Conviction of Balch & Bingham Partner Makes National Headlines

Convicted Balch & Bingham partner Joel I. Gilbert has made national headlines this afternoon.

As we continue to reach out to Wall Street institutional investors and businesses that have utilized Balch in the past with our call for them to immediately suspend Balch & Bingham, the national coverage is beneficial to and compliments our efforts.

The New York Times reports:

A coal company executive and a lawyer have been convicted in federal court of bribing an Alabama lawmaker to oppose Environmental Protection Agency plans that could have made the company help pay to clean up a polluted Superfund site.

David L. Roberson, 67, a vice president at the Drummond Company, based in Birmingham, and Joel I. Gilbert, 46, a lawyer who worked for the coal company, were convicted late on Friday by a jury in District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, the Justice Department said on Monday.

The men were found guilty of bribing a former state representative, Oliver L. Robinson Jr., to oppose plans by the E.P.A. to place a polluted site in north Birmingham on a priority list, which could have made Drummond liable for tens of millions of dollars in cleanup costs and fines, the Justice Department said.

But Mr. Gilbert, who was with the law firm Balch & Bingham, and Drummond worked to prevent the priority listing of the site and the expansion of it, the indictment said. Their plan included paying Mr. Robinson and “advising residents of north Birmingham and public officials to oppose E.P.A.’s actions,” it said.