Some of the firm's significant successes with Dubitzky as lead counsel include the following:
Dismissals and declinations:
1. In an event gathering nationwide attention, a doctor was charged with the "mercy killing" of an infant. The hospital and several employees were investigated for allegedly covering up the death and obstructing justice through witness intimidation. Representing the hospital and coordinating the defense of the employees, the firm made numerous legal and factual presentations to the prosecutor, ultimately convincing him to decline prosecution.
2. The government investigated a major international sportswear manufacturer for tax and customs violations, supposedly involving over $5,000,000 in customs duties illegally avoided. Although the agents had investigated the company for five years and were confidant that the case warranted prosecution, the firm's several presentations to the United States Attorney's Office ultimately convinced the prosecutors to completely drop the case.
3. The government charged the firm's client, a Fortune 500 forest products company, and two of its managers with federal criminal PCB violations. The firm convinced the government to drop the criminal charges and accept a civil settlement.
4. The firm defended the environmental coordinator for a major agro-chemical company against felony hazardous waste charges. After significant investigation, we were able to demonstrate to the prosecution that the charges were completely unfounded. The charges were dropped, with government counsel personally apologizing to the firm's client.
Settlements:
5. The firm represented the general manager of a chrome plating plant, charged with numerous illegal discharges in violation of RCRA. The plant has been described as Washington State's worst Superfund site and the case generated significant publicity. The manager ultimately pled to a single storage violation. He was sentenced to a brief period of home confinement over the government's vehement objections.
6. In United States v. McDonald, the government charged three design professionals as part of the North Slope Borough case, Alaska's largest bribery scandal. After a wave of negative publicity, the firm's client was charged with 39 counts of RICO, fraud, and bribery. The firm ultimately convinced the government to allow the defendant to plead to a de minimus charge. He was sentenced to four months doing community service at a ranch for disadvantaged children.
7. The government indicted nearly the entire management of Seattle's leading factory trawler company under a theory of "corporate manslaughter," based on the death of nine seamen when a factory trawler sank. The case required extensive coordination among sixteen law firms reviewing an vast array of allegations and data. The firm's client, the corporate CEO, was ultimately dismissed due to ill health, but the firm continued to assist in the complex motions work and other legal issues facing trial counsel. That work contributed to the acquittal of the company's chairman of the board, as described in connection with Zarky's work in United States v. Miller.
8. The government viewed the president of an aerospace parts distributor as having deliberately sold critical aircraft parts to the Libyan government, in violation of national security controls. They threatened a massive RICO and money laundering indictment. The firm eventually convinced the prosecutor to charge technical licensing violations, based only on a strict liability theory, resulting in the client serving a few months at a prison camp.
9. The government undertook a massive investigation of a very prominent contributor to conservative causes. The prosecution alleged a lengthy and systematic scheme to circumvent the bar on corporate PAC contributions, involving scores of nominee contributors and hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions. The government billed this as the third largest such case in the country. The firm's client was the corporation's CFO , who was also the PAC's treasurer. He had personally signed the allegedly false statements to the Federal Election Commission. All other cases of this scale had resulted in felony convictions. But after protracted negotiations, the government ultimately acceded to a misdemeanor plea, with a short period of home detention.
Trials:
10. The firm represented the president of numerous Texas corporations, who was charged with defrauding a Seattle savings and loan out of several million dollars. After a six week trial, the firm's client was acquitted on fifteen of sixteen counts and received a sentence of probation, with no fine and no restitution.
11. The firm represented a transmission repair firm, charged with mail fraud, for bilking a community transit company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. With overwhelming evidence for the government, a conviction seemed inevitable. The firm raised sufficient doubt on the issue of whether there were mailings that the jury deliberated for over a week before convicting. The threat of an appeal on the mailings issue caused the government to make significant concessions at sentencing in exchange for defendants waiving appeal.
12. One of the firm's white collar clients was charged with kidnapping, in what the government billed as a major foray against "Russian mafia" inroads into Washington. Despite direct witnesses and extensive cellular phone records supporting the government's theory, we raised sufficient doubt as to the credibility of the "victims" that the jury reached a compromise verdict, resulting in a sentence that was barely a third of what the government had been anticipating.
Internal Investigations:
13. Dubitzky has also handled several internal investigations, including significant matters for Fortune 500 aerospace and forest products companies.