Past Owners Sue Backpage.com In Chancery For Legal Fees

https://www.law360.com/articles/1077974/past-owners-sue-backpage…

The complaint did not specify a location for Perkins Coie activities targeted in the suit. Cases against the companies are active in at least nine states from California to Massachusetts.

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Alison Frankel

Backpage can’t claim privilege on documents subpoenaed by Senate – judge

By Alison Frankel September 19, 2016

(Reuters) – The Senate subcommittee investigating Internet sex trafficking will get to see how lawyers for the online classified ad site Backpage.com advised the company on its ad screening policies, under a ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer of Washington, D.C., who is overseeing Backpage’s challenge to a Senate subpoena. Judge Collyer held that because Backpage’s lawyers did not assert attorney-client or work product privileges when they contested the subcommittee’s demand for documents and did not prepare a log of protected documents, Backpage waived the right to claim privilege.

Her decision means that communications between Backpage lawyers and other corporate officials must be turned over to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations by Oct. 10, the deadline Judge Collyer set for the site to complete its compliance with a subpoena issued to its CEO, Carl Ferrer, in October 2015. Ferrer was previously held in contempt of Congress when he failed to appear before the subcommittee.

https://abovethelaw.com/2012/05/village-voice-gc-stands-up-for-everyones-favorite-online-prostitution-ads/

Unlike the women featured in its adult services ads, Backpage's general counsel won't take criticisms lying down…

By STACI ZARETSKY

May 24, 2012 at 1:04 PM

If you’ve ever wandered over to Backpage.com and spent a few minutes reviewing the classified ads there, you probably realized that you had just discovered the seedy underbelly of the internet. Rife with ads for adult services — which is arguably just an elegant way of saying prostitution — the website, owned by Village Voice Media, has come under fire for its association with human trafficking.

Leave it to the company’s general counsel, Elizabeth McDougall, to take a stand for these scandalous online ads. After all, it’s great business! Backpage reportedly has a 70% market share for prostitution ads in the United States, generating millions in revenue.

This week, McDougall is taking additional heat from state attorneys general for her statements in an off-color op-ed column published in the Seattle Times. What could she have said that was so controversial?

According to Corporate Counsel, McDougall, a mother and former partner at Perkins Coie (until February 2012), is used to being called names (names like “corporate sellout,” the “Village Voice pimp,” and “whore”). But she’s never been called a hypocrite before.

That’s what Washington State attorney general Rob McKenna referred to her as after reading her op-ed piece, “Backpage.com is an ally in the fight against human trafficking.” Here’s a quote from the Seattle Times article:

Craigslist Permanently Closes "Adult Services" - AllThingsD

allthingsd.com/20100916/craigslist-permanently-closes-adult-services

Sep 16, 2010 · Craigslist Inc. said the move to take down its adult-services listings was permanent as the online-classified website faced renewed criticism for facilitating child sex trafficking during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. In testimony, Craigslist's external lawyer, Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, and William Powell, Craigslist's director of customer- service and …

online-classified website faced renewed criticism for facilitating child sex trafficking during a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

In testimony, Craigslist’s external lawyer, Elizabeth McDougall, a partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle, and William Powell, Craigslist’s director of customer- service and law-enforcement relations, offered the San Francisco company’s first comments on its Sept. 3 move to shutter the adult-services section and replace it with a banner reading “censored.”

Craigslist has no plans to reopen its adult-services category in the U.S., and the company is now employing technical and manual review measures to keep illegal sex ads from migrating to other parts of its site. Mr. Powell said sex ads are moving from Craigslist to other sites, including Village Voice Media’s Backpage.com.

He said no other site had adopted its best practices, which included creating special victim search interfaces for law enforcement and manually reviewing every adult-service ad.

EXHIBIT 66 - pcva.law

https://pcva.law/wp-content/uploads/2017-04-25-backpage-deposition…

Perkins Coie 15 1201 Third Avenue Suite 4900 16 Seattle, WA 98101-3099 206.359.6225 17 206.359.7225 Fax Broos@perkinscoie.com 18 … "Backpage.com is an 17 ally in the fight against human trafficking." 18 Exhibit No. 6 Declaration of Ms. McDougall 95 19 submitted in support of the

An analysis of documents suggests that Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Perkins Coie—which had been retained by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign—was feeding information to FBI General Counsel James Baker and at least one journalist ahead of the FBI’s application for a FISA warrant on the Trump campaign.

The information provided by Sussmann could have been used by the FBI as “corroborating information.” This is particularly troubling given that the main source of the Russia-collusion allegations, former British spy Christopher Steele, had been hired by Perkins Coie—the law firm Sussmann works for.

Michael Sussmann Lawyer Perkins Coie

Michael Sussmann, partner at Perkins Coie, the law firm hired by the DNC and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 elections. (Courtesy Perkins Coie)

Sussmann’s identity was revealed following a Wednesday closed-door testimony by Baker before congressional investigators in what has been termed an “explosive testimony.”

Taiwan: Bitcoin Traders Ran $51 Million Crypto Scam …

https://www.paratica.com/News/Article/taiwan-bitcoin-traders-ran…

“Backpage furthered its money laundering through the use of bitcoin processing companies,” the Justice Department alleged. Over time, Backpage utilized companies such as Coinbase, GoCoin, Paxful, Kraken and Crypto Capital to receive payments from customers and/or route money through the …

Sen. Bill Nelson Hires Perkins Coie/Trump … - pjmedia.com

https://pjmedia.com/trending/sen-bill-nelson-hires-perkins-coie…

Sen. Bill Nelson Hires Perkins Coie/Trump Dossier Attorney Marc Elias to Handle Florida Recount. Elias “vigorously” denied his involvement with the anti-Trump dossier for a full year.

Jim Jordan interviewed with Perkins Coie lawyers as part of Ohio State investigation

“No one reported anything to us,” he told “The Bob Frantz Authority” on AM 1420. “If they had, if we’d have known, knew about, seen, heard, had reported to us, we’d have dealt with it. But nobody did.”

Multiple former wrestlers have said that Jordan had to have known about alleged misconduct by then-team doctor Richard Strauss because they discussed it in the locker room while Jordan was present. One former wrestler said he told Jordan that Strauss had touched him inappropriately during appointments.

Jordan, who served as assistant coach from 1987 to 1995, has repeatedly denied any knowledge of the alleged misconduct. House Republican leaders, led by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), have expressed support for the embattled congressman, whom conservative groups have pressured to launch a bid for speaker.

[Former Ohio State wrestling coaches release statement supporting Jordan]

As the controversy grew two weeks ago, Jordan criticized Perkins Coie, the law firm hired to investigate Strauss’s behavior. Strauss killed himself in 2005.

Jordan declined to criticize the firm in Wednesday’s radio interview. He said Perkins Coie had contacted his office last month about scheduling a meeting, walking back a previous denial.

“They, in fact, did reach out to us,” Jordan said. “They had called our office. I just didn’t get the message. They had the wrong email address, but they did get through to our office one time.”

In the radio interview, the Ohio Republican blamed the left for the allegations against him.

“Maybe they’re coming after us so hard because we’re actually getting some things done for the American people,” Jordan said. “This is how the left operates. This is how people in the establishment, I think, operate, but we’re going to keep fighting.”

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine appointed the law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur to oversee an investigation into the abuse allegations at Ohio State. That firm hired Perkins Coie, which is specifically looking into Strauss.

Jordan said the lawyer he spoke with at Perkins Coie handled his interview “the proper way.” Jordan spokesman Ian Fury confirmed that the interview took place on Monday but did not respond to an email with further questions about it.