Municipal — the earning rights of local taxi drivers
Led by labor and employment partner Robert Lian, Akin Gump attorneys are representing two taxicab associations on behalf of several hundred taxi drivers in the District, in a lawsuit against the city and the D.C. Taxicab Commission. The suit says the city hasn’t properly adjusted rates at which taxi drivers can charge since the District changed from a zone system to a meter system in 2008, resulting in D.C. cab drivers earning less than their counterparts in other major metropolitan areas. Since the lawsuit was filed in September, the Taxicab Commission has agreed to address the low rates, Lian said. An attorney for the city could not immediately be reached for comment.
International — trademark rights for coffee
Arnold & Porter partner Robert Winter is working on a legal campaign to help the Ethiopian government secure trademark protection for the coffee beans grown in the country — which gives the government more control over how the product is distributed to coffee giants around the world, such as Starbucks and Green Mountain Coffee. Other international firms based in Australia, Brazil and Japan, also are working on the coffee campaign.
Veterans appeals
Finnegan, the Washington firm that focuses solely on intellectual property, has the most comprehensive pro bono program of its kind that helps veterans appeal denied benefits at the court of appeals level. Since the program began in 2008, Finnegan has worked with 455 veterans across the country to appeal denial of benefits, primarily dealing with disability. More than 100 of those are pending. Although the veterans Finnegan represents are from almost every state, most of the attorneys handling the matters are in Washington.
U.S. Supreme Court — double jeopardy
Skadden litigator Cliff Sloan is leading a team representing Alex Blueford, an Arkansas man charged with killing his girlfriend’s baby. In 2009, an Arkansas jury found that Blueford had not committed murder, but deadlocked on the manslaughter charge and failed to reach a definitive verdict. When state prosecutors tried to bring murder charges against Blueford in a second trial, his attorney, Arkansas deputy public defender Sharon Kiel, argued that he shouldn’t be tried for the same crime twice. That question will be answered by the high court, which in October agreed to hear Blueford’s case.
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