Boutique Sees Healthy Addition With New Partner

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Hooper Lundy & Bookman Inc., which specializes in health law, has added partner Charles Oppenheim, who brings expertise in health care fraud to the firm.

Oppenheim, who practiced at Foley & Lardner LLP for 18 years, specializes in advising doctors accused of Medicare and Medicaid conflict of interest and kickbacks. He jumped to the Century City firm two weeks ago.

Managing partner Robert Lundy said Hooper Lundy added Oppenheim in an effort to complete its health care fraud roster.

“With Charles joining us, it creates a group of experts in the area of health care regulation,” Lundy said.

Health care fraud is increasingly being prosecuted by both the state government and local officials, Lundy and Oppenheim said, and those cases will create new clients. They cited the recent example of Attorney General Jerry Brown announcing a lawsuit alleging that seven private laboratories illegally overcharged millions of dollars to the state’s Medi-Cal program.

Oppenheim said he decided to join a boutique firm because it provides him with a network of health law experts that can better serve his clients.

“At a health law boutique, there is an opportunity to be more responsive and nimble with clients,” Oppenheim said. “All the lawyers are the on the same page.”

Lundy said the firm’s attorneys are representing hospitals, doctors, pharmacies and adult day-care centers in a federal lawsuit filed against the state over the Medi-Cal reimbursement cuts under the 2008-09 budget.


Power Battle

Ousted Chief Executive Alexander Lidow is opening a second front in his battle with the company his father founded, International Rectifier Corp.

Lidow filed suit against the El Segundo maker of power management chips in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 16. Lidow alleges in court documents that the company wrongfully terminated him as chief executive after he complained about an independent investigation into the company’s accounting practices.

Lidow claims that Donald Dancer, IR’s executive vice president, and attorneys from Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, the law firm hired to oversee the independent audit committee conducting the investigation, spent more than $100 million on a runaway investigation that mistreated the company’s employees.

Lidow resigned as chief executive in 2007, when the independent investigation revealed that accounting irregularities including faked sales figures at IR’s Japanese subsidiary forced the company to restate two years of earnings.

An IR spokesman declined to comment on the pending litigation. A Sheppard Mullin spokesman did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the attorneys involved in the independent investigation.

The battle began last year when the company filed a federal lawsuit against Lidow accusing him of engaging in an ongoing criminal enterprise by stealing information, intellectual property and technology related to the company’s secret research on a superconducting material. A federal judge dismissed the suit in February.

IR filed a second lawsuit against Lidow in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 16. The suit accuses Lidow of the same misconduct that the federal suit accused him of committing, but it does not include claims of a criminal enterprise.


Legal Concierge

Attorneys who work too many hours to walk the dog or pick up dry cleaning no longer need to fret. That’s because Legally Organized Inc., a concierge service dedicated to L.A.’s lawyers, just opened for business.

While law firms have sometimes offered personal services to attorneys in-house, Legally Organized is a pioneer in establishing an independent company to cater to busy attorneys.

The company was launched by Karen Pordum and Courtney DiCarlo, who left their jobs as marketing executives at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges LLP to set up shop. The duo said they came up with the idea several years ago when both were moving into new homes and realized they needed assistants to run personal errands.

“We are trying to alleviate that stress from your to-do list so you can have a balanced life,” Pordum said.

Attorneys prepay for a certain number of points, which entitle them to a certain number of services. Restaurant reservations will eat up five points, while grocery shopping takes off 30 points. Lawyers can try out the service by buying an introductory package of $50 for 50 points, but other packages can cost as much as $1,000 for 500 points.

Because the downturn has thinned the ranks of many firms, those remaining work harder, Pordum said, and have less time to run errands.

“People who are left at the law firms have a lot more pressure right now,” she said.


Staff reporter Alexa Hyland can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235

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