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Summary: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Eric Waxman retires amid issues of his representation of two clients and conflicting statements.
Law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partners have been distancing themselves from former partner Eric Waxman. He has admitted to making mistakes in the past when Skadden represented Advanced Medical Optics as their transactional counsel. AMO was acquired for $1.36 million by Abbott Laboratories in 2009. Skadden also represented the CEO at that time, James V. Mazzo after the merger. Mazzo is facing criminal charges for leaking merger information.
Prosecutors claim that Waxman attempted to conceal evidence and collect millions of dollars in legal fees by purposely making misstatements. He refused for years to give the prosecutors evidence from an interview that he conducted for his client Mazzo, saying it was protected. However, Waxman has now said that the interview was conducted at the request of his other client AMO so it was not protected.
Prosecutors want Skadden to be prohibited from representing Mazzo because of the conflicts of Waxman’s misconduct and dual representation. The firm’s partners do not believe that Waxman intentionally did anything wrong but they are still making sure there is distance between him and the firm.
Mazzo’s lead lawyer at Skadden, Richard Marmaro, said in his written motion against the disqualification that “Skadden has already accepted the harm to its reputation caused by Mr. Waxman’s mistakes before the Court and, indeed, the attorney who made or caused to be made the mistakes at issues (Mr. Waxman) no longer works at the firm and has withdrawn from the case.”
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The case involves the trading of major league baseball players that were teammates on the Baltimore Orioles Team. Mazzo is accused of leaking information that the players used to make over one million dollars with.
Waxman is represented by Brad Brian of Munger Tolles & Olson. Waxman previously worked for Skadden before retiring.
Source: https://bol.bna.com/skadden-partner-retires-amid-questions-about-conflicts/
Photo: chambers-associate.com
