#" 3
evening of September 17, 2001,
Convertino was driving home
from work when he got a call
from an agent with the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. Would
he be interested in taking on a
case against what looked like a
sleeper terrorist cell?
Federal Bureau of Investigation agents had visited the Dearborn, Michigan, home of an Arab
man whom the government believed had ties to terrorists. They
found three men living out of
plastic garbage bags and sleeping
on the floor. After a search, the
agents discovered a trove of false
visas, false Social Security cards,
and false resident alien cards.
There were also sketches in a day
planner that investigators later
determined were of an American
Air Force base in Turkey and a
military hospital in Jordan.
While the evidence was not in
short supply, Convertino would
find that resources to prosecute
the case were. According to allegations Convertino made in
his suit against the government,
he was given one paralegal, one
FBI agent, and one supervising
attorney. The experience disil-
lusioned Convertino, who says
he frequently voiced frustration
with his superiors in Washington, D.C. He was convinced that
Main Justice was satisfied with
scoring PR points rather than actually prosecuting terrorists.
At the 2003 trial of the terrorist suspects, Convertino and his
colleagues presented about 1,000
exhibits and 50 witnesses. Two of
the defendants were convicted of
U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Collins, removed him from the case, which
was in posttrial motion stage.
Why? Convertino claims that
he is the victim of a conspiracy of
government officials angry about
his dealings with Republican
senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa,
chair of the Senate Finance Committee. In 2003 Convertino testified before Grassley’s committee
on the subject of terrorism and
Convertino won fame as the first prosecutor to
convict terrorists after 9/11. THEN THE GOVERNMENT FREED
THE SUSPECTS AND QUESTIONED HIS ETHICS.
providing material support or resources to terrorists; a third was
convicted on charges stemming
from document fraud; a fourth
was acquitted on all charges. In
a statement, John Ashcroft, then
attorney general, congratulated
“the prosecutors and agents who
worked tirelessly on this case.”
But as the summer turned
to fall, the relationship between
Convertino and his superiors deteriorated. In September 2003
Convertino’s boss in Michigan,
identity fraud. But Convertino
believes that his superiors thought
he was secretly feeding Grassley
damaging information about the
Justice Department’s efforts to
prosecute terrorists, a charge that
the department denies.
As with every aspect of Convertino’s story, there was another
side to the story. Not long after
his Senate appearance, his bosses
in Detroit disclosed the existence
of a document that had not been
turned over to the defense in the
terrorism trial. It was a letter that
discredited the government’s key
witnesses. Judge Gerald Rosen of
the Eastern District of Michigan
ordered the government to conduct a full review.
It would only get worse for
Convertino. As his case took a
hit, so did his reputation. In January 2004 the Detroit Free Press
ran an article that reported on a
Justice Department investigation
into possible ethical vio-
lations by Convertino.
The war was on. In
February 2004 Conver-
tino filed suit against
the Department of Jus-
tice and several officials,
alleging that they had leaked in-
formation to the Free Press. His
lawyers are from Kohn, Kohn &
Colapinto, a Washington, D.C.,
firm that specializes in whistle-
blower cases.
The government hit back—
hard. Later in 2004, prosecutors
filed a report in Rosen’s court that
criticized Convertino’s handling
of the terrorism case. It detailed
a pattern of Convertino withholding evidence from the defendants.
Special counsel to the attorney
TYCO TAKE
EVOLUTION AND ITS DISCONTENT
Departures raise questions about Weil and the future of the bankruptcy practice.
464
MILLION
in legal fees awarded to
plaintiffs counsel for
their work in the Tyco
International Ltd. securities
class action. Among those
splitting the money are the
three lead cocounsel:
Jay Eisenhofer of
Grant & Eisenhofer in
Wilmington; Sanford
Dumain of Milberg Weiss
in New York; and Richard
Schiffrin of Schiffrin,
Barroway, Topaz & Kessler
in Radnor, Pennsylvania.
'OR DECADES, WEIL,
Gotshal & Manges’s bankruptcy department was as
dominant as the Roman
legion. Its legendary partner, Harvey Miller, helped
make the practice respectable and profitable. Even
as other firms jumped in, Weil’s
market position seemed unassailable; for example, it handled
the Chapter 11 proceedings of
Enron Corp. and WorldCom,
Inc., simultaneously.
But Weil’s once-proud department has suffered important
partner losses lately. The most
recent came in November, when
its cohead, Martin Bienenstock, a
lifer with 30 years at the firm, left
for Dewey & LeBoeuf [see “Star
Laterals of the Year,” page 107].
His departure, beyond hurting
Weil’s status as a dominant player
in the field, has revealed a rift
within Weil about the future of
the bankruptcy practice and how
the firm should meet it.
It’s hard to overstate Bienenstock’s importance. When Miller
left in 2002 to join investment
bank of Greenhill & Co., Inc.,
Bienenstock became the group’s
biggest rainmaker, according to
one former Weil partner. In the
last seven years, he helped land
assignments in the bankrupt-cies of Federal-Mogul Corporation, Calpine Corporation, W.R.
Grace & Co., Owens Corning,
and Adelphia Communications
Corporation.
For Bienenstock, the move
makes financial sense. At Weil,
partners qualify for full retirement
benefits when their age and years
of service at the firm total 85. At
55 years old, with 30 years at the
firm, Bienenstock just qualified.
He also increased his compensation. According to a close friend,
Bienenstock had multiple offers,
at least one of which would have
doubled his salary at Weil.
But Bienenstock says financial
considerations didn’t persuade
him to join Dewey & LeBoeuf.
It was a chance to create a department fit for what he sees as
a changing market, one where
bankruptcy services are marketed
and integrated with other practice areas of the firm. At Dewey,
Bienenstock says he will lead a
team—called the Business Solutions and Governance Group—
that will include a wide array of
disciplines. Bienenstock describes
it as a sort of “think tank” that will
