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White-collar defense team for white-shoe law firm
But it may be true that the deal was a bigger bonus to the acquisition. Reports have it that BI is paying a high price for Barry Slotnick and his legal boutique.
High profile litigator Slotnik will be the new leader of a BI white-collar criminal defense team. Slotnick says "every white-shoe law firm has a white-collar team, and now Buchanan has a really good one."
"It is known about us that we will go to any courtroom and try any case, and that we are very, very aggressive trial lawyers."
Slotnick has been famous for his defense of New York organized crime boss John Gotti.
Gotti was convicted of federal racketeering charges in 1992 and later died in prison.
Slotnick also was infamous as lead counsel to reputed Russian mafia head Vyacheslav Ivankov, who was sometimes known as the "Red Godfather." Legend had it that Ivankov was sent to the U.S. to carve out a niche for the Russian mob in "Little Odessa" in Brooklyn, New York.
He was prosecuted by the FBI for supervising the extortion of millions of dollars from an advisory firm run by Russian businessmen, and sent to jail in 1995.
After spending nine years in federal prison, Ivankov was sent back to Moscow, where he was arrested for two separate murders.
Slotnick, however, considers his most important case the defense of New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz.
In 1984, Goetz was charged with shooting four teenagers on a subway with an unlicensed .38-caliber handgun. Goetz later said his only regret was that he had run out of bullets.
Goetz spent four months in Rikers Island prison in New York after his sole conviction on the count of carrying an unlicensed firearm.
So what does BI offer Slotnick?
Slotnick says Buchanan will enable him to develop his new plans for transactional, commercial and matrimonial businesses.
"At the touch of a button, I have resources with expertise in every area of the law I'd like to practice in the future."
What does Slotnick have to offer BI?
Buchanan CEO Tom VanKirk said Slotnick brings expertise as a litigator and important government contacts that will help the firm develop its public-sector business. He points specifically to Slotnick's close relationships with New York Gov. George E. Pataki and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
VanKirk says the New York and Pittsburgh operations are going to be fully integrated, and BI's Philadelphia and Princeton offices will be joining in.
MORE DRAMA FOR ATTORNEYS. Speaking of Slotnick's flamboyant legal style, he just may have been a man ahead of his time.
Philadelphia papers report that a new cottage industry of actors-training-lawyers is springing up in order to help real lawyers seem as interesting as the ones that jurors see on television.
Recently in Philly, actress Celeste Walker taught "Acting for Attorneys," at the Wilma Theatre. At the seminar, the actress coached lawyers on how to be more dynamic in delivery in court.
Another lawyer training company, Animation Technologies, teaches classes for lawyers on how to use computer animation to present complex information to juries in court cases.
A third company, Law Actors, teaches lawyers to read depositions aloud, and teach their witnesses to be more effective on the stand.
If need be, Law Actors says it will provide trained speakers to read depositions that could otherwise be dull.
Critics of the new idea include Larry Hammond, the president of American Judicature Society, a judicial ethics organization.
Hammond says he worries that lawyer theatrics and competition with TV court dramas will have a corrosive effect on the legal system.
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