by Mark Curriden, Senior Legal Affairs Writer
mark.curriden@texaslawbook.net
HOUSTON (February 7) – Lawyers at big law firms who think that pro bono is a waste of time and money need to know the story of Lisa Eskow, an appellate lawyer in Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Houston.
In July 2010, Adam Ciongoli, the general counsel of global insurance brokerage conglomerate Willis Corporation, called Weil needing a lawyer to work on a pro bono case. Weil serves as Willis Corporation’s primary outside corporate counsel, but had not handled litigation matters for the company.
The Supreme Court of the United States had appointed Ciongoli to handle a pro bono case pending before the justices. The matter, Pepper v. U.S., required significant legal research in a short period of time. Briefs would need to be written and preparations made for oral argument. Yet Ciongoli had only 30 lawyers in-house and they were already busy.
“I knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done in a very short timeframe and I knew I needed help,” says Ciongoli. “My first choice was Weil.”
Ciongoli said he called a couple Weil partners he worked with regularly, including Tom Roberts, a corporate partner in Dallas.
They pointed the GC to Lisa Eskow, who had argued a case at the Supreme Court in 2003.
“As a general counsel, Adam did not have the resources or staff to prepare the case,” says Eskow. “We immediately said yes, because this was an extraordinary opportunity.”
Eskow and “a substantial team” of lawyers and legal assistants started working on the pro bono matter in early August. The first briefs were due at the Supreme Court on October 8, with oral arguments scheduled December 6.
“It was no small task,” says Eskow.
The case had an added twist: there was no actual client. Lawyers for criminal defendant Jason Pepper challenged a federal appeals court ruling that trial judges are not permitted to take a defendant’s post conviction rehabilitation into account if the case comes up for resentencing.
In the years between his initial conviction and when his case returned to court for resentencing, Pepper kicked drugs, earned straight A’s in college, got married, and obtained a good job. The appeals court said none of this should be considered at resentencing.
The Justice Department, after initially agreeing with the appeals court ruling, decided that it was too harsh and refused to defend it. That meant the prosecution and defense were in agreement and no one was defending the appellate court’s decision.
The Supreme Court, however, continued to be interested in the issue and appointed Ciongoli, who had clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., to advocate the appeals court’s decision.
The Weil team put in 577 hours on the case, and incurred tens of thousands of dollars in expenses.
“Lisa and her team did a spectacular job,” says Ciongoli. “They produced outstanding work product. They handled it as if it was a paying client.”
Ciongoli was so impressed with Eskow’s work that he immediately hired her to represent Willis in the company’s largest pending litigation matter, which is an appellate matter currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit involving the Stanford Investment fraud scandal.
“I absolutely hired Lisa because of my experience with her in the pro bono case,” says Ciongoli. “It is one thing to work on a company matter with outside counsel, but working side-by-side with them on a non-Willis matter provided me extraordinary insight into Weil’s appellate team and how they operate. It was incredibly valuable.”
Eskow agrees that working “with” Ciongoli instead of “for” the general counsel on a litigation matter was an invaluable experience.
“It let Adam get an insight into how we work at Weil, seeing our people in action,” she says. “And we got to see Adam’s mind work on a case in which he wasn’t the client. We got to see how he approaches a case as a lawyer. It was very instructive.”
The Supreme Court decided six to two (Justice Elena Kagan didn’t participate) that trial courts might take post conviction rehabilitation efforts into account at a resentencing.
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