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Starbucks Leads; Southern Company Sticks Head in Sand
With the Vogtle Nuclear Plant cost overruns in Georgia, Kemper Natural Gas Plant debacle in Mississippi, and the Atlanta airport transformer explosion fresh in people’s minds, Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning just added one more problem that could haunt him at the annual shareholders meeting next month. Racism. Institutional racism. Racial-bias. Sheer ugliness. As Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson has shown the business world how to deal with the ugliness swiftly and promptly, he went a step further yesterday: on May 29, 2018, Starbucks will shut down 8,000 stores to train 175,000 employees about racial bias. For over a year, we…
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Starbucks CEO Confronts Racism; Southern Company CEO Does Nothing
Polar opposites? Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson not only had a prompt and heartfelt apology to the two African-Americans that were falsely arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, the store manager who called the police was let go, and Johnson met with the two victims on Tuesday. When Southern Company was told of the alleged racist and unscrupulous acts of their alter-ego, sister-wife, and most trusted law firm Balch & Bingham, Southern Company took over four weeks to say they would do nothing. Starbucks confronts racism while Southern Company does nothing. Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning has remained silent and to…
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Starbucks vs. Southern Company
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson swiftly and courageously apologized for and condemned the racist and false arrest of two-African-Americans waiting for a colleague at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. For months now, we, the CDLU, have asked Southern Company to take similar actions against their “vendor,” alter-ego, or as The Root labeled, sister-wife Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm that engaged in alleged racist and unsavory conduct. In January, Jim Kerr, the General Counsel of Southern Company told us they were not going to get involved in the alleged racist and unsavory conduct of their sister-wife. [Read our update: Starbucks CEO Confronts…
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Southern Company Socked by Ronnlund Conduct
Robert M. Ronnlund, a Birmingham attorney who appears to have engaged in alleged criminal obstruction of justice in the Burt Newsome Conspiracy Case by dispatching a bogus letter to AT&T, looks like he engaged in additional shenanigans that raise serious if not damning questions about professional conduct. After Newsome was wrongly targeted and falsely arrested, the criminal case against him collapsed and it was dismissed with prejudice. The dismissal and release order clearly states the matter would be dismissed with prejudice as you can see below. When Ronnlund filed his pleading for his client, the dismissal and release order…
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Why is Southern Company Subsidizing Alleged Racism?
“Southern may not have been indicted, but the company could be doing more to distance itself from a firm whose web of cash sticks to every facet of a conspiracy to disenfranchise poor blacks.” — The Root The bombshell report by The Root is slowly causing the African-American community to percolate with outrage that their utility bills are subsidizing Southern Company’s sister-wife and alter-ego Balch & Bingham, the embattled law firm that engaged in alleged racist and unscrupulous actions. The allegations include: Suppressing the North Birmingham African-American community from having their toxic and contaminated property tested by the EPA. The…
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Sister Wives: Balch and Southern Company
“Both entities [Southern Company and its subsidiary Alabama Power] share more relations with Balch than sister-wives. Executives at Southern and Balch swap out like Pokémon cards. Their little black book of political donees is Old Testament-thick.”— The Root Balch & Bingham’s alleged acts of institutional racism have begun to deteriorate their number one client: Southern Company. Today’s brilliant expose’ on The Root, a popular online website for African-Americans, rips the Good Ole Boy shenanigans that allegedly suppressed African-Americans in North Birmingham, an area that is 92.5 percent African-American. On November 30, 2017, Southern Company’s CEO Tom Fanning personally called CDLU’s…
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Porn Stars, Politicians, and Attorney-Client Privilege
With the President angered about the raid against his attorney, Michael Cohen, and the U.S. Attorney Office in the Southern District of New York responding to a referral from the Office of the Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, the action sends a clear message to insiders and those who hide behind attorney-client privilege to engage in alleged unsavory if not criminal conduct: you will be investigated regardless of your status or political influence. Balch & Bingham was thrown into similar “hot coals” in September in the Oliver Robinson bribery scheme to allegedly suppress poor African-Americans in North Birmingham from…
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Past Due at Balch & Bingham
The Birmingham Business Journal reports: Balch & Bingham LLP has launched a new blog. Past Due is a consumer finance litigation block and a resource that will provide timely legal developments and insights impacting the consumer credit industry. The blog, www.pastdueblog.com, will monitor changes in case law, regulations and legislation to help companies navigate their compliance, enforcement and litigation issues. Through the blog, Balch attorneys will provide insight regarding the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, and consumer bankruptcy litigation, as well as state and federal Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices acts…
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U.S. Attorneys Cracking Down on Public Corruption in Alabama
“All those engaged in public corruption must be brought to justice, and it matters not their benefactor or station.” — U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town Public corruption in Alabama makes headlines again, a little over six months after two Balch and Bingham partners were indicted in an alleged bribery scheme. The Birmingham Business Journal wrote: A longtime Alabama lawmaker from Vestavia Hills, a health care CEO and a former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party were arrested on Monday on public corruption charges. The arrests stem from the trio’s involvement with a legislative bill in 2016 focused on insurance coverage…
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Curse of the AT&T Letter
We have written about this document twice before, last summer, and in October, but now the CDLU has learned from anonymous sources that the letter that Robert Ronnlund dispatched in January of 2016 to AT&T in the Newsome Conspiracy Case could become the catalyst for a possible settlement. We do not know what is going on in the Star Chamber and neither do our anonymous sources, but we understand the letter is the most difficult item to justify, explain, or even dismiss. Ronnlund, whose wife was a Balch partner at the time the letter was written, appears to have engaged…
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From Balch Partner to Selling Mattresses
The hottest post this past month has been one of our first, Unprofessional Conduct? about former Balch partner Clark A. Cooper who was fired on March 3, 2017. He is the alleged mastermind of the horrific Newsome Conspiracy Case, now taking place (or not?) in a secretive and unconstitutional Star Chamber. Cooper allegedly hit the send button on an email with Newsome’s mugshot on a Saturday afternoon, hours after Newsome was falsely arrested, allegedly defaming Newsome, a father of four young children. So why the hot interest? Looks like Cooper is in the mattress business and now selling mattresses. Who…
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Happy 1st Birthday to BanBalch.com!
Today marks one year since we launched BanBalch.com and what a year! We never thought this project would last this long and evolve into such a quagmire for the once prestigious law firm. As we have told The New York Times and The Washington Post, our advocacy project began with Burt Newsome and will end with Burt Newsome. The North Birmingham/Oliver Robinson bribery scandal, the Vincent whites-only controversy, the Mississippi billing probe, and the Black Hall Aerospace lobbying fiasco landed in our laps as reaffirmations of the alleged unsavory conduct in the Newsome Conspiracy Case. We are not a party…
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Did Balch Terminate Stiers? Russian Link Clarified
After 20 years at Balch & Bingham, William F. Stiers, their top-Washington, D.C. lobbyist, left the firm in November. Stiers announcement came shortly after half of Balch’s paying lobbying clients dumped the firm that October. In our 48 minute conversation yesterday with Paul Daigle, the CEO of Black Hall Aerospace, Inc., Daigle alleges that Stiers was fired and may have been given time to find a new position as a courtesy. Saying that Stiers was an upstanding professional, Daigle opined that Stiers may have not wanted to adhere to demands by Balch. In November, Politico.com quoted Stiers as saying, “The…
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Balch Allegedly Fired Black Hall Aerospace
Yesterday, we had a 48 minute phone conversation with the CEO of Black Hall Aerospace, Inc., Paul Daigle, who had written to us via email at the end of January. We spoke of many things, and listened carefully to the military veteran who has been involved in heated civil litigation with Oleg Sirbu, the Soviet-born immigrant. Balch & Bingham represented Black Hall Aerospace as lobbyists in Washington D.C. between 2014 and 2017. Mr. Daigle told us that he wanted to reach out to us last year, when we initially exposed the fact that Balch & Bingham had represented a Russian-linked…
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In a State of Denial, Balch “Bolsters” their Happy Face
This morning, Balch & Bingham bolstered a happy face in front of all the chaos and alleged institutional racism linked to the once prestigious firm by announcing in a fluffy press release the addition of 7 healthcare attorneys to their Jackson, Mississippi offices who appear to have left another Mississippi law firm, Copeland, Cook, Taylor, & Bush. Trying to counteract the exodus of 10 money-making partners who left in January and the worst financial year on Capitol Hill in 19 years, Balch looks like they are in a state of denial, like a Toys R Us kid. These 7 new…
