« Law - This week's Supreme Court decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co | Main | Ind. Courts - Judge Hanley is reprimanded »
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Courts - It is best not to tell the judge she is "a few french fries short of a Happy Meal"
AbovetheLaw.com had the details, including excerpts from the transcript, in this entry last week.
Today Daniel Ostrovsky of the Daily Business Review has this lengthy story. Here are a few quotes:
Saying a bankruptcy judge was "a few french fries short of a Happy Meal" may cost an out-of-state lawyer the ability to practice in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida.The comment already has cost Chicago-based McDermott Will & Emery partner William P. Smith his client -- Miami Beach's Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute.
Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Myerson Isicoff in Miami also slapped the hospital with a restraining order at the same hearing where Smith made his fast-food quip. She found Mount Sinai's anti-competitive actions in the bankruptcy case of South Beach Community Hospital violated bankruptcy law.
During a May 7 hearing, Smith told Isicoff, "I suggest with respect, your honor, that you're a few french fries short of a Happy Meal in terms of what's likely to take place."
Smith's comment and a show-cause order against him were first reported by the legal blog Above the Law. * * *
Isicoff issued the show-cause order May 21 summoning Smith to explain why he should not be suspended from practicing before the court and why his pro hac vice status as a visiting attorney should not be suspended. Isicoff also distributed her order to her colleagues on the district's bankruptcy bench.
Prominent South Florida bankruptcy lawyers say Smith's comment reflects a superior attitude that out-of-town lawyers sometimes display in South Florida courts.
Smith, who heads the national bankruptcy practice at McDermott, has retained the Miami bankruptcy boutique Genovese Joblove & Battista to represent him before Isicoff on the show-cause order set for hearing June 25.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 31, 2007 07:46 AM
Posted to Courts in general