Free Republic

Firm takes heat for cons’ crimes Settled suits cost top-tier legal entity $30 million, with more pending By Janet Elliott Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau (10-21-01) Locke Liddell and Sapp is one of Texas’ premier law firms, having represented some of the state’s top corporations and individuals, including George W. Bush when he was governor and general partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. But it is two other former clients, convicted swindlers Russell Erxleben and Brian Stearns, who have brought unwanted attention to the 426-lawyer firm with offices in Houston and several other cities. In the past two years, Locke...

Texas Monthly November 2001 What happens when a top law firm gets two crooks for clients? At Locke, Liddell, and Sapp, the result was a $30 million settlement for angry investors. by John Spong LOCKE PURNELL ATTORNEY JANE MATHESON'S NOTE ON THE BACK OF A TRADE AGREEMENT her firm was editing for client Russell Erxleben in February 1998 got right to the point: "Tell the truth." Erxleben, an All-American punter and place kicker for the University of Texas Longhorns in the seventies, had enlisted the 110-year-old, blue-chip Dallas law firm to keep his company, Austin Forex Investments (AFI), from running...

In response to a congressional inquiry, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) provided a list of documents detailing the record of political donations by SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers from 1980 to the present. (It should be noted that the list provided includes two donations recorded by the FEC that do not in fact belong to Ms. Miers). The document provided by the FEC can be linked from the Republican Study Committee (RSC) web site http://johnshadegg.house.gov/RSC/ Page 7 of the document provides Miers' contributions for the 1999-2000 election cycle. On 28 Apr 2000, Miers donated $1,000 to the Bush-Cheney 2000 Compliance Committee,...