Law Firm

CLOUT KEEPS hearing about efforts to recruit an African-American candidate for next May's Democratic primary election for city controller. The race already has two white candidates: Incumbent Alan Butkovitz , who is seeking a third term, and Brett Mandel , a tax- policy advocate who finished third in the 2009 primary. Could somebody be sizing up a Philadelphia political race, thinking of ways to take advantage of a division of votes along racial lines? It wouldn't be the first time.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority paid at least $700,000 to a Washington lobbyist, channeling much of the money through the law firm Ballard, Spahr L.L.C., while repeatedly telling federal officials it wasn't engaged in lobbying, records show. The payments - a $10,000-a-month retainer - went to American Continental Group, whose president is David J. Urban, a former chief of staff for then-Sen. Arlen Specter. In an interview, Urban described his job as primarily "telling the story" of PHA and its executive director Carl R. Greene to Congress.

Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz has hired three partners and four associates from a Pittsburgh law firm to launch an office in western Pennsylvania. The Center City firm, Philadelphia's third-largest, opened the Pittsburgh office yesterday. It is Pepper's fourth office in the state - the others are in Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Berwyn - and 12th overall. The new office will be headed by three partners from the Pittsburgh firm of Doepken Keevican Weiss & Medved, including name partner George M. Medved, who concentrates his practice in construction litigation.

After growing at a rate of 10 percent a year for 10 years, the Center City law firm of Cozen & O'Connor has cut back. Late last week, it completed a months-long retooling in which it dropped six lawyers, 20 paralegals and more than 20 secretaries and administrative workers at offices around the country, said Stephen A. Cozen, chairman. The cuts were achieved through attrition, resignations and layoffs. The firm grew from 26 lawyers in one office in 1981 to 220 lawyers in eight offices in 1994.

Harold Cramer is leaving his job as chairman and CEO of Graduate Health System when that entity consolidates with Allegheny Health system, but he is not retiring. Cramer said yesterday that he would return to Mesirov Gelman Jaffe Cramer & Jamieson, the Center City law firm he left 20 years ago. "I'm still vigorous, and I'm very interested in health care," said Cramer, 69. "I don't expect to spend my time on the golf course or clipping coupons. " As a lawyer-adviser to health-care clients at the firm, Cramer said he would be in a position to help "in a practical way. I know how the system works.

Ronald D. Castille, the Republican Party leadership's choice for mayor, yesterday joined the Center City law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw & McClay - at a whopping raise over his salary as district attorney. David C. Auten, managing partner of Reed Smith's Philadelphia office, said he "expects Castille to be a significant contributor to the firm's litigation team. " He will make $130,000 a year. While he was district attorney from 1985 until he resigned Tuesday, his salary was $79,000 a year.

Two men were arrested yesterday and charged in the brazen slaying Dec. 20 of a receptionist in a busy Center City law firm. Two homicide detectives had been tracking the suspects for two months, a hunt that took them throughout the city and into several southern states, but led ultimately back to Germantown. Acting on a tip, Detectives Tommy Baker and Joe Fischer went to a house on Greene Street near Abbottsford Road shortly before 10 a.m. and flushed the fugitives out of a back bedroom on the third floor.

A powerful and politically connected Philadelphia law firm agreed Tuesday to a $4 million payment to resolve a lawsuit contending that a former partner hoodwinked the chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court while helping find a site for a new Family Court building. The firm, Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel, will pay $2 million to the Philadelphia courts. Its insurer will pay the rest. Jeffrey B. Rotwitt, the former Obermayer partner at the center of the controversy, agreed to the settlement but did not have to pay any money.

Philip H. Strubing, 86, former chairman of the Philadelphia law firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz, and president of the United States Golf Association, died Sunday in Memphis, Tenn., after a long illness. Strubing was a long-time resident of Chestnut Hill who quarterbacked the Princeton University football team during the 1928 season. He also served as captain of the varsity baseball team and won a letter in ice hockey. Strubing grew up in Chestnut Hill, attended Chestnut Hill Academy and graduated from the Lawrenceville School, Princeton and the Columbia University School of Law. During World War II he served as a lieutenant in the Navy's legal department in Washington.

Frederick P. Greiner, 87, a founding member of the law firm of Archer & Greiner and a longtime legal advocate for various South Jersey nonprofit organizations, died Wednesday at his home in Medford. Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Greiner held a childhood dream of becoming a civil engineer because he thought the position called for driving locomotives. After realizing the actual tasks, he briefly considered entering the ministry before deciding on a law career. After graduating from Germantown High School in 1924, he attended Pennsylvania State University.

AFTER FOUR months of uncertainty, the state board that oversees Philly's finances has been made whole. State Senate Democratic leader Jay Costa quietly appointed lawyer Rhonda Hill Wilson to the fifth and final spot on the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority board April 30, the same day a Daily News story detailed political maneuvering around the vacancy. The appointment was due in January. Each year, the board must approve the mayor's five-year financial plan with at least four of five votes.

IF THE LATE Harry Kalas was still around, he might've said: "That bat is outta here. " That's right: Bat! Mickey Mantle's family succeeded in stopping an auction house from trying to sell a corked bat allegedly used by the Mick. The Mantle family went ballistic when Grey Flannel Auctions claimed the doctored bat was used by Mantle. The family even brought in a heavy-hitter to represent them - the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani. That's Giuliani as in Rudy, the former mayor of New York, who is a huge Yankees fan. Yesterday, Jonathan Halpern, a partner in the law firm issued a statement: "The online marketer informed us that it had withdrawn the bat from sale and also had removed the bat [and related photos and statements from its website]

GOV. CORBETT, beset by poll numbers that show voters don't want him to win another term, finally got some good news yesterday. Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor has decided against challenging Corbett in a 2014 Republican primary. Castor, via Facebook and Twitter, thanked his supporters but said such a "massive undertaking" would be impossible given his responsibilities to Montgomery County, to the law firm where he works and to his family. Castor had been mulling a run since December, saying he would make a decision by the spring.

This story has been updated. AS A CHILD, VIVIAN Ortiz spent many a Sunday with her parents at a small chapel on Spring Garden Street, a place where Ortiz learned about faith and community. Now, decades later, that same chapel - and plans to close it - are challenging her faith and that of hundreds in the city's Latino community. On Sunday morning, Ortiz joined more than 100 protestors outside Capilla Católica Hispana de la Medalla Milagrosa, or La Milagrosa, on Spring Garden near 19th, for a vigil to protest the looming closing of the historic church.

The Nutter administration filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against former city Sheriff John D. Green, eight other people, and five companies, alleging that they improperly diverted millions of dollars from city sheriff sales, violating the city's contracting procedures and state ethics laws. "Tens of millions of dollars remain unaccounted for," the lawsuit alleges, while companies owned by defendant James R. Davis Jr., one of Green's friends, "improperly pocketed millions of dollars on account of no-bid contracts and relationships that were unauthorized and unlawful.

Fred Blume, 72, chairman emeritus of the prestigious Blank Rome law firm in Philadelphia, died Monday, April 8, at his Penn Valley home after a long illness. For several decades, Mr. Blume battled a rare pancreatic tumor, said his wife, Sylvia "Sivy" Blume. Despite his illness, he served as Blank Rome's managing partner and chief executive officer from 2003 to 2006. "He was totally and completely dedicated to Blank Rome," his wife said. Morey Rosenbloom, a longtime friend and partner at the firm, said: "He was a lawyer's lawyer.

AUSTIN L. HOGAN liked to kick back on the rooftop deck of his Society Hill condominium overlooking the Delaware River and burn through books at a scary pace. "He would devour a book in an hour and a half," said his wife, Margaret Leyden. "It was frightening. " Not only books but newspapers, local, national and even international, would fall into the maw of his insatiable greed for information and amusement. And he often would turn from the printed page to his Kindle. "He read everything," his wife said.

In the Region Leaner Supervalu to shed workers   Supervalu Inc. , which last week sold Acme Markets and four other national supermarket chains to a Cerberus Capital Management-led investor group, said Tuesday that it plans to eliminate 1,100 jobs as it trims costs amid falling sales. The company still operates about two dozen Save-a-Lot stores in the Philadelphia region and at the Jersey Shore. The cuts, which will come from its corporate and store-support offices, include current positions and open jobs that won't be filled, Minnesota-based Supervalu said, and represent about 3.1 percent of its 35,000-employee workforce.

Instead of pay-to-play, it was pay-to-pave. To land Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission business, contractors bidding for work made hefty campaign donations to mostly Democratic political potentates while wooing turnpike executives with meals, baseball tickets, and trips. Yes, you're probably as shocked as I am. The grand jury report released last week by Attorney General Kathleen Kane is a sad, sordid reminder that the more things appear to change . . . the more they really don't.

". . .[T]hese individuals, employed by or associated with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, used the turnpike as an enterprise through which they engaged in commerce and, in the conduct of the turnpike's affairs, a pattern of racketeering activity. These individuals wielded extraordinary power which they wrongfully used for self-enrichment and for their own political purposes, rather than for the good of the commonwealth and its citizens. " "...As explained to the grand jury, 'Money is the mother's milk of politics, and these are prime opportunities to raise funds.