雪佛龙称原告律师事务所掩盖欺诈行为

    虽然人人都有权聘请律师为自己伸张法律权利，但任何人都无权找律师帮助自己完成一起未遂的犯罪行为。

    在今晨于纽约联邦法庭举行的一场诉讼听证会上，石油巨头雪佛龙公司（Chevron Corp）指控具有政治联系、拥有500名律师的巴顿博格斯律师事务所（Patton Boggs）违反了这一基本规则。雪佛龙声称，这家事务所协助狡诈的原告律师，试图勒索该公司巨额资金。对于任何一家律师事务所来说，这都是一种不同寻常的控诉，更不用说针对的是一家位列美国律所百强（AmLaw 100）行列、在华盛顿特区颇具影响力的游说及政治公共公司了（巴顿博格斯律师事务所的选举法专家本•金斯伯格目前在共和党总统候选人米特•罗姆尼的竞选团队中担任高级顾问一职。然而，金斯伯格本人并不涉及本文讨论的争端）。

    雪佛龙公司的怒火源自巴顿博格斯律师事务所参与的一起旷日持久的环保诉讼案：2003年，这家事务所代表亚马逊河热带雨林居民在厄瓜多尔拉戈阿格里奥省向雪佛龙公司提起诉讼。起诉书声称，一家隶属于德士古公司（Texaco，2001年被雪佛龙收购）的公司在1964年至1990年期间使用劣质的钻井方法，污染了原告一方赖以生存的河流和水井。2011年2月，根据一家厄瓜多尔省级法庭的裁决，原告方将获得一笔价值182亿美元的赔偿金。现在，他们正在寻求其他国家的法庭执行这项判决，因为雪佛龙公司在厄瓜多尔并无财产。

    这起案件致命的地方在于，曼哈顿联邦法官刘易斯•卡普兰在7月份裁定，根据“未被反驳的证据”，代表拉戈阿格里奥省原告的美国律师史蒂芬•唐奇格及其同伴厄瓜多尔律师巴勃罗•法哈多精心策划的欺诈行为“毫无疑问玷污了”这起案件（至少还有5位美国联邦地区法官发现了欺诈行为玷污原告案件的“表面证据”，一个联邦上诉委员会也有类似更具试探性质的发现）。

    对于巴顿博格斯律师事务所来说，最棘手的部分在于，自2010年以来，与唐奇格和法哈多一起参与此案的是巴顿博格斯律师事务所合伙人小詹姆斯•E•泰瑞尔，后者不仅是该律所纽约和新泽西办事处的执行合伙人，还是其执行委员会的成员之一。

    6月份，由Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher律师事务所的兰迪•M•马斯特罗领衔的雪佛龙公司律师团向巴顿博格斯律师事务所送达了一份长43页的传票，要求该律师事务所移交长达数千万页、详细记录其在这起案件中所扮演的角色的卷宗。今晨，卡普兰法官将主持一场听证会，商讨巴顿博格斯律师事务所提议撤销该传票的要求。

    巴顿博格斯律师事务所抗议称，它没有做错任何事，雪佛龙公司试图恐吓它不要帮助具有合理主张的原告追索其合法权益。

    “如果有人郑重其事地声称，拥有50年历史的巴顿博格斯律师事务所会为了一群厄瓜多尔人提出的、我们非常认同的主张，不惜拿我们的职业声誉去冒险，甚至甘愿参与……欺诈?”在去年7月份于华盛顿特区举行的一起相关的庭审程序上，巴顿博格斯律师事务所的泰瑞尔对一位联邦法官说。“我愿意把我在纽约的一座桥卖给他们。”

    昨天中午，本文作者向泰瑞尔和巴顿博格斯律师事务所外聘律师纽约Leader & Berkon律师事务所的阿莉莎•杨发送了一份长2,000字的电子邮件，泰瑞尔打来电话回应称，他不在办公室，没有机会详细审阅邮件内容（进而赶不上本文的发表）。但他的确迅速地回答了几个问题。

    雪佛龙公司的传票与该公司2001年向唐奇格、法哈多，以及该团队聘请的环境顾问丹佛层云咨询公司（Stratus Consulting）提出的民事诉讼有关，雪佛龙公司指控他们违反了《反受勒索影响和腐败组织法》（Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, 简称RICO）的相关规定。去年5月，卡普兰法官否决了被告方撤销此案的要求，他发现，如被证实，雪佛龙公司其实就是在指控被告犯有刑事勒索、邮件和电信欺诈、洗钱、妨碍司法公正和篡改证词等罪行。唐奇格和层云咨询公司否认自己行为不当，法哈多没有出庭。

    译者：任文科

    While everyone is entitled to a lawyer to help him pursue his legal rights, no one is entitled to a lawyer to help him complete a crime in progress.

    In a hearing this morning in a federal suit in New York, oil giant Chevron Corp. is accusing the politically connected, 500-attorney law firm of Patton Boggs of having violated that basic rule by assisting crooked plaintiffs lawyers who are attempting to shake the company down. It's an extraordinary claim to level at any law firm, let alone at an AmLaw 100 firm which is one of the leading lobbying and government-relations shops in Washington, D.C. (Patton Boggs's election law expert, Ben Ginsberg, is currently acting as national counsel to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Ginsberg is not personally involved in the disputes that are the subject of this article, however.)

    Chevron's gripe arises from Patton Boggs's involvement in the long-running environmental suit that was filed against Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, in 2003 on behalf of Amazon rainforest inhabitants. The suit claims that a subsidiary of Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, contaminated the rivers and wells the plaintiffs relied on for sustenance by employing shoddy drilling practices between 1964 and 1990. In February 2011 the plaintiffs won an $18.2 billion judgment in the case from an Ecuadorian provincial court, which they are now seeking to enforce in the courts of other countries, because Chevron has no assets in Ecuador.

    The big fly in the ointment is that Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan ruled in July that, judging from "uncontradicted evidence," the Lago Agrio plaintiffs' case has been "unquestionably … tainted" by an elaborate fraud committed by their lead U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger and his Ecuadorian co-counsel Pablo Fajardo. (At least five other U.S. federal district judges have also found "prima facie" evidence of fraud tainting the plaintiffs' case—a more tentative finding—as has one federal appeals panel.)

    The tricky part for Patton Boggs is that, since 2010, Donziger's and Fajardo's co-captain on the case has been Patton Boggs partner James E. Tyrrell, Jr., the regional managing partner for its New York and New Jersey offices and a member of its executive committee.

    In June, Chevron's lawyers, led by Randy M. Mastro of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, served a 43-page subpoena on Patton Boggs, demanding that it turn over tens of millions of pages of documents detailing its role in the case. A hearing on Patton Boggs's motion to quash the subpoena is set for this morning before Judge Kaplan.

    Patton Boggs protests that it's done nothing wrong, and that Chevron (CVX) is trying to intimidate it out of helping worthy plaintiffs pursue a legitimate cause.

    "If someone seriously suggests that the 50-year-old law firm of Patton Boggs would wreck, would risk its professional reputation for a group of Ecuadorians whose case we feel strongly about, but that we would be involved in a . . . fraud," Patton Boggs's Tyrrell told a federal judge in a related proceeding in Washington, D.C., last July, "I have a bridge in New York I might like to try to sell them as well."

    In response to a 2000-word email concerning this story sent yesterday at midday to both Tyrrell and Patton Boggs's outside counsel S. Alyssa Young, of New York's Leader & Berkon, Tyrrell phoned to say he was out of the office and would not have a chance to closely review the email in time for this article. He did answer a few quick questions, however, as will be noted where relevant.

    Chevron's subpoena was served in connection with a civil suit it filed in February 2011 against Donziger, Fajardo, and the team's Denver-based environmental experts, Stratus Consulting, among others, accusing them of violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Last May Judge Kaplan denied the defendants' motions to dismiss, finding that Chevron's allegations, if proven, would indeed amount to criminal extortion, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. Donziger and Stratus have denied wrongdoing; Fajardo defaulted by failing to appear.