PRforLAW, LLC Legal Media Relations Expert Richard Lavinthal

Breaking News and Selected Major-Case Initiatives
by PRforLAW, LLC for law firm clients across the U.S.

For Small to Mid-Size Law Firms: Advertising alone won't help attorneys to retain or acquire clients in today's layoff-plagued hyper-competitive legal marketplace. Savvy lawyers seeking to project their skills and their firms above their competition know the local, regional and national StealthMarketing™ power of best-practice legal media relations for important cases.

If your firm budgets only for advertising you're missing a chance to leverage the marketing power of big cases to advance client advocacy, enhance law firm visibility, and increase attorney reputation.

Our new brochure,"The Legal Lay-Off All Law Firms Need to Make, Even Solos" explains why Richard Lavinthal and PRforLAW, LLC should be your firm's choice for outsourced per-case legal media relations. Call us for a copy.

Timothy J. McInnis, Esq. wins rare Third Circuit habeas writ
for businessman convicted of first-degree and felony murder
in New Jersey seashore double homicide 20-plus years ago

A unanimous three judge panel rules Ocean County
New Jersey Prosecutor's Office employed “rank speculation”
and not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt to convict
the yacht-owning North Jersey businessman for his
alleged role in the highly publicized 1983 Jersey shore killings

PHILADELPHIA — After 10 years of consummate litigation attorney Timothy J. Mcinnis, Esq, has won a rare habeas corpus writ for his client, businessman Paul Kamienski, telling today's Asbury Park Press that “An innocent man is going to be released.”

Kamienski, who had business interests in North Jersey and Florida, was unjustly convicted of murder by the Ocean County, New Jersey, Prosecutor for his alleged role in a New Jersey seashore double murder in 1983. He has been imprisoned for more than 20 years under a 30-to-life sentence.

In its opinion issued yesterday, a unanimous three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit panel found insufficiency of evidence for the felony murder conviction stating, "...based on our review of the evidence, the picture is simply not there and its existence can not be inferred absent the kind of guesswork that due process prohibits. Indeed, we can not accept the state’s view of the evidence without choking all vitality from the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The government’s arguments to the contrary rely not on inferences but on speculation."

June 2, 2009 Update: Law.com, in its national legal bulletin sent to attorneys around the world today featured the New Jersey Law Journal article about this case.

Visit the litigation Web-site created by PRforLAW, LLC for this case at
http://www.ReleasePaulNow.com. It contains the Third Circuit opinion, our news release, filed documents, transcripts, recorded oral arguments, many photos of Kamienski, his own life story and a summary of the case. The site also includes frank HD video interviews with Kamienski shot on two occasions at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey where Kamienski is now being held. The three videos also are available on YouTube®.

$1.4 Billion Eli Lilly & Company Zyprexa® Settlement
Is Biggest Whistleblower Case In U.S. History

Philadelphia Attorney Stephen Sheller’s
Whistleblower Clients Help Government Recover
$1.4 Billion Record Settlement and Criminal Fine in
Eli Lilly & Company Zyprexa® Marketing Case

PHILADELPHIA – Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Company (“Lilly”) will pay federal and state governments more than $1.4 billion to remedy a wide-ranging, off-label marketing scheme for its prescription drug, Zyprexa®. This settlement is the largest qui tam settlement in the history of the False Claims Act.

Uniquely Experienced Legal Public Relations Consultant
Executed Legal Media Relations For Three Of The Top 10
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Fraud Recoveries In Fiscal 2008

(PHILADELPHIA) ‑ A former journalist, federal and state prosecutors’ spokesman and online news editor set an enviable record recently when the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced the top 10 civil fraud recoveries for Fiscal 2008. Richard Lavinthal’s PRforLAW, LLC, a unique niche legal public relations consultancy, had crafted and executed legal media relations strategy for attorneys with three of the top 10 cases.

When the DOJ trumpeted $1.34 billion in FY2008 civil fraud settlements and judgments nearly half the total dollars recovered for federal and state taxpayers were from three separate cases in which PRforLAW developed and executed media relations strategy. Six attorneys in five firms whose whistleblower clients helped recover more than $656 million had retained PRforLAW for case-specific legal media relations.

International Association of Chiefs of Police
Official Monthly, Police Chief, Features
In-Depth Polygraph Article By internationally Known
Polygraph Expert Nathan J. Gordon

PRforLAW, LLC proposed to editors at the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and author Nathan J. Gordon, Director of Philadelphia-based Academy for Scientific Investigative Training, an academic look at current truth detection options. Police Chief is the authority for federal, state and local law enforcement senior executives across the U.S., and around the globe.

Richard Lavinthal, PRforLAW, LLC Managing Director, has been an Associate Member of The International Association of Chiefs of Police Member for more than a decade, beginning when he left the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice to serve as Director of Criminal Justice Programs for APBnews.com in New York City.

Qui Tam Whistleblower Attorney Brian P. Kenney
Says Pennsylvania Taxpayers Are Missing Out
On Millions Without A False Claims Act

As of January 2007, the federal government began penalizing states that had not enacted false-claims laws to combat fraud against their treasuries. The penalty is a 20-percent loss of reimbursements from Medicaid-fraud prosecutions under the federal False Claims Act. Because Pennsylvania does not have a state false-claims act, it gets a smaller share of fraud-prosecution proceeds than states that have such laws, potentially costing Pennsylvanians millions of dollars.

Not surprising, many more responsible state legislatures have passed false-claims acts. New Jersey, Delaware, New York and 17 other states have adopted such laws, avoiding the 20-percent penalty."

$425 Million Cephalon Civil Settlement, Criminal
Fine In America’s Largest Biotechnology Medicaid Fraud
Case; Philadelphia-Based Qui Tam Whistleblower Attorney
Brian P. Kenney, Esq. Filed First Complaint With Client’s
Off-Label Marketing Allegations In 2003

PHILADELPHIA – Biotech drug manufacturer Cephalon, Inc. (“Cephalon”) flouted federal regulations on a grand scale for years by off-label marketing its first three prescription drugs far beyond the cancer pain, epilepsy and narcolepsy specialists for whose patients those drugs had been FDA-approved. Instead, Cephalon focused its national marketing muscle on unapproved uses, targeting medical specialists with bigger patient populations, according to a Complaint filed in 2003 by Philadelphia qui tam whistleblower attorney Brian P. Kenney, Esq. The complaint was unsealed today with Cephalon’s $375 million nationwide Medicaid fraud settlement and $50 million corporate criminal plea.

Kenney, lead partner of Philadelphia-based, Kenney Egan, McCafferty & Young, P.C., represents whistleblowers across the U.S. His whistleblower client is a former medical sales representative, area trainer and institutional representative for the Frazer, Pennsylvania-based drug manufacturer. In 2003, on her behalf, Kenney brought qui tam whistleblower Medicaid fraud allegations against Cephalon to the government.

Three Attorneys Who Represented Whistleblower In The $400 Million
February 2008 Merck Qui Tam False Claims Act Settlement
Are Named Lawyers of the Year for 2008
By The Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund (“TAF”)

Attorneys And Their Whistleblower Client Also Donate $250,000
To TAF To Seed A New Endowment Fund For Additional Staff
To Advocate For Qui tam Federal And State Recoveries

WASHINGTON (Sept. 10) – Three nationally known qui tam whistleblower lawyers who represented a former Merck & Co, Inc. (“Merck”) district sales manager in a Medicaid fraud case that helped federal and state governments recover more than $400 million from the drug manufacturing giant in February were named 2008 Lawyers of the Year at the annual meeting of Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund (“TAF”) here last night.

CBS Evening News Features
Whistleblower Attorney Michael Behn
And The Walgreens $35 Million Settlement

Congratulations to whistleblower attorney Michael Behn, co-founder of Chicago-based Behn & Wyetzner, Chartered. The CBS Evening News of April 13th featured Behn and the Walgreens case in a three-minute "Follow The Money" feature hosted by Investigative Correspondent Sharyl Atkisson. The video report can be viewed on the Web site PRforLAW, LLC developed for three of Behn's cases, http://www.PharmacyFraudSettlement.com.

On June 4th the National Law Journal featured Michael Behn and the Walgreens case. (See June 4th below)

Walgreens Settles Drug Switching Allegations,
Pays $35 Million; Third National Pharmacy
Exposed By Pharmacist Whistleblower Whose
Qui Tam Actions Have Returned
$120 Million To Taxpayers

Walgreens paid $35 million to 42 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to settle allegations it overcharged Medicaid by switching dosage forms in filling generic Prozac®, Zantac® and Eldepryl® prescriptions, according to Behn.

PharmacyFraudSettlement.com the litigation Web site developed with the attorneys from Behn & Wyetzner, Chartered for the CVS settlement was updated to include documents and information from the June 4th Walgreens settlement and the November 2007 and Omnicare settlement.

US Partially Joins Qui Tam Whistleblower Suit
Against Nanotechnology Research Firm
That Received $50 Million in SBIR Grants
Since 1985; Judge Orders Unsealing,
Service Of Qui Tam Complaint Filed By
Whistleblower's Attorney Timothy J. McInnis, Esq.

In 2005; MER And Its Principals And Officers
Defrauded Departments of Defense, Energy and NASA
By Illegally Duplicating Projects, Falsifying
Progress Reports, And Billing Government For Work
On Private Projects, McInnis’ Complaint Alleges

TUCSON, AZ —The U. S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, in a March 31, 2008 notice filed in U.S. District Court, announced that the federal Government is partially intervening in a qui tam whistleblower lawsuit against Tucson-based Materials and Electrochemical Research Corporation (“MER”), a nanotechnology company that has received more than $50 million in Government research grants since 1985.

The suit, filed under seal in 2005, charges the company and four individual defendants with violating the federal False Claims Act between 2002 and 2005 in connection with MER’s receipt of Small Business Innovation Research (“SBIR”) grants, according to the whistleblower’s attorney, Timothy J. McInnis, Esq.

CVS, America’s Largest Pharmacy Chain,
Pays Nearly $37 Million to Settle Federal and State
Generic Drug Switching Charges

CHICAGO ‑ CVS Corporation, which claims to be America’s largest pharmacy chain, has paid nearly $37 million to settle the nation’s first retail pharmacy drug switching case. CVS allegedly charged the government up to 400 percent more for Medicaid patients by illegally changing generic Zantac® prescriptions from tablets to higher priced capsules, according to a multi-state complaint pursued by whistleblower attorneys Michael I. Behn and Linda Wyetzner.

Reporters / Editors : Visit the reference Web site developed for this case, containing filed documents, allegations and information about the importance of pharmacy whistleblowers at http://www.PharmacyFraudSettlement.com.

$30.3 Million Jury Verdict Believed To Be New Jersey’s Largest Mesothelioma Award; Family Members’ “Take Home” Asbestos Fibers and 50-Year-Old Victim’s Own College Summer Employment At GM Facilities In Bloomfield and Englewood Caused Cancer That Killed Rising-Star Advertising Executive, According To Mesothelioma Attorneys Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, LLP

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Deadly “take home” asbestos fibers on work clothes his father and brother wore while employed at GM parts warehouses in Bloomfield and Englewood, and exposure to the carcinogenic material during his own GM summer employment caused the death of a 50-year-old rising star advertising executive, a Bergen County jury ruled yesterday. The wife and three daughters of Mark Buttitta, who died four days before Christmas 2002, will receive $30.3 million in what is believed to be New Jersey’s largest mesothelioma verdict, the mesothelioma law firm of Levy Phillips & Konigsberg, LLP announced.

Merck Pays More Than $400 Million To Settle
Federal, State Medicaid Fraud Investigation Sparked By
Qui Tam Whistleblower Case Detailing Marketing Schemes
For Vioxx®, Zocor®, Several Other Drugs

PHILADELPHIA -- One of the world’s largest drug manufacturers, Merck & Co., Inc. (“Merck”), has agreed to pay more than $400 million to the U.S., 49 states and the District of Columbia to settle qui tam whistleblower-led allegations that the pharmaceutical giant illegally defrauded Medicaid and other public healthcare programs across the U.S., according to a federal Settlement Agreement unsealed today. Merck employed four schemes to grab or maintain market share for drugs including Vioxx®, Zocor®, Cozaar®, Fosamax®, Maxalt®, and Singulair®, according to qui tam whistleblower lawyers Steven H. Cohen, Mark Kleiman and BethAnne Yeager, who represent the whistleblower, a former Merck district sales manager.

Reporters / Editors : The complete reference Web site for this case is at http://www.DrugFraudSettlement.com.