CLT Domicile Special Update: October 31, 2011
Last Wednesday, October 26, 2011, the reconvened Regular Fall Meeting of the BPR here in Charlotte was adjourned. In the interest of transparency and clarification of specific legal issues this special update is for your review.
BPR Decisions
Some of you have alerted us that the Internet is abuzz with tales of clandestine maneuvers and nefarious intent surrounding what amounts to the reassignment of certain legal cases pending for USAPA. Following is a synopsis of how we handled the business of representing your interests in this regard. Among our many tasks, we have a fiduciary responsibility to see that your dues money isn't squandered. In August we were presented with information that raised legitimate concerns about legal billing. Specifically, the Seham law firm's bills were in question, but there were Board Members who were interested in the bills from other counsel as well, and it was decided that an audit of all our legal bills was in order. Now, seven weeks have passed and, after many letters from USAPA to the Seham firm (Seham Seham Meltz & Petersen, SSMP) over a nearly two-month period, we have received none of the requested information about billing detail and other questions that we have. In a word, they're stonewalling. The audit will proceed, and we have been told that the counsel overseeing that process can absolutely force compliance, but SSMP has thus far ignored USAPA's initial inquiries. This fact in and of itself casts a shadow on their credibility. If there was nothing wrong with their bills, it follows that some transparency on their part would go a long way toward restoring our confidence in SSMP.
For our part, and on the advice of the auditors, USAPA has stopped paying the Seham firm for the time being. This is a rational move in light of the fact that the bills in question might total several millions. However, as a result, the SSMP has put a lien on our files, making day-to-day legal maneuvers difficult and confounding our initial efforts to understand the billing issues. But it does much more than that: it casts extreme doubt on their interest to -- and ability to -- represent USAPA properly in the upcoming Declaratory Judgment litigation in Phoenix. Documentation forwarded to the BPR from Seham through Secretary-Treasurer Rob Streble aptly showed the acrimony SSMP is displaying toward USAPA. It's disappointing, to say the least, that SSMP has clammed up and offered no cooperation when all we've asked for is a clearer picture of what we've been getting for our money. Their initial obstructionist tactics notwithstanding, SSMP has no ability to restrict access to files or to obstruct the representation and best interests of the client. They have, as required, agreed to transfer them to another law firm as necessary.
It is with this background information that the Board had to decide with whom to place our trust for the upcoming court dates in Phoenix. O'Dwyer and Bernstien, along with Pat Szymanski (former General Counsel for IBT President Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.), have already spent considerable time working with USAPA to understand our goals, our political situation, our legal and negotiating positions, etc. They filed our suit in the Eastern District of New York and are working the case involving the injunction in North Carolina.
For those of you unfamiliar with O'Dwyer and Bernstien, the New York firm has over 100 years experience in the fields of Labor Relations and Employee Benefits, Personal Injury Litigation, and Administrative/Governmental law representing individuals, corporations, labor unions and governmental entities. We offer you this information not as any kind of sales pitch, but simply to let you know that making this change in legal counsel is far from some rash decision leading to the use of a second-string firm. Briefings we've received from Brian O'Dwyer and Pat Szymanski have inspired strong confidence in their abilities, and they have shown no tendency toward over-billing or nickel-and-diming us. In fact, it's already been made clear that much of the prep time -- read: billable hours -- for the Declaratory Judgment case has already been accomplished during preparations for the other cases they're involved in on our behalf.
Much has been made in various Internet venues about O'Dwyer and Berstien's hourly rate of $400/hour, which is ostensibly more than Seham's $250/hour. Let's not be naive, however, and think that lawyers can't bill for more hours than they're actually working, or perhaps that they might use more attorneys on a particular assignment than necessary (on numerous occasions Seham was warned about this tactic of assigning too many attorneys to a case, increasing billable hours). This sort of behavior can have a dramatic effect on a client's monthly bill; while we will be watching the legal billing meter closely, early indications are that neither Brian nor Pat engage in billing that won't pass an auditor's inspection. Further, they know that our audit is coming their way soon, and neither have shown any concern or resistance to allowing that process to go forth; in fact they have encouraged and welcomed the audit.
Finally, you should know that after an extensive briefing in closed session, the BPR voted 8-0-3 (the PHX Reps were, appropriately, the three abstentions) in favor of reassigning the Declaratory Judgment case to O'Dwyer and Bernstien and Pat Szymanski. Several of us had serious reservations about making the switch before the meeting, but after hearing the facts and considering the landscape in total, we see the change intuitively as our best course of action.
In the end, this is business. USAPA is a customer in need of experienced, trustworthy legal counsel and we have directed this change to ensure just that. We acknowledge Lee Seham's contributions in the legal arena and we sincerely hope the upcoming audit shines a vindicating light on his firm. For now, however, Seham's unwillingness to cooperate with USAPA is clearly a detriment to his ability to best represent USAPA pilots; having studied the situation, we have every confidence that O'Dwyer and Bernstien, as well as Pat Szymanski, will carry out that task efficiently and effectively.
IBT Education Ad Hoc Committee Update: October 31, 2011
Attention Pilots,
At the direction of the Board of Pilot Representatives, USAPA President Mike Cleary has formed an ad hoc committee to solicit from the pilots any questions concerning the relationship between USAPA and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). At present time, your Union is operating within a Strategic Alliance Agreement with the IBT that pledges cooperation on areas of common interest going forward. Some pilots have expressed an interest in the possibility of expanding this relationship up to and including a possible merger between the two unions.
The IBT Education Ad Hoc Committee, which has been tasked to assemble and deliver questions from our pilots to the IBT, has been formed, has held preliminary meetings, and is ready to hear from you, the USAPA Pilots, with your questions and comments regarding this issue. Please forward your questions for the IBT Education Ad Hoc Committee to the following email address: IBTcommittee@usairlinepilots.org.
The deadline for accepting questions will be November 14, 2011 at 1800 ET.
It is important for the committee to hear from all pilots that have questions so that a factual presentation can be made on this subject to the BPR and interested pilots in the near future. Thanks in advance for your participation in this endeavor.
