The recently released Lions Gate documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” is rekindling interest in the events surrounding the late Beatle’s bid to gain U.S. citizenship in the early 1970s.
For L.A. attorney Dan Marmalefsky, the fire never went out.
Lennon’s supporters claim that he was flagged by intelligence agencies for his anti-war stance and that then-President Richard Nixon viewed him as a threat to his reelection campaign.
Among those interviewed in the documentary is University of California, Irvine professor Jonathan Weiner, who has pursued a Freedom of Information Act case against the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain documents detailing the surveillance.
Marmalefsky, a litigation partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP, has been working on the case in conjunction with Weiner and the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years. He took the pro bono case when he was 27 years old. He’s 50 now, and still working on it.
“It’s only about half my life,” joked Marmalefsky, who calls himself more of a John Lennon fan than a Beatles fan. “We all had our favorites. And John was mine.”
Over the past two decades, the FBI has released some of the disputed Lennon documents, but a few remain held up by litigation. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in 2005 that the remaining files could be released. The government has filed a notice of appeal and the documents will be held until the judgment is affirmed. The case could go to the Supreme Court on appeal.
Marmalefsky said one of the driving forces behind his commitment to the case is to fight what he calls “the government’s knee-jerk tendency towards secrecy.”
Documents that have been released in this case are available on the FBI Web site, which describes the documents as related to an “Investigation conducted when the FBI learned that John Lennon contributed $75,000 to a group planning to disrupt the Republican National Convention in 1972.”
An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on whether or not Lennon was under surveillance, but noted a provision in the Freedom of Information Act that allows the government to redact or withhold documents to protect the identity of persons, groups, or foreign nations that may have provided the FBI with the information.
Plaintiffs believe that the still-withheld documents would provide background on several aspects of the case: the U.S. position that Lennon was ineligible for a U.S. visa because of a drug conviction in England; that the U.S. tried to deport Lennon and Yoko Ono when their visas expired; and Lennon’s alleged $75,000 donation to the Allamuchy Tribe, which planned to demonstrate at the Republican National Convention.
By the time the convention rolled around, Marmalefsky noted, Lennon had been deported.
Merger Mania
Los Angeles is seeing yet another case of a mid-sized law firm swallowing up a boutique with a Southern California office.
As of October, New Jersey-based Grotta Glassman & Hoffman P.C. will be a part of Philadelphia-based Fox Rothschild LLP. Grotta Glassman is a 50-lawyer employment boutique with two offices on the East Coast and others in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. The 300-lawyer firm’s name will not reflect any changes.
Grotta managing partner Theodore M. Eisenberg, who will be managing partner of Fox Rothschild’s New Jersey office and a member of the executive committee after the merger, said he knew part of his firm’s appeal was its bi-coastal presence. Fox Rothschild has been looking to go national.
Eisenberg added that his firm has turned down merger offers in the past few years because none of the suitors have been a good fit for Grotta’s core employment expertise.
“Fox Rothschild had a very aggressive national plan and the same sort of interest in a general practice format as we had in labor and employment,” Eisenberg said. “They had just gone into New York and were building a 30,000-square-foot office and we had a major commitment in New York, too.”
The larger firm’s interest in tax, healthcare and intellectual property for businesses also dovetailed with Grotta’s labor focus. Eisenberg sees his firm getting more involved in intellectual property and defending businesses against wage and hour class actions.
Around Town
The Quisenberry Law Firm has got preliminary approval on a large wage and hour case against American Pie LLC’s Claim Jumper restaurants, The defendants are expected to settle for $6.5 million, which would net the 76 plaintiffs about $50,000. Foley & Lardner LLP has won the 2006 Drucilla Stender Ramey Award, awarded by the California Minority Counsel Program to recognize commitment to diversity. Manatt Phleps & Phillips LLP is bumping up first-year associate pay to $145,000 as of January 1. The Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles will install a new president this week. Jennifer Landau, a litigation partner at Sidley Austin LLP who has a successful practice and two young sons, will take the post. Also slated for honors at Landau’s installation are California Community Foundation President Antonia Hern & #225;ndez and Break the Cycle founder Meredith Blake.
Staff reporter Emily Bryson York can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235, or at
[email protected]
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