The Henderson mayor’s attorney has been granted more time to defend the city official’s standing in office.
Mayor Andy Hafen now has until July 8 to respond to the Nevada Supreme Court’s request for more information in a term-limit case seeking his removal that was filed by a former candidate.
Hafen’s attorney, Todd L. Bice, requested and was granted the 10-day extension Friday because the attorney had “other matters that needed to be dealt with on a shorter time frame,” Bice said Monday.
The extension came the calendar day before Hafen, state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and Secretary of State Ross Miller were scheduled to respond to a late May filing. Former mayoral candidate Rick Workman filed the challenge May 21 after Cortez Masto and Miller declined to consider removing Hafen from office following a February state Supreme Court ruling on term limits.
Once Hafen, Cortez Masto and Miller file their joint response, Workman will have 15 days to answer their counter argument. The court then will decide if it should intervene in the case.
Hafen was first elected to the City Council in 1987 and was elected mayor in 2009. He was re-elected last year after receiving 55 percent of the vote in the primary.
Workman, a city employee since 2000 who works for the Police Department as its criminalistics administrator, received 37 percent of the vote.
LAS VEGAS – James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced that seven lawyers from the firm have been recognized on the 2014 list of Mountain States Super Lawyers, a renowned ranking of outstanding attorneys across the region.
Pisanelli and Bice were both among the select attorneys honored on this year’s list of top 100 lawyers in the Mountain States Super Lawyers, along with Managing Partner Debra Spinelli and attorney Jarrod Rickard.
Spinelli was also recognized as a Top 50 female lawyer.
In addition to the aforementioned litigators, Pisanelli Bice attorneys Eric Aldrian, Christopher Miltenberger and Jordan Smith were each named in the Mountain States Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” category. Miltenberger, a senior associate, earned his fifth distinction as a rising star, while Aldrian and Smith were recognized as rising stars for the second consecutive year.
LAS VEGAS – (June 1, 2014) James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, founding partners of Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced today that eight attorneys from the firm were recognized on the prestigious list of Legal Elite 2014 by Nevada Business Magazine. The annual list highlights the state’s most outstanding attorneys.
Pisanelli and Bice were both among select attorneys honored on the Legal Elite list of Southern Nevada’s Top Attorneys. Attorneys Eric Aldrian, Magali Calderon, Christopher Miltenberger, Jarrod Rickard, Jordan Smith and Managing Partner Debra Spinelli were also recognized. In addition, Aldrian, Calderon and Smith were named to the publication’s Best Up and Coming attorneys list as well.
Legal Elite is an annual list honoring the most exceptional attorneys in Nevada. Lawyers are selected for Legal Elite based on peer nominations, and ranked according to where votes originated. This year’s Legal Elite polling had more than 6,400 unique votes submitted. The attorneys featured on Legal Elite 2014 garnered the top voting scores throughout the state.
CARSON CITY – The Nevada Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling has reversed the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit brought against Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson by a former top executive.
The defamation claim was added to a breach of employment lawsuit brought by Steve Jacobs, who served as head of the company’s Macau operations until he was let go in 2010.
Jacobs and his attorney said in the appeal that after a Clark County District Court denied motions to dismiss his employment lawsuit in 2011, Adelson defamed him in comments to the press by calling him a “delusional liar who was fired from his job ‘for cause.’ ”
Jacobs then added the defamation claim.
Adelson claimed that Nevada’s absolute privilege for judicial communications protected his communications with the media, and Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez agreed, dismissing the defamation portion of the lawsuit. Jacobs then appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard the case in October of 2013.
But the Supreme Court, in the split ruling Friday, said communications made to the media in an extrajudicial setting are not absolutely privileged, at least when the media holds no more significant interest in the litigation than the general public. The case was sent back to District Court for further proceedings.
Justices James Hardesty, Michael Douglas, Nancy Saitta and Judge Michael Montero, serving in place of Justice Kristina Pickering, were the majority.
CARSON CITY — A group of real estate investors lost their bid Thursday to keep documents sought in a lawsuit over a failed Henderson development project confidential.
The Nevada Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court order requiring Las Vegas Development Associates and Essex Real Estate Partners, along with other parties, to turn over the documents to KB Home Nevada in a dispute over a $60 million land acquisition deal at the Inspirada development in west Henderson.
The issue before the court was whether the investors were required to turn over what their attorneys said were privileged documents containing legal advice and litigation strategy to KB Home.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, said such documents must be turned over if they are used in depositions, just as they must be provided when used in court proceedings.
The documents were referred to by Essex executive George Holman to refresh his memory when he gave a deposition in the case.
Attorneys for KB Home said state law is clear on the subject and requires documents used by a witness for such purposes to be turned over to the opposing side.
Attorneys for the developers said the documents were protected by attorney-client privilege.
