J. Craig Smith is an associate at a Bridgeport, Conn., personal injury firm. But this fall, his work took him to Washington, D.C. As luminaries of the legal world walked by, he sat at the counsel table in the U.S. Supreme Court.
And he had a cousin from Georgia to thank for it all.
"When my father called me from Georgia [in 2006] about Norman being fired, I didn't know if I could do anything for him," said Smith. "But my Dad said, 'Remember who you are, and where you're from -- we stick by our own.' I knew I had to do right by Norman ... . When I got that phone call, it was the beginning of a truly wild ride."
It all started in a carpet mill. Norman Carpenter, a modest, self-described "mountain man" rooted to the hill country of northwest Georgia, supervised a shift of about 100 carpet factory workers. One day in 2006, he wrote an e-mail to his human resources department mentioning that one of his workers said she was undocumented.
In subsequent e-mails to Mohawk Industries' HR department, Carpenter said he had used an interpreter to check with the rest of his immigrant crew, and that 90 percent of them were also undocumented.
That e-mail exchange halted abruptly, and Carpenter was directed to the company's in-house legal department. He quickly found himself atop a litigation issue as explosive as a powder keg.
Unknown to him, his employer had been embroiled for more than two years in a class action charging the company with federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act violations. The allegations were that Mohawk was engaged in an illegal conspiracy to use undocumented workers to drive down labor costs.
At the offices of Mohawk's law department, Carpenter was ordered to confer with the company's lead RICO defense lawyer. Behind closed doors, Carpenter alleges, he was pressured to retract his statements about undocumented workers. He refused to, and was fired.
So Carpenter turned to a lawyer he trusted. That would be his first cousin, J. Craig Smith, who grew up nearby in Georgia and, at the time, was a fourth-year associate of Bridgeport's Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder. Smith, in turn contacted a two-man Atlanta employment law firm. The trio of lawyers then proceeded with a federal suit against Mohawk for wrongful termination and witness tampering in early 2007.
Mohawk, in its defense, contended that it was Carpenter who was the lawbreaker, and that he had, without company knowledge, hired illegal workers.
Despite Mohawk's hostility, Carpenter was reluctant to testify against his former employer in the RICO case. But in Carpenter's own case, he sought discovery material from Mohawk of anything justifying his firing. That would include Carpenter's talks with the RICO defense lawyer. Mohawk strenuously opposed disclosing that information, claiming attorney-client privilege.
A federal trial judge disagreed, ruling that Mohawk should disclose the material leading to Carpenter's firing. The judge found that Mohawk had already waived attorney-client privilege on this topic during the RICO litigation.
Mohawk appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which decided that it lacked jurisdiction to provide an interlocutory ruling on the privilege question. The 11th Circuit said Mohawk would have to wait until the end of Carpenter's wrongful discharge case, and then file its appeal.
Mohawk's lawyers felt this was one issue it had to fight. If a trial court erroneously makes a ruling that attorney-client privilege does not apply, they argued, the "cat is out of the bag" and the privileged information will affect the case. Even if an appellate court reverses the decision, they contended, serious harm from disclosure of privileged information has already been done.
Source
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Michigan Files Suit in High Court Over Asian Carp
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Michigan asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to close shipping locks near Chicago to prevent Asian carp from invading the Great Lakes and endangering their $7 billion fishery.
State Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit Monday with the nation's highest court against Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. They operate canals and other waterways that open into Lake Michigan.
Bighead and silver carp from Asia have been detected in those waterways after migrating north in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for decades.
Officials poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal this month to prevent the carp from getting closer to Lake Michigan while an electrical barrier was taken down for maintenance.
But scientists say DNA found north of the barrier suggest at least some of the carp have gotten through and may be within 6 miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacle between them and the lake are shipping locks, which open frequently to grant passage for cargo vessels.
The lawsuit asks for the locks and waterways to be closed immediately as a stopgap measure, echoing a call by 50 members of Congress and environmental groups last week. But the suit goes further, also requesting a permanent separation between the carp-infested waters and the lakes.
That would mean cutting off a link between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins created more than 100 years ago, when Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.
"The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable resource," Mr. Cox, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Michigan, said at a news conference in Detroit. "Thousands of jobs are at stake and we will not get a second chance once the carp enter Lake Michigan." He likened the fish to "nuclear bombs."
Mr. Cox went directly to the Supreme Court because it handles disputes between states.
Michigan is seeking to reopen a case dating back more than a century, when Missouri filed suit after Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.
After that issue was resolved, several Great Lakes states, including Michigan, renewed the suit with a new complaint: Chicago's diversion of water away from the basin was harming the lakes by lowering water levels.
The high court has ruled on the matter numerous times, setting ceilings on the amount of Lake Michigan water Chicago could divert. The present limit is 2.1 billion gallons a day.
Michigan's suit argues that continued operation of the locks represents another potential injury to the lakes. It asks the court to immediately order them closed, and to create new barriers to prevent the carp from entering the ship canal from nearby waterways during floods.
Obama administration officials last week pledged $13 million to prevent carp from bypassing the electronic barrier by migrating between the Des Plaines River and the canal.
The lawsuit also asks the Supreme Court to require a study of the Chicago waterway system to define where and how many carp are in those waters and to eradicate them.
Noah Hall, an assistant professor at Wayne State University's law school, said Michigan has a good chance of prevailing if it can show the potential harm posed by Asian carp would outweigh the benefits of keeping the locks open.
"The carp invasion is a good textbook example of irreparable harm,'' Mr. Hall said.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office was reviewing the suit and had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District spokeswoman Jill Horist said, "Even if the locks were closed there's still a variety of ways for DNA or Asian carp to enter Lake Michigan.''
Spokeswoman Lynne Whelan said the Army Corps could not comment on pending litigation.
American Waterway Operators, a trade group of U.S. barges and tugs that haul cargo on the waterways, said closing the locks even temporarily "would be very devastating for our industry ... but also for people in the Chicago region.'' It would force vessels to offload their cargo onto trucks or rail cars, boosting transportation costs and air pollution, vice president Lynn Muench said.
Michigan's lawsuit said losses to barge traffic and recreational boats would be "relatively minor and finite.''
Source
State Attorney General Mike Cox filed a lawsuit Monday with the nation's highest court against Illinois, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. They operate canals and other waterways that open into Lake Michigan.
Bighead and silver carp from Asia have been detected in those waterways after migrating north in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers for decades.
Officials poisoned a section of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal this month to prevent the carp from getting closer to Lake Michigan while an electrical barrier was taken down for maintenance.
But scientists say DNA found north of the barrier suggest at least some of the carp have gotten through and may be within 6 miles of Lake Michigan. If so, the only other obstacle between them and the lake are shipping locks, which open frequently to grant passage for cargo vessels.
The lawsuit asks for the locks and waterways to be closed immediately as a stopgap measure, echoing a call by 50 members of Congress and environmental groups last week. But the suit goes further, also requesting a permanent separation between the carp-infested waters and the lakes.
That would mean cutting off a link between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins created more than 100 years ago, when Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.
"The Great Lakes are an irreplaceable resource," Mr. Cox, who is seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Michigan, said at a news conference in Detroit. "Thousands of jobs are at stake and we will not get a second chance once the carp enter Lake Michigan." He likened the fish to "nuclear bombs."
Mr. Cox went directly to the Supreme Court because it handles disputes between states.
Michigan is seeking to reopen a case dating back more than a century, when Missouri filed suit after Chicago reversed the flow of the Chicago River and began sending sewage-fouled Lake Michigan water south toward the Mississippi River.
After that issue was resolved, several Great Lakes states, including Michigan, renewed the suit with a new complaint: Chicago's diversion of water away from the basin was harming the lakes by lowering water levels.
The high court has ruled on the matter numerous times, setting ceilings on the amount of Lake Michigan water Chicago could divert. The present limit is 2.1 billion gallons a day.
Michigan's suit argues that continued operation of the locks represents another potential injury to the lakes. It asks the court to immediately order them closed, and to create new barriers to prevent the carp from entering the ship canal from nearby waterways during floods.
Obama administration officials last week pledged $13 million to prevent carp from bypassing the electronic barrier by migrating between the Des Plaines River and the canal.
The lawsuit also asks the Supreme Court to require a study of the Chicago waterway system to define where and how many carp are in those waters and to eradicate them.
Noah Hall, an assistant professor at Wayne State University's law school, said Michigan has a good chance of prevailing if it can show the potential harm posed by Asian carp would outweigh the benefits of keeping the locks open.
"The carp invasion is a good textbook example of irreparable harm,'' Mr. Hall said.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office was reviewing the suit and had no immediate comment, spokeswoman Natalie Bauer said.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District spokeswoman Jill Horist said, "Even if the locks were closed there's still a variety of ways for DNA or Asian carp to enter Lake Michigan.''
Spokeswoman Lynne Whelan said the Army Corps could not comment on pending litigation.
American Waterway Operators, a trade group of U.S. barges and tugs that haul cargo on the waterways, said closing the locks even temporarily "would be very devastating for our industry ... but also for people in the Chicago region.'' It would force vessels to offload their cargo onto trucks or rail cars, boosting transportation costs and air pollution, vice president Lynn Muench said.
Michigan's lawsuit said losses to barge traffic and recreational boats would be "relatively minor and finite.''
Source
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Agent Orange's lethal legacy: For Vietnam War veterans, injustice follows injury
Jack Cooley delivered his final argument in a long, distinguished legal career from a hospital bed.
Four months before succumbing to multiple myeloma, the Chicago-area Vietnam veteran and federal magistrate judge wrote a 140-page claim for justice and filed it with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Cooley's message to the government was personal and direct: Agent Orange is killing me, and you need to take responsibility.
Cooley didn't know it last spring, but when the former Army artillery captain filed his disability claim, he was just entering a maddening bureaucratic maze many veterans know well. The VA would kick back Cooley's claim after a month, saying he lacked the required proof he'd served in Vietnam.
Cooley could have spent months navigating this convoluted path. But with Cooley's life fading, his family reached out to an old friend, a member of his West Point class of 1965. It was former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, recently appointed secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In short order the obstacles to Cooley's claim disappeared. The VA delivered three monthly disability checks for $2,700 before Cooley died July 21, at 65, in Evanston.
"This was insult to injury," said his daughter Christina. "If Gen. Shinseki was not ... a family friend and a West Point classmate, we would have never seen a dime. It makes me think about everybody else out there struggling without resources."
The Vietnam War ended almost 35 years ago, but for many veterans, battles with cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other maladies associated with defoliants used in the war are only now beginning. Until 2007, Jack Cooley had been in good health.
For many veterans, this is the unexpected new war, long after the old one ended.
The government has been slow to recognize the connection between wartime service and debilitating diseases that strike Vietnam veterans decades later. Even when they suffer from conditions officially linked to Agent Orange, veterans can wait years for their requests for disability compensation to run through the VA system.
Jack Cooley's death from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer associated with exposure to Agent Orange, opens a window into the clogged workings of the VA, the final arbiter on war-related disability claims.
"The truth is, veterans who went to Vietnam returned much sicker than their (civilian) peers. Something happened over there. Why arm wrestle over it?" said Linda Schwartz, commissioner of veterans affairs in Connecticut and the author of early studies on the health of female veterans.
The VA declined requests to interview Shinseki, who has said he wants to change the culture at the agency and make it more of an advocate for those who serve the country.
As long-dormant effects of Agent Orange begin to surface in many Vietnam War veterans, the backlog of disability claims has been growing fast, despite the VA's adding more than 3,000 employees to handle the traffic jam.
"They're overwhelmed," said Joe Moore, a former VA attorney who now represents veterans in cases against the agency. "They simply can't do the decision-making fast enough."
In response to a December 2008 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to force the VA to decide claims in 90 days, the government acknowledged that "certain diseases for Vietnam-era veterans" are contributing to the backup.
The lawsuit, filed by the Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, argues that "thousands of veterans die each year" before the VA acts on their disability claims. The lawsuit alleges the VA takes at least six months to consider an initial request, and appeals can drag on for years.
"In the face of such delays, many veterans simply give up, choosing to accept less than they deserve rather than to endure years of delay and frustration," it said.
Four months before succumbing to multiple myeloma, the Chicago-area Vietnam veteran and federal magistrate judge wrote a 140-page claim for justice and filed it with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Cooley's message to the government was personal and direct: Agent Orange is killing me, and you need to take responsibility.
Cooley didn't know it last spring, but when the former Army artillery captain filed his disability claim, he was just entering a maddening bureaucratic maze many veterans know well. The VA would kick back Cooley's claim after a month, saying he lacked the required proof he'd served in Vietnam.
Cooley could have spent months navigating this convoluted path. But with Cooley's life fading, his family reached out to an old friend, a member of his West Point class of 1965. It was former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki, recently appointed secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
In short order the obstacles to Cooley's claim disappeared. The VA delivered three monthly disability checks for $2,700 before Cooley died July 21, at 65, in Evanston.
"This was insult to injury," said his daughter Christina. "If Gen. Shinseki was not ... a family friend and a West Point classmate, we would have never seen a dime. It makes me think about everybody else out there struggling without resources."
The Vietnam War ended almost 35 years ago, but for many veterans, battles with cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and other maladies associated with defoliants used in the war are only now beginning. Until 2007, Jack Cooley had been in good health.
For many veterans, this is the unexpected new war, long after the old one ended.
The government has been slow to recognize the connection between wartime service and debilitating diseases that strike Vietnam veterans decades later. Even when they suffer from conditions officially linked to Agent Orange, veterans can wait years for their requests for disability compensation to run through the VA system.
Jack Cooley's death from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer associated with exposure to Agent Orange, opens a window into the clogged workings of the VA, the final arbiter on war-related disability claims.
"The truth is, veterans who went to Vietnam returned much sicker than their (civilian) peers. Something happened over there. Why arm wrestle over it?" said Linda Schwartz, commissioner of veterans affairs in Connecticut and the author of early studies on the health of female veterans.
The VA declined requests to interview Shinseki, who has said he wants to change the culture at the agency and make it more of an advocate for those who serve the country.
As long-dormant effects of Agent Orange begin to surface in many Vietnam War veterans, the backlog of disability claims has been growing fast, despite the VA's adding more than 3,000 employees to handle the traffic jam.
"They're overwhelmed," said Joe Moore, a former VA attorney who now represents veterans in cases against the agency. "They simply can't do the decision-making fast enough."
In response to a December 2008 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington seeking to force the VA to decide claims in 90 days, the government acknowledged that "certain diseases for Vietnam-era veterans" are contributing to the backup.
The lawsuit, filed by the Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Modern Warfare, argues that "thousands of veterans die each year" before the VA acts on their disability claims. The lawsuit alleges the VA takes at least six months to consider an initial request, and appeals can drag on for years.
"In the face of such delays, many veterans simply give up, choosing to accept less than they deserve rather than to endure years of delay and frustration," it said.
Friday, January 15, 2010
I-55 multi-vehicle crash kills one, injures two
Legal News for Illinois Personal Injury Attorneys. A motor vehicle collision (MVC) involving three cars left one dead, two injured.
One dead, two others injured after head on collision on the Stevenson Expressway.
Chicago, IL—A three-vehicle crash on the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) tragically killed one and left two others injured on Sunday, December 20, 2009, according to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times. The car wreck allegedly occurred around 9:35 p.m. near South Central Avenue in the northbound lanes of the interstate. A vehicle in the far left lane was reportedly facing oncoming traffic after spinning around for unknown reasons. Subsequently, a northbound driver traveling in the middle lane of the interstate struck the stopped vehicle head-on. This caused the first car to veer out on impact, slightly hitting another vehicle in the far right lane.
Emergency medical services (EMS) crews were on the scene after the wreck to transport the injured to area hospitals to be treated by doctors and nurses. Man Wong, 29, the driver of the striking vehicle involved in the head-on collision, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but was unfortunately pronounced deceased at 10:16 p.m., shortly after the crash, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The other driver involved in the head-on collision was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition after acquiring several gashes on his face and head, as well as an allegedly broken pelvis. It is reported that this driver, who remains in the hospital on Monday, may be an off-duty police officer. Another individual involved in the crash was transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
The cause of the fatal car crash is reportedly unknown at this time. Charges are pending further investigation.
Source
One dead, two others injured after head on collision on the Stevenson Expressway.
Chicago, IL—A three-vehicle crash on the Stevenson Expressway (I-55) tragically killed one and left two others injured on Sunday, December 20, 2009, according to a report by the Chicago Sun-Times. The car wreck allegedly occurred around 9:35 p.m. near South Central Avenue in the northbound lanes of the interstate. A vehicle in the far left lane was reportedly facing oncoming traffic after spinning around for unknown reasons. Subsequently, a northbound driver traveling in the middle lane of the interstate struck the stopped vehicle head-on. This caused the first car to veer out on impact, slightly hitting another vehicle in the far right lane.
Emergency medical services (EMS) crews were on the scene after the wreck to transport the injured to area hospitals to be treated by doctors and nurses. Man Wong, 29, the driver of the striking vehicle involved in the head-on collision, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition but was unfortunately pronounced deceased at 10:16 p.m., shortly after the crash, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office. The other driver involved in the head-on collision was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition after acquiring several gashes on his face and head, as well as an allegedly broken pelvis. It is reported that this driver, who remains in the hospital on Monday, may be an off-duty police officer. Another individual involved in the crash was transported to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
The cause of the fatal car crash is reportedly unknown at this time. Charges are pending further investigation.
Source
Monday, December 28, 2009
Second Chicago law school receives biggest gift ever
Chicago personal injury lawyers are loading up the city's lesser known law schools with donations, hoping their contributions will prime the pump for more gifts.
Philip Corboy, a founding partner of Corboy & Demetrio, and his wife Mary Dempsey, a lawyer who chairs the board of trustees for DePaul University, this week gave an unspecified seven-figure endowment to her alma mater, DePaul University College of Law. In September the couple gave more than $5 million to his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Both gifts were the largest the law schools had ever received. Also in September, Joseph Power and Todd Smith of Power Rogers & Smith gave $2 million to Loyola's law school.
"There's more need, and not as many people are stepping up because of the bad economy," Power said. "We're hoping to encourage people to give money."
DePaul is kicking off a fund-raising campaign next year, and Loyola is about half way through a seven-year bid to raise $40 million, of which $30 million has already come in. The two Catholic-founded schools can sometimes be overshadowed in the public eye by their city neighbors, the University of Chicago Law School and Northwestern University School of Law.
Dempsey said that the Corboy-Dempsey contributions will be used for scholarships at both schools and also for faculty hiring at Loyola. The donation from Power and Smith will go to endowed chairs, program support and scholarships, said David Yellen, dean of Loyola's law school.
While Loyola has received fewer gifts amid the financial stress, overall fund-raising is "way up," Yellen said. "It really is true that big gifts attract more big gifts."
Despite the wave of associate cutbacks at law firms, neither Dempsey nor Power had any qualms about encouraging students to enroll in law school. The economy will improve and a law degree is useful in any profession, they said.
"I use my legal training and law degree every day even though one would not call me a practicing lawyer," said Dempsey, who serves as commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and keeps her law license current.
Source
Philip Corboy, a founding partner of Corboy & Demetrio, and his wife Mary Dempsey, a lawyer who chairs the board of trustees for DePaul University, this week gave an unspecified seven-figure endowment to her alma mater, DePaul University College of Law. In September the couple gave more than $5 million to his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Both gifts were the largest the law schools had ever received. Also in September, Joseph Power and Todd Smith of Power Rogers & Smith gave $2 million to Loyola's law school.
"There's more need, and not as many people are stepping up because of the bad economy," Power said. "We're hoping to encourage people to give money."
DePaul is kicking off a fund-raising campaign next year, and Loyola is about half way through a seven-year bid to raise $40 million, of which $30 million has already come in. The two Catholic-founded schools can sometimes be overshadowed in the public eye by their city neighbors, the University of Chicago Law School and Northwestern University School of Law.
Dempsey said that the Corboy-Dempsey contributions will be used for scholarships at both schools and also for faculty hiring at Loyola. The donation from Power and Smith will go to endowed chairs, program support and scholarships, said David Yellen, dean of Loyola's law school.
While Loyola has received fewer gifts amid the financial stress, overall fund-raising is "way up," Yellen said. "It really is true that big gifts attract more big gifts."
Despite the wave of associate cutbacks at law firms, neither Dempsey nor Power had any qualms about encouraging students to enroll in law school. The economy will improve and a law degree is useful in any profession, they said.
"I use my legal training and law degree every day even though one would not call me a practicing lawyer," said Dempsey, who serves as commissioner of the Chicago Public Library and keeps her law license current.
Source
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Personal injury lawyer asking $1.75M for North Center 5BD
Anne Kuban and her husband, Thomas, have listed for sale a five-bedroom, 4.5-bath home at 1937 W. Warner Ave. in North Center for $1.75 million.
The Kubans paid $538,000 for the property in April 2008. The 1,126-square-foot house was built in 2009. Ron Meadows of Prudential Rubloff Properties is the listing agent for the home.
Mrs. Kuban is a partner at Anderson, Rasor and Partners LLP. Previously, he practiced personal injury litigation with the corporation counsel's office of Chicago, was a member of the Cook County State Attorney's office and she worked at Jackson & Jessup P.C.
She earned her B.A. in psychology from Denison University in 1985 and her J.D. from Washington University in 1988.
Source
The Kubans paid $538,000 for the property in April 2008. The 1,126-square-foot house was built in 2009. Ron Meadows of Prudential Rubloff Properties is the listing agent for the home.
Mrs. Kuban is a partner at Anderson, Rasor and Partners LLP. Previously, he practiced personal injury litigation with the corporation counsel's office of Chicago, was a member of the Cook County State Attorney's office and she worked at Jackson & Jessup P.C.
She earned her B.A. in psychology from Denison University in 1985 and her J.D. from Washington University in 1988.
Source
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Corruption-fighter to head up South Florida FBI office
One of 10 children growing up in Chicago, John Gillies fell in love with a book in fifth grade about the history of the FBI -- tales of bank robbers, mobsters and spies.
The last page especially grabbed him: The bureau was looking to hire accountants and lawyers as G-men. Right then, the 10-year-old saw his future and set his sights on accounting as his ticket.
Now, after 24 years as a special agent, Gillies has become the FBI's chief in South Florida, taking the reins last month of the bureau's Miami field office -- the fifth-largest in the country, stretching from Fort Pierce to Key West with 460 agents.
``I have a passion for corruption cases and protecting children, but we do have a lot of threats that we need to address,'' said Gillies, 50, who is married with two children.
Those other threats include terrorism, white-collar fraud, Internet child predators, violent crime and drug trafficking.
Gillies said he plans to ``make tweaks,'' not dramatic changes, to the overall operation.
His FBI career began in 1983, the year after he graduated with bachelor degrees in accounting and business administration from Illinois State University.
His uncle, a Catholic priest, happened to preside over a funeral service for two FBI agents killed in a plane crash. Afterward, the uncle put in a good word for his nephew -- and Gillies got his foot in the door.
Initially he worked as a financial analyst, then became a special agent in 1985. His first assignment: Albany, N.Y., investigating white-collar fraud.
His next stop: the FBI's New York City field office. He was tapped for counterintelligence work, which he can't discuss.
``At the end of theday, you weren't putting bad people in jail,'' hesaid, ``but you have an effect by protecting the security of the United States.''
Gillies yearned to return to investigations, so he transferred 3,000 miles away, to San Diego. There, he investigated the failure of Home Federal and other banks.
He then made his mark with a public corruption case that took down three state Superior Court judges who accepted $100,000 in bribes from a personal-injury lawyer in the mid-'90s. The lawyer was also convicted.
The case, which led to judicial reforms such as assigning cases on a rotational basis, fueled his zeal against corruption. ``It starts with dollar one,'' he said. ``People need to understand that the first time you take that first dollar, you've been bought.''
After that stint, Gillies traveled farther west -- to Honolulu -- where he entered management for the first time, as supervisor of a squad targeting corruption and other crimes. The squad nailed a crooked city councilman, liquor inspectors and an IRS agent, among others.
The post also took him to Hong Kong, the Philippines and other far-flung places.
To rise up management ranks, Gillies had to do a tour of duty at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2002. He oversaw the bureau's Financial Institution Fraud unit for the entire country. That led to senior management jobs in Detroit and St. Louis, where he zeroed in on white-collar, violent and cyber crimes, along with terrorist funding and more corruption cases.
But Gillies, as the special agent in charge of the Miami field office, said he faces his biggest challenge yet: ``We have vast responsibilities -- not only here but also in Latin America.''
Source
The last page especially grabbed him: The bureau was looking to hire accountants and lawyers as G-men. Right then, the 10-year-old saw his future and set his sights on accounting as his ticket.
Now, after 24 years as a special agent, Gillies has become the FBI's chief in South Florida, taking the reins last month of the bureau's Miami field office -- the fifth-largest in the country, stretching from Fort Pierce to Key West with 460 agents.
``I have a passion for corruption cases and protecting children, but we do have a lot of threats that we need to address,'' said Gillies, 50, who is married with two children.
Those other threats include terrorism, white-collar fraud, Internet child predators, violent crime and drug trafficking.
Gillies said he plans to ``make tweaks,'' not dramatic changes, to the overall operation.
His FBI career began in 1983, the year after he graduated with bachelor degrees in accounting and business administration from Illinois State University.
His uncle, a Catholic priest, happened to preside over a funeral service for two FBI agents killed in a plane crash. Afterward, the uncle put in a good word for his nephew -- and Gillies got his foot in the door.
Initially he worked as a financial analyst, then became a special agent in 1985. His first assignment: Albany, N.Y., investigating white-collar fraud.
His next stop: the FBI's New York City field office. He was tapped for counterintelligence work, which he can't discuss.
``At the end of theday, you weren't putting bad people in jail,'' hesaid, ``but you have an effect by protecting the security of the United States.''
Gillies yearned to return to investigations, so he transferred 3,000 miles away, to San Diego. There, he investigated the failure of Home Federal and other banks.
He then made his mark with a public corruption case that took down three state Superior Court judges who accepted $100,000 in bribes from a personal-injury lawyer in the mid-'90s. The lawyer was also convicted.
The case, which led to judicial reforms such as assigning cases on a rotational basis, fueled his zeal against corruption. ``It starts with dollar one,'' he said. ``People need to understand that the first time you take that first dollar, you've been bought.''
After that stint, Gillies traveled farther west -- to Honolulu -- where he entered management for the first time, as supervisor of a squad targeting corruption and other crimes. The squad nailed a crooked city councilman, liquor inspectors and an IRS agent, among others.
The post also took him to Hong Kong, the Philippines and other far-flung places.
To rise up management ranks, Gillies had to do a tour of duty at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2002. He oversaw the bureau's Financial Institution Fraud unit for the entire country. That led to senior management jobs in Detroit and St. Louis, where he zeroed in on white-collar, violent and cyber crimes, along with terrorist funding and more corruption cases.
But Gillies, as the special agent in charge of the Miami field office, said he faces his biggest challenge yet: ``We have vast responsibilities -- not only here but also in Latin America.''
Source
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