Tulotoma Snails Defeat Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power

Balch’s stigma of bribery and money laundering looks like it won’t go away anytime soon.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revoked all 7 licenses for Alabama Power to operate dams along the Coosa River, according to a report last night in the Montgomery Advertiser.

And why were the licenses revoked?

Because a panel of the  U.S. Court of Appeals in July remanded the licensing matter to the regulators after finding that several endangered species, including the tulotoma snail, had been adversely impacted.

The judges wrote the environmental assessment granting the original licenses was “arbitrary and capricious, insufficiently reasoned, and unsupported by substantial evidence.”

Who represented Alabama Power before the U.S. Court of Appeals? Their sister-wife Balch & Bingham.

James A. Bryam, Jr.,  James H. Hancock, Jr. and Jason B. Tompkins, (pictured) all partners at Balch & Bingham represented Alabama Power before the District of Columbia Circuit.

So what does this mean in the post-convicted era for Balch & Bingham?

Judges, prosecutors, regulators, opposing counsel, and even former attorneys of the silk-stocking law firm appear to have lost respect for Balch; and Balch’s stigma of bribery and money laundering looks like it won’t go away anytime soon.

Rejecting Balch & Bingham appears to have truly become mainstream.

Next month, Oliver Robinson will be sentenced to prison while a RICO suit in the Newsome Conspiracy Case will most likely engulf not only Balch & Bingham, but their sister-wife, Alabama Power.

Convicted felon Joel I. Gilbert, the ex-Balch partner and Balch-made millionaire, not only spearheaded a bribery effort that targeted the poor black children of North Birmingham, he has become the catalyst for Balch partners to look elsewhere, to abandon ship, to seek the moral high-ground.

So we say good luck to the partners, attorneys, and staff at Balch & Bingham, and that includes Jim, Jim, and Jason.