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This video is provided for informational purposes only and nothing contained herein is or should be constituted as legal advice. If you have questions related to any legal topic, you should consult with an attorney and should not rely solely upon information provided via the internet. All content provided on this blog are subject to the Disclaimer at the bottom of the page.

Generally, I have tried to focus this blog on issues related to investment/securities fraud, securities arbitration, and/or consumer fraud. However, over the past several months, I have found that there has recently been so much of this activity that I have been too busy talking to securities and consumer fraud victims and have not had enough time to actually blog about it.

As a solo practitioner, one of the most difficult things to do is find enough time for everything in and outside of my practice. Unfortunately, blogging is one of the things that is easiest to “put off.” Although services like Twitter, Delicious, LinkedIn, etc. provide me (and other practitioners) with options to communicate other than blogging, they have their shortcomings. These services offer the convenience of sharing thoughts, ideas, etc., without spending a significant amount time – a great benefit to solo professionals. However, they are not full substitutes for blogging.

Personally, while I have had difficulty finding time to blog over the past few months, I have continued to post to Twitter and Delicious. Even I incorrectly justified this activity as a substitute for blogging. Unlike these other services, a blog provides an outlet for communicating to an audience in a personal way and without the limitation of 140 characters. Additionally, this can be a great outlet for escaping, at least temporarily, the rigors of the everyday practice of law.

If you follow my blog, I encourage you to follow me on Twitter and Delicious. Someday soon, I will figure out a way to integrate my activity on these (and other) services with my blog. If anyone has any ideas for doing so, please send me an email.

In conclusion, I apologize to everyone who follows my blog for my lack of recent updates. However, I making a commitment to writing a minimum of one blog post per week going forward and look forward to your continued following.

Have a wonderful weekend!

From Investment Fraud Blawg, Securities Fraud Blawg, and Stockbroker Fraud Blawg:

On July 30, 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued a report entitled “No Rhyme or Reason: The ‘Heads I Win, Tails You Lose’ Bank Bonus Culture.”

In the report, Mr. Cuomo discusses the compensation programs instituted by banks and brokerage firms while the economy was heading for, and in the midst of, crisis. The findings are truly astonishing are summed up well as “When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well. And when the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”

The report illustrates that while Citigroup and Merrill Lynch suffered losses of $54 billion in 2008, they “paid out nearly $9 billion in bonuses and then received TARP bailouts totaling $55 billion.” Furthermore, the bonuses paid in 2008 by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan Chase exceeded their net income. Specifically, the report notes that “these three firms earned $9.6 billion, paid bonuses of nearly $18 billion, and received TARP taxpayer funds worth $45 billion.” The report also noted that State Street paid approximately $470 million in bonuses while receiving $2 billion in TARP funding.

Appendix A to the Report is a must read for anyone concerned about the problems in the financial system. A table contained in the Appendix shows that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. paid each of more than 1,600 employees bonuses that were equal to or greater than $1 million (while the firm accepted $25 billion in TARP). Goldman Sachs and Citigroup paid similar bonuses to more than 950 and 730 employees, respectively (while accepting $10 billion and $45 billion, respectively from TARP). In 2008, Merrill Lynch suffered losses of more than $465,000 per employee . Nevertheless, the firm paid total bonuses that averaged more than $61,000 per employee.

Thank you for visiting our blawg.

First, you might be asking, “what is a blawg?”  A Blawg is a blog (or weblog) that pertains to a legal issue or matter of law.  Our Blawgs are separately maintained; however, we offer a consolidated RSS feed (through Feedburner) that contains each item posted to each blawg.  We have posted this feed on various pages of our website, including our home page; however, we thought visitors might appreciate the opportunity to find our postings in a “blog.”

Therefore, we will be aggregating the posts from our five blawgs and re-posting those here.  In addition, we may post additional discussion about our firm or other matters that do not fall within the subject matter of our other blawgs.

In case you are wondering, our other blawgs are:

• Securities Fraud Blawg;
• Investment Fraud Blawg;
• Stockbroker Fraud Blawg;
• Securities Arbitration Blawg; and
• Consumer Fraud Blawg

We hope you enjoy the content we provide and will revisit our site frequently for information.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.