► U.S. Judge Katherine Forrest of New York City; arrogant whatchamacallit Print

U.S. Judge Katherine Forrest of New York City; arrogant whatchamacallit

 
Katherine Forrest received her law license in 1990 after graduating from New York University School of Law.
 
In 2001, President Obama was duped into nominating Katherine Forrest as a U.S. District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York located in Manhattan.
 
Prior to ascending to the throne in Manhattan, Kathy was a partner in the Cravath, Swaine & Moore law firm. During her time with this firm she and the firm represented Universal Music Group (UMG).
 
One of the cases originally assigned to Kathy involved a royalty suit against Universal Music Group by heirs of Bob Marley. This is the same Universal Music Group that Kathy represented as late as 2010.
 
Subsequently, attorneys for Marley’s heirs along with those representing UMG asked in a short letter to Kathy that she remove (recuse) herself from the case because of an obvious conflict of interest. In less than 24-hours, Arrogant Kathy denied the motion.
 
Shortly after Kathy’s refusal to remove herself from the case, the Marley parties filed a motion for reconsideration. In their motion, the Marleys’ lawyers noted it had been less than two years since Kathy represented UMG. They asserted, the question is where “there is an appearance of a conflict of interest.”
 
Again Arrogant Kathy denied the motion within less than 24-hours. Obviously, Kathy wouldn’t recognize a conflict of interest if it slapped her across the face.
 
It is an absurdity that a litigant is required to ask the judge sitting on his/her case to withdraw because of a conflict of interest, bias or for any other valid reason. Clearly, arrogant judges like Kathy aren’t about to admit they are biased or that a conflict of interest exists.
 
Outsiders should review a recusal requests, and judges should be excluded from so acting. 
 
And finally, once a litigant and/or his/her attorney questions the ethics and/or integrity of someone of Kathy’s ilk, you can assured that she’ll remember the event and take punitive actions against the attorney in the future.