The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "law firm" ...
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Scapegoat: The Chino Hills Murders and the Framing of Kevin Cooper
Scapegoat is the true story of the horrific Chino Hills murders -- the highest profile crime in San Bernardino County history. It shows how law enforcement ignored eyewitness information implicating three white men as the perpetrators in order to pin the crime on Kevin Cooper, a recently escaped black prisoner from the nearby prison in Chino, California. It shows how his public defender lost the case before the trial even began and how the justice system has failed Cooper at almost every turn. It also shows the heroic work of an international law firm headquartered in San Francisco that adopted Cooper's case pro bono just three months before his scheduled execution in 2004 and won him a stay and how lawyers from this firm continue to appeal his wrongful conviction.
Tags: Murders; crime; law enforcement; police; prison; justice system; wrongful conviction
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Meningitis Outbreak
When an unprecedented outbreak of fungal meningitis began last fall in Tennessee, The Tennessean reacted with aggressive and highly interactive coverage that has led the nation. Before other media realized the significance of the outbreak, which has sickened more than 650 people in 19 states, The Tennessean was already analyzing the regulation of specialty pharmacies and digging into the contracts and connections of the New England Compounding Center, the Massachusetts firm suspected of shipping contaminated steroids responsible for the illnesses. As of today, the outbreak has killed 40 people nationwide, 14 of them in Tennessee. More than a hundred more are still sick. We quickly reported problems associated with New England Compounding Center, lag times on informing victims and regulation slip-ups in the drug compounding industry that allowed companies to operate outside of the law.
Tags: Health; meningitis; New England Compounding Center; steroids
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Treasury Luxury Travel
The Oregonian's investigation spotlighted an obscure corner of state government where Wall Street practices became business as usual, where a set of high-paid employees were granted special exemptions to operate outside the scope of state gift and ethics laws, and functioned with little internal or public oversight. The newspaper revealed that state investment officers charged with monitoring more than $50 billion in state pension investments routinely travel in luxury, paid for by taxpayers and the Wall Street investment managers they are supposed to be overseeing. They stay at high-end resorts and five-star hotels, eat at celebrated restaurants and fly first class. The tab is often picked up by investment firms managing Oregon's investments, who are competing for hundreds of millions of dollars in fees that the pension fund pays annually. The state treasury didn't monitor that travel. It kept no record of the expenses or gratuities provided its employees. And it ignored the potential conflicts of interest.
Tags: State Government; Corruption; Finance; Wall Street; Exemption; Business; Gift and Ethics Law; Travel; State Treasury; State Employees
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Cashing In
During a period of tight city finances, Memphis was outlaying a yearly average of as much as $2,300 per day on attorneys fees. Nealry $8 million across 22 law firms was payed out by taxpayers in a four year time frame. WREG-TV uncovered that many of these lawyers were personal friends of the mayor, and the station's requests for budget items were purposefully stalled and stonewalled until serious actions of litigation against the city were threatened.
Tags: Memphis; attorneys; fees; lawyers; legal; firms; contracts; mayor; friends; finance; open records; municipal; city; campaign manager
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The Great Empire Zone Giveaway
"One of New York's top business-incentive programs wasted millions of dollars a year in tax money. New York tried to keep secret the waste in the $600-million-a-year Empire Zone."
Tags: Empire Zone; real estate; Home Depot; law firms; tax; FOIA
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Corporate Espionage
Former CIA and MI5 spies were closely related to the Washington law firm Barbour Griffith and Rogers. Wal-Mart's Ken Senser was a CIA and FBI agent and was found to be involved in the company's 2007 wiretapping incident.
Tags: Spies, Lies and KPMG; I Spy; KGB; Koshkin; MI5; CIA; FBI; Wal*Mart
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Giuliani Law Firm Lobbies in Texas for Chavez-Controlled Citgo
The law firm, Bracewll & Giuliani LLP, owned by Rudolph Giuliani has on its client list Citgo Petroleum Corp. Citgo Petroleum Corp. is owned by the anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Tags: Venezuela; Giuliani; lobby; law firm; presidential candidate
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Who's Watching Out for Me?
"Pennsylvania's dog wardens have been extremely lenient in policing licensed dog kennels. Our analysis of kennel inspection records, the first of its kind, showed that the vat majority of inspections recorded not a single violation, and even when violations were found, authorities almost never took firm action."
Tags: dogs; animals; health; inspections; Right to Know law; kennels
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Reports show law firm's tie to railroads
According to reports by the Department of Transportation and the Amtrack inspector general, it turns out that Congress was found to have mismanaged $100 million legal fees. This can be seen in how Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips benefited after a frim partner went to work in Amtrack's legal department.
Tags: Don Young; John Mica; Department of Justice; House Transportation; Amtrak
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The Law Firm of Hubris Hypocrisy and Greed
The law firm of Milberg Weiss had presented itself "as a champion of the little guy" in filing securities class-action lawsuits. But the firm "has been indicted for allegedly paying three plaintiffs $11.4 million in illegal kickbacks in about 180 cases spanning 25 years - and then repeatedly lying about it to the courts." Fortune tells the story of the investigation into this firm's indiscretions, with a discussion of how the money changed hands, and the reaction to the indictment.
Tags: Milberg Weiss; Mel Weiss; Bill Lerach; Seymour the Head; illegal kickbacks; securities class-action lawsuits