One of Alabama's Big Law firms tried to ruin a rival by attacking his one-man practice in Shelby County, south of Birmingham. It never has been clear why Balch & Bingham, with more than 200 attorneys at 10 offices spread across Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Washington, D.C., and Texas, considered solo practitioner Burt Newsome to be a rival, but this much seems clear: Newsome is good at what he does -- that a 200-lawyer, 10-office firm would be concerned about a solo practice indicates the little guy, Newsome in this case, is doing a lot of things right. Newsome Law LLC -- focusing on commercial loans, collections, foreclosures, bankruptcy, wills and estates, and personal injury and wrongful death -- is rocking along in fine shape, while the big dogs at Balch who sought to ruin him, appear to have ruined themselves.
That's from a post at the banbalch.com blog, led by K.B. Forbes, who is blog publisher and CEO of its parent organization -- the CDLU public charity and advocacy group. Under the headline "The Vow that Killed Balch & Bingham and Alleged Conspirators," Forbes writes:
When the illustrious Schuyler Allen Baker, Jr., general counsel of Balch & Bingham, vowed in 2017 that he would “fight to the death” before resolving the Newsome Conspiracy Case, he was affirming what Claiborne Seier allegedly vowed to Burt Newsome in 2012: Newsome would be destroyed for pursuing a criminal case against Seier’s brother, Alfred Seier, who pulled a gun on Newsome at the latter's law practice.
In October of 2020, Baker died.
Now, late last month, Claiborne Seier died.
Balch justified its actions against Newsome by claiming in court documents that Balch had the right to “ruin a rival.”
Instead, Balch officials ruined themselves.
How did Balch decision-makers wind up shooting themselves in the foot? It involves many of the issues that have plagued our broken "justice system" for decades -- issues we have covered here at Legal Schnauzer since the blog went live in June 2007.
Eventually, with a rigged, compromised, and corrupt judicial branch, Balch, Claiborne, and others won a $242,000 judgment against Newsome.
But Balch lost 18 of 18 top clients and lost income in the aggregate of up to $100 million.
Top money-making attorneys and legacy partners have left Balch these past 5 years, apparently destroying specific practice groups.
Yet, Balch stupidly appears to slap itself on the back for “beating” Newsome in an unconstitutional and secretive Star Chamber.
The CEO of Balch's star client, Alabama Power, also made gaffes, reports Forbes:
Mark A. Crosswhite, the disgraced ex-CEO of Alabama Power, foolishly bit the forbidden fruit when the Oompa Loompa of Alabama politics, Joe Perkins allegedly told him falsely that we, the CDLU, had received enormous amounts of resources to attack Southern Company and its subsidiaries.
The $2 million grant the CDLU received in 2019 (which had nothing to do with Balch & Bingham, Alabama Power, Matrix or their competitors) caused them to defecate rainbows. 🌈
The grant was related to our two decades of health-care and consumer- protection advocacy.
But the smear artists, hired whores, and envelope journalists did not care.
The lie worked and Southern Company foolishly spent millions in surveillance efforts, fear and intimidation tactics, and a smear campaign against us, the CDLU, and Newsome.
Some of these acts included criminal misconduct and felonies.
Crosswhite, the “most powerful man in Alabama, ” was ousted in November.
And now another alleged conspirator has died.
Another carcass joins the disgraced pile of stooges, cronies, consultants, and fools who drank the Kool-Aid or bit the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Balch-landia.
Surreal some might say. Surreal.
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