Category: Law

A Client who was represented by Labaton Sucharow’s receives an Award from the SEC.

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Labaton Sucharow is a pioneer company in the provision of whistleblower representation services. The firm was started in 2010 after the United State Congress approved legislations that led to significant changes in the financial industry such as the formation of the whistleblower protection program. An informant of the Securities and Exchange Commission who was represented by the Labaton Sucharow law company was recently offered $17 million by the organization for providing useful intelligence that helped in revealing wrongdoings in the financial sector. This was one of the largest financial incentives that have ever been offered by the commission to a whistleblower. The SEC whistleblower rules indicate that the source should be given 10 to 30 percent of the money that is collected as penalties due to information that they provided.

The Labaton Sucharow’s client helped the SEC to unearth the fraudulent undertakings of a main company in the industry. The identity of the whistleblower is unknown since he used an attorney to offer the information to the commission. Jordan A. Thomas is the head of Labaton Sucharow’s whistleblower representation practice. He serves the law firm as a senior attorney, and he has sufficient information about securities since he served at the SEC as an assistant director. He was also among the officials who helped in the formation of the law that protect the whistleblowers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been implementing various measures to encourage the public to inform it on the fraudulent undertakings of various companies in the financial sector. This includes the offering a financial reward and assuring the whistleblowers that they will not be fired by their employers. The SEC also has the Investor Protection Fund, which has a deposit of about $400 million that is used for awarding the informants.

Labaton Sucharow Law Company has been operational for close to five decades, and the main clients of the firm were enterprises, investors, and consumers who have complex cases that deal with litigations. The staff of the company is well trained, and they include financial auditors, investigators, and forensic accountants who understand the implementation of federal and state laws. The expertise that they offered enables the company to give the best representation. Labaton Sucharow is one of the leading businesses that provide plaintiff representation, and it has been recognized by the Benchmark Litigation, The Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for the services that it offers to its clients.

Brenda Wardle and the Trial of Oscar Pistorius

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On 3 March 2014, the case of The State vs Oscar Pistorius opened in the High Court of South Africa in Pretoria. Oscar Pistorius, also known as the Blade Runner, is well known as a leading South African runner with two prosthetic legs.

The purpose of the trial was to determine whether or not Pistorius was guilty of the murder of model Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend, at their home in the early morning of Thursday, 14 February, 2013. Pistorius’s bail hearing lasted from 19 February to 19 August at which time he was formally indicted on charges of murder and the illegal possession of ammunition.

The trial began on 3 March 2014 and the verdict was decided later that year on 12 September. Just a few days before the trial was to start, on 25 February, Judge President Dunstan Mlambo ruled that the entire trial could be broadcast live via audio and that parts of the trial could be broadcast live via television, specifically the opening and closing arguments, consenting witness testimony, the judgment, and the sentencing “if applicable”.

One of the many people who covered the trial first hand was Brenda Wardle, a South African and Chief Operations Officer at the Wardle College of Law (Pty) Ltd. Wardle is a world-renowned legal analyst and has provided legal analysis both in South Africa and abroad for numerous high-profile cases. While she was covering Pistorius’s trial, she discussed General Anxiety Disorder (from which Pistorius was said to suffer) with Dumile Mateza on Channel 404 and was interviewed on BBC Radio. She also gave her opinion in an interview with Yolisa Njamela on the delayed placement of Pistorius on correctional supervision and his appeal (among other topics).

Wardle has three law degrees: an Intermediary Degree Qualification in Criminal Justice Administration and both a Bachelor and Master of Laws Degree. She has also published numerous articles, but her writing is not limited to publication in law journals and newspapers. She has written twelve manuals on the Contract Management Framework for South African public sector procurement, a short story called The Matriarchs, an autobiographical novel called Odyssey of a Woman, and most recently, To Kill a Fragile Rose – The State’s Case Against Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius, detailing her analysis of the trial and the inner-workings of South African law.