Law Times

PAGE 4 NEWS April 4, 2011 • lAw Times Black to get 51-63 months, lawyer predicts BY JULIUS MELNITZER For Law Times conference in New York last week will aff ect his sentencing in June remains to be seen, but legal ob- servers are clear on this: he's going to get a lot more time than the six months that the CBC, relying on an expert, predicted he'd receive. Stephen Maddex, a trial lawyer W with McMillan LLP, believes the Canadian media have fallen short in their understanding of how the U.S. legal system works. hether or not Conrad Black's excoriation of the legal system at a "For example, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in the case, the CBC and just about everyone else in Canada reported that Black's convictions had been overturned, and that absolutely wasn't the case," he says. What the Supreme Court did do was tell the lower courts to reconsider whether Black's conduct on the fraud matters fell within the narrowed defi ni- tion of honest services, a ruling that ultimately left him with one conviction for fraud and another for obstruction of justice. Th e prediction of six months apparently stems from guidelines that provide a base sentence of that length for fraud. "But if you take into account the loss on the fraud count and factor in the obstruction charge, the actual range of sentence is ap- proximately 51 to 63 months mi- nus credit for the time Black has already served," Maddex says. Robert Kent, a lawyer at Baker & McKenzie LLP's Chicago of- fi ce, says Maddex is right. "Th e formula in the sentencing guide- lines, which takes into account a number of factors including the nature of the crimes and the loss fl owing from them, does indeed produce a range of 51 to 63 months. But in order to pre- dict the sentence more precisely, you have to look at how the sen- tencing judge, Amy St. Eve, ap- plied the guidelines originally." Following the original trial, St. Eve came up with a range of 78 to 97 months and chose the low end. Based on all three of the original fraud convictions, the loss was $5.5 million, a number that now stands at about $600,000. Still, that isn't determinative. "Th e Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals made it clear that St. Eve could still take the total losses on all the convictions into ac- count if she found them relevant to sentencing and then basically impose the same sentence despite the diminished number of con- victions," Kent says. Kent points out that on the original sentencing, St. Eve could have considered the losses from the numerous counts on which the court acquitted Black at trial. "But she didn't, and I don't think she's going to consider anything more than the $600,000 loss on the one fraud conviction," he says. "And if she does that, the relevant sentencing guidelines will reduce the length of the sentence by four levels, which takes you down to between 51 and 63 months." Janet E. Minor Recommends Phil Tunley for Bencher Get the program: www.philtunley.com Phil Tunley says… • HST on lawyers' fees should be directed to Legal Aid • You will be better represented by my broad practice experience • The LSUC should set the Gold Standard for professional regulation • Let's improve mandatory CLE's relevance and accessibility • Our self regulation must reect the diversity of legal practice Untitled-5 1 3/22/11 3:00:46 PM Candidate for Re-election as Bencher (Toronto) Vote for judgment, experience and progressive change. From the public sector: committed to serving the profession. www.janet4bencher.ca NOR THEAST / NORD-EST SUDB UR Y JACK BRAITHWAITE FOR BENCHER I am again seeking your support to be re-elected as Bencher My reasons are simple - I am proud of the profession and the dedication of those who make up the profession. For details on my thoughts and concerns, please visit www.jackbraithwaiteforbencher.com EXPERIENCE. COMMITMENT. Weaver Simmons 233 Brady Street, Sudbury On Untitled-2 1 2/25/11 12:54:47 PM www.lawtimesnews.com WeaverSimmons_LT_Mar21_11.indd 1 Telephone: 705 671 3288 jbraithwaite@weaversimmons.com 3/15/11 3:55:36 PM

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