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Has Balch & Bingham Become a Career Killer?
Balch & Bingham, the once-prestigious silk-stocking law firm appears to have become a career killer. Look at some of the victims: Drummond Company CEO Mike Tracy gone. Ex-Balch partner Jeffrey H. Wood shown the door at DOJ. Ex-Drummond executive Dave Roberson fired. Oliver Robinson sent to federal prison. Ex-Balch client Black Hall Aerospace facing federal probes. Ex-Balch stooge Trey Glenn of EPA forced to resign. Balch crony and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired. Balch stooge Luther Strange loses U.S. Senate seat. As the carcasses stack up, some Balch & Bingham partners have wisely dumped the firm for greener pastures.…
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Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, RICO, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Counterfeit Order, Judicial Fraud Rocks Balch & Bingham
[Update: Counterfeit Order Divided Alabama Supreme Court] Is this just all a bad dream? Just when one thinks Balch & Bingham will retreat back from the ledge of corporate suicide, another bombshell lands that shows sheer stupidity and unequivocal corruption of the Alabama judicial system. Burt Newsome, the attorney who allegedly was wrongly targeted, falsely arrested, and defamed by Balch & Bingham and other co-conspirators has filed a 100-page appellate brief with the Alabama Supreme Court, and it is a devastating indictment of the Keystone Cops at Balch & Bingham. The cornerstone of all defendants’ legal arguments, the 44 retaliatory…
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Nervous Whispers: Collapse of LeClairRyan
Yesterday, the leadership of the the respected law firm LeClairRyan out of Richmond, Virginia, announced they would be formally shutting down after 31 years. The Richmond Times-Dispatch described the firm: LeClairRyan was created in 1988 as a venture capital legal boutique operation to help entrepreneurs, startup businesses and venture capitalists. LeClairRyan grew from two attorneys into a full-service firm with hundreds of lawyers working at one time in more than two dozen offices and representing some of the largest corporations in the world. So why the closing? According to the Times-Dispatch: The decision comes at a time of continuing departures…
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Drummond, Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, RICO, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Have Balch and Drummond Agreed to a Murder-Suicide Pact?
Let’s first talk about Drummond Company. We have no bones to pick with Drummond; we believe the company was given bad legal advice by Balch & Bingham; and before the criminal trial we even thought that David Roberson could be acquitted. Then six-months after his criminal conviction and Drummond’s vow to support a “man of integrity,” Drummond fired David Roberson and 12 days later his charity of choice. Roberson filed a $50 million civil lawsuit against Balch and Drummond. Roberson is now considering singing like a canary and he probably has a stockpile of dry powder that federal investigators would love…
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Bombshell: Balch Stooges in JeffCo Try to Screw Newsome with Incomplete Record of Appeal
In what looks like a deliberate attempt to carry out another unbelievable act of injustice in the Newsome Conspiracy Case, the Circuit Court Clerk of Jefferson County left out thousands of pages of responses and transcripts from Burt Newsome’s defense. In a motion filed today with the Alabama Supreme Court, Newsome’s legal team writes: In volume 30 of the record of appeal, document numbers 1358 to 2110 from the Circuit Court are missing. These records contain all of Appellant’s responses to the defendants summary judgment motions that were filed by the as well as some other pleadings. The transcripts from the…
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Newsome Conspiracy Case, North Birmingham Bribery Case, RICO, Southern Company, Spotlight on Balch & Bingham
Is Alabama Power’s Crosswhite in the DOJ Cross-hairs?
In Alabama, the plantation mentality wants everyone to stay in their place and to accept the injustice or unsavory conduct—quietly. Even if you are a success story and not from the gentry class, the people with the plantation mentality won’t accept you, especially if you are African-American. If ex-Drummond Vice President of Government Affairs David Roberson sings to the feds, who will be hurt the most in this evolving Greek tragedy? Alabama Power. And who would be in the DOJ’s cross-hairs? Most likely Mark Crosswhite, the current CEO of Alabama Power and a former long-time Balch & Bingham partner. In…
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Sharper Focus on Alabama Power
[Yesterday, our Monday traffic broke a year-high record as readers read our post about the Scary Canary and allegations of bribes for official acts on government letterhead.The post below was originally published on November 26, 2018 and focused on Southern Company. Now that CEO Tom Fanning has brilliantly distanced Southern Company from Balch & Bingham, the same questions arise about their wholly-owned subsidiary, Alabama Power and its CEO Mark Crosswhite. Changes to the post are in purple.] When we, the CDLU, took on the powerful hospital sector for price gouging uninsured families, some hospitals arrogantly called us irrelevant, unknown, unimportant.…
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Alabama Supreme Court Shenanigans
At 1:02 a.m. on Saturday, June 29, 2019, Burt Newsome was officially notified that the Clerk of Jefferson County had certified the record of appeal, six-months past the 28-day rule. As we reported, Balch & Bingham stooge Judge Carole Smitherman had her corrupt hand in the cookie jar behind this scripted delay of the appeal of the Newsome Conspiracy Case. In March, Smitherman even foolishly signed an illegal order granting the Clerk of Jefferson County more time to compile the record even though she, as a Circuit Court judge, had no authority to grant orders in a Supreme Court case.…
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Will Crosswhite Reform Balch & Bingham?
[This post originally appeared on October 29, 2018. Now that Drummond and Balch & Bingham are in the midst of a $50 million lawsuit that could expose the ugly truth, will Crosswhite lead or not?] When Mark Crosswhite, the CEO of Alabama Power withdrew from the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) early this past summer, creating headlines, he wrote: “[W]e have become concerned that membership in BCA has become a liability rather than a benefit….To be candid, BCA has needlessly alienated federal and state officials, failed to communicate with its own members, squandered our collective corporate goodwill, allowed its financial…
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Balch’s Wilted Flower Ripped to Shreds
During the criminal trial of Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert last summer, Lance LeFleur, the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), became le fleur fanée on the witness stand. As we wrote last year: The words from the [witness] stand shows a web of politicians and paid goons who appear to be all intimidated or controlled by Balch & Bingham. Balch ran the operation, called the shots, and appears to have had everyone’s undivided attention. Yesterday, Kyle Whitmire ripped the Wilted Flower a new one: When Drummond Co. and Balch & Bingham pressured the Alabama Department…
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Could a “Staged Arrest” Kill Alabama Power’s White Elephant?
Alabama Power and the embattled law firm Balch & Bingham are called “sister-wives.” Almost a century ago, the brother of Alabama Power’s president started the firm. Mark A. Crosswhite, a former Balch & Bingham partner, is the CEO of Alabama Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company, and considered one of the most powerful executives in Alabama. The long-time incestuous, revolving-door relationship may answer the question: How did the son of a long-time Alabama Power executive (now retired) get involved in an alleged “staged arrest” of one of Balch & Bingham’s most-successful competitors? With a civil RICO lawsuit to be…
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“Double Standard” Makes Balch Stooge Look Like a Sheer Hypocrite
In a new filing with the Alabama Supreme Court, the Queen of the secretive and unconstitutional Star Chamber and one of Balch & Bingham’s top stooges, Judge Carole Smitherman comes out looking like a sheer hypocrite. In March, we outlined how JeffCo and the Alabama Supreme Court were trying to screw over Burt Newsome with demands for the compilation of Smitherman’s court records of the Newsome Conspiracy Case within a week, something Newsome has no control over. The obligation actually rests on the JeffCo Circuit Court Clerk. The one-week demand came only hours after we wrote a critical piece about…
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Alabama Power Overheats on Ronnlund Connection
Our sources at Southern Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Alabama Power tell us that Robert Ronnlund, the attorney accused of engaging in alleged obstruction of justice and the alteration of evidence in the Newsome Conspiracy Case, caused a flurry of activity at the utility yesterday afternoon. Ronnlund’s wife, Millicent, serves as General Counsel of Southern Nuclear, another wholly-owned subsidiary of Southern Company. Before joining Southern Nuclear in late 2017, Millicent Ronnlund was a partner at Balch & Bingham. When our sources told us Ronnlund was of gravest concern, we were scratching our heads, asking, “Why?” The answer, unknown to us at first,…
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Who will Go: Balch or Crosswhite?
What kind of utility company allows a vendor to violate a structured code of conduct and abuse their inter-connected relationships by allegedly engaging in a “staged arrest?” With Wall Street analysts and institutional investors being briefed this week, the aftermath of the link of Alabama Power to the Newsome Conspiracy Case and a coming civil RICO lawsuit, the question everyone is asking is who will go: Balch & Bingham or Mark Crosswhite? Crosswhite, who serves as CEO of Alabama Power and one of the most powerful business players in Alabama, (and who has shown brilliant leadership in the past) may…
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Smitherman’s Spring Break Fever
Balch & Bingham stooge Judge Carole Smitherman may take a few days off for Spring Break reflecting on the worst week she has had in her career. What kind of idiot signs her name to an order that simply adds explosive fuel to a civil RICO lawsuit? Previously, we had shown over $30,000 in questionable contributions to Smitherman and her husband State Senator Rodger Smitherman that appear to have been possibly used to influence the horrendous decisions made in the Newsome Conspiracy Case. The over $30,000 came from entities or individuals affiliated with the alleged co-conspirators or Balch, including $2,000…
