham Bribery Scandal broke headlines, … Continue reading AG Barr Shows Balch Crony the Door; Southern Company to the Rescue
[This post originally appeared on May 10, 2018 before ex-Balch & Bingham partner and convicted felon Joel I. Gilbert was found guilty on all six criminal counts in July, including bribery and money laundering. Now that Balch has lost 17 of their 18 original lobbying clients in Washington, DC, no client, none, will be able … Continue reading Balch’s Doomsday Machine: Third-Party Risk
Even though many in the legal community in Alabama are currently focused on the Donald Watkins trial, the conviction and five-year sentence of ex-Balch & Bingham partner and ghost-writer extraordinaire Joel I. Gilbert have not gone away. In an extraordinary news post last week on the FBI website, the FBI wrote about the North Birmingham … Continue reading FBI: Ex-Balch Partner Gilbert “Will be Serving Time”
[This post originally was published on February 5, 2018. All updates are in purple.] Charles Cole lived in the North Birmingham community of Harriman Park until 1959 after he was brutally beaten by racist Birmingham cops. He saved up his money and immediately moved to Michigan to escape the horrors of segregation. After retiring, he … Continue reading Institutional Racism and Balch