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One of my readers sent me a note pointing out a comment that I missed made at the bottom of a Washington Post article. While the year-old article itself is the usual establishment rhetoric, the thorough comment under the article, which I’ve included below is spot on. I’m focusing on this public Washington Post link because I want Delawareans to know that people outside of our humble state are also seeing that there’s something rotten in our state’s judiciary. Even folks in our nation’s capitol are seeing that our suspect judiciary under Andre Bouchard (and his former intern at Skadden, Leo Stine) are the ones that are causing our incorporation and business confidence stats to plummet. There appears to be plenty of people out there who get it. If you want to know who benefited from destroying Delaware’s business-friendly image, and in turn, Delaware’s economic prosperity, one needn’t follow the complex money trail — that in my view, would eventually lead to Bouchard’s luxorious Bentley — we can look no further in my opinion. I would say just look at Skadden Arps’ and Potter Anderson’s bank accounts. Chancery Court favoritism and corruption has bled our state’s reputation dry, while seemingly to me simply feathering the retirement nests of Bouchard’s unscrupulous henchmen, Robert Pincus and Kevin Shannon. And just so you think I’m not the only one who is seeing things this way; this Washington Post piece has been up for a year — capturing the nation’s frustration with Bouchard’s nefarious actions in America’s First State.   I’ve written about the handling of the TransPerfect Global case, which has dragged down the reputation of our fine state — remember TransPerfect didn’t need “saving” — it was the largest, fastest-growing, and most profitable company of it’s kind.   Bouchard — with his clerk and now cushy Skadden job holder Mary Toscana ( possible payola!) – wrote what I believe are 105-pages of unsupported lies to justify the government take over of this company — and bleed it dry. The Chancery Court still seeks to mask the money trail from the public – One prominent lawyer mentioned to me this case has the most sealed documents in Delaware history. Make no mistake, there’s no reason for these court records to be sealed; they are simply evidence of how much cash was siphoned from the TransPerfect company coffers by those firms which I believe Bouchard empowered to run the company while he guaranteed them judicial immunity (no matter how corrupt). Again, the Chancellor is not above the law, and the public has a right to know.  
  Washington Post Letter writer, nearly one year ago today:  

“Stephen Gandel failed miserably in writing this garbage article. The courts in Delaware aren’t the saviors of this company – they’re actually a corrupt group of attorneys stealing a company from an owner and employees who want to keep it alive. Please report how the judge, Bouchard, handed the case to his friend and plaintiff’s attorney, Kevin Shannon. Report on how Bouchard appointed his former colleague, Robert Pincus, as the custodian to force the sale of the company. Report how the Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice, Leo Strine, who affirmed Bouchard’s forced sale of the company, is a former colleague of Bouchard. Report how Bouchard, Pincus and Strine all worked/work for law firm Skadden Arps, and now Pincus bills TransPerfect $1,400 per hour to hire his firm’s friends to fleece the company. Report how Skadden’s clients, HIG who owns Lionbridge – TransPerfect’s largest competitor, is “bidding” on the company. Report how Credit Suisse, who owns the debt for Lionbridge/HIG, is consulting for Skadden on this forced sale. Report how Bouchard rubber stamps Bouchard’s bills to TransPerfect for millions of dollars, without letting the public see those bills – while cutting benefits for the TransPerfect employees, which has caused dozens of high-level execs to leave the company in the last two weeks. The “story” is that the court decided to force the sale of the company to “save” the company from the two owners’ bickering. The reality is that the court’s forced sale will ultimately dismantle the company and move thousands of american jobs offshore, so Skadden’s client, HIG/Lionbridge, will be able to service the debt owed to Credit Suisse when HIG “bought” Lionbridge. This is a scam perpetuated by shady lawyers, and the Delaware legislature is doing nothing. Delaware may be the smallest state in the union, but it is making NJ and IL look small time when it comes to corruption and cronyism. Where is the DOJ? Here’s your career case! Just look.”

-John Bruce Dont

  As the letter writer stated, he sees this as a scam put forth by sophisticated and dishonest lawyers – how long can our elected leaders sit by and do nothing, as hardworking Delawareans, certainly seem from my perspective, to lie on a bed of Bouchard’s corrupt weeds growing up to choke us. When will the Chancellor have to answer for his actions? The establishment protecting men in robes from their obvious improprieties didn’t work out so well for the Catholic Church — I’m not sure why legislators believe the Chancery Court is any different.   Check out the old, fallacious, and misleading article that the Washington Post letter writer went after.      I was thinking about judges and confirmation hearings after recently watching the Senatorial process in the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a United States Supreme Court Justice. As I’ve been writing about the TransPerfect Global case, it got me thinking about Delaware’s confirmation process in confirming Andre Bouchard as Delaware’s Chancellor, or lack thereof.   Justice Brett Kavanaugh had a total of 7 FBI investigations, was put through the ringer answering countless questions on uncorroborated allegations, his reputation was tattered, and finally only after completing a nightmare of a process, he was confirmed by the legislative branch.   Did Chancellor Andre Bouchard face any questions about his past judicial decisions? No. About whether he would follow the law faithfully? No. About whether he’d respect the U.S. Constitution given that he’s Canadian by birth? No. About whether he’s even read the U.S. Constitution? No. About whether it is an inherent problem that Chief Justice Leo Strine was his intern at Skadden Arps, and now must judge him on appeals? No.   How do I know this? Because in contrast to Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, Chancellor Andre Bouchard’s hearing lasted a total of 13 minutes and he had to answer a whopping ZERO questions from our state legislature — much like his time on bench. In my view folks, his confirmation hearing was a complete sham!   And after all of that, we’ve seen his true character as a judge coming out over the past few years. As most of you know by now from reading my coverage the past few years of the TransPerfect Global case, Bouchard’s life-long friend, who represented former TransPerfect co-CEO Elizabeth Elting in the trial, attorney Kevin Shannon of Potter Anderson, was given every possible consideration beyond normal reason. Additionally, you also know that Shannon’s windfall victory was tainted by the fact that ZERO witnesses testified against Shawe — and ZERO witnesses corroborated Kevin Shannon’s self-serving story. This alone exposes in my opinion the seemingly dark underbelly of the Delaware elites like Chancellor Bouchard. But there’s another ZERO that perhaps you didn’t know… ????   I would say that your elected officials, and especially Senator Greg Lavelle among others who opposed fixing the inequities in the Chancery Court, surely acted irresponsibly in this situation, because there was no scrutiny whatsoever for Bouchard in the vetting process. The position of Chief Chancellor was/is simply too important a position for Delaware to entrust with a man who has been handed everything in his life based on a privileged upbringing and political favors vs. being the right man with the right character for the job. And, now all of Delaware is paying the price for what can reasonably be viewed from my view as Bouchard’s corruption. In my opinion, Bouchard believes paying people back who supported him in his ZERO-bench-experience ascension to Chancellor is his now job. The $250 million which I believe was stolen from TransPerfect to enrich his elite friends, is the prime example of his abusing his position. Delawareans deserved a confirmation hearing with some level of scrutiny on Andre Bouchard from Mr. Lavelle and our other elected officials. Delawareans deserved a real confirmation hearing — and Delawareans deserve better than Andre Bouchard.   In fact, Bouchard, having no experience as a judge, was lazily confirmed in just 13 minutes by the Delaware Senate, after his appointment by the Governor. It’s glaring and he was not properly vetted! Don’t just take my word for it……   Here’s a quick recount of the hearing from Celia Cohen’s April 10, 2014 Delaware Grapevine story “SPEED-VOTING FOR CHANCELLOR” written just after Bouchard’s appointment: “Thirteen minutes were all it took for Delaware to get a new chancellor…Buying a new pair of shoes has been known to take longer.”   Digging into Bouchard’s past, it doesn’t surprise me that he got this job with no scrutiny whatsoever. In fact, since I have followed the case and witnessed the most biased, ludicrous, mismanaged, and outrageous decisions in Delaware judicial history resulting in fleecing and looting of a healthy Delaware company — it actually makes more sense to me now knowing that Bouchard had a ZERO question confirmation. But that doesn’t make it right!   His tenure as Chancellor is a pathetic embarrassment to the State of Delaware; from his fiasco managing the Sussex County Register of Wills office, where he made 3 inadequate political appointments for Chief Deputy — instead of listening to the best and most experienced person, Cindy Green, the elected Register of Wills.   Unlike Brett Kavanaugh, who was deeply investigated, Bouchard’s past is unknown. I wonder if we really got into it, what we might uncover? Of course, we do know he was a member of the Skadden Arps law firm, which is under investigation by the Feds for various possible violations. Kind of makes Bouchard suspect I think, doesn’t it? By the standards now, it seems that people in esteemed offices are deemed guilty until proven innocent. Brett Kavanaugh was considered guilty by every Democrat Senator except Senator Mansion from West Virginia. Yet there was absolutely no corroborating evidence. (This probably wouldn’t bother Bouchard, because Bouchard needs no witnesses corroborating Kevin Shannon’s story — handing Shannon a windfall and ruling against TransPerfect in the most draconian way: Corporate Dissolution!)   Thank God our country has as part of our obligatory system, “a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.” As a result, Brett Kavanaugh is a Supreme Court Justice and Andre Bouchard will probably remain a Chancellor. But as least Kavanaugh can say he lived through the scrutiny of a tough confirmation, and succeeded. Bouchard cannot. And Delaware will be paying the price for years to come.One might believe the legislature needn’t pass SB 53, because it already did such incredible vetting of Andre Bouchard before placing an attorney from private practice, with zero bench experience, into one of the most powerful jobs in the world; way too powerful in my opinion. Except, they’d be wrong. After watching Senator Elizabeth Warren’s endless ripping up of Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch before his confirmation, I thought it would be interesting to see what diligence the Delaware legislature did in confirming Bouchard as Delaware’s Chancellor?? Why should TransPefect Global owners and employees have been worried about how Bouchard would legislate this case? They assumed this judge would rule fairly because he was supposed to be well-versed in the law, judicial ethics, the Constitution, and his Chancery Court powers?? Ahead of his approval to the bench, was Bouchard asked the following questions?: Would you apply the law fair and impartially? No he was not asked! Will you govern your decision by U.S. Constitution? No he was not asked! Was he asked whether he was familiar with the Constitution? No, he was not! Did anyone even ask him if he read the Constitution?! No! Was he asked how he would apply what he knew about the Constitution? 
No! Was he asked about his politics and if he would remain impartial? No! Was he asked about how he saw his role as head of Delaware’s Court of Equity? No! Did anyone ask him ANY tough questions at all? Not a single question! Was he asked what he knew about being a judge? No. How do I know the answer is no to all these questions? Folks, there were Zero questions in his 13 minute hearing — I can prove it. Now is the chance to make this right, by contacting your Delaware State Senators! Please get involved and help pass SB 53! Mistakes and mis-judgements like this only matter if we don’t take action in the present. I’m appealing to our lawmakers in Delaware… now is the time to help! There have been hundreds of articles in the U.S. and around the globe about how this case has been mishandled and may hurt jobs at TransPerfect and hurt Delaware too! Plea with your legislators to help now. Folks, now is the time where we can make this right! It took just 13 minutes for Chancellor Bouchard to get rubber-stamped by the Senate’s Executive Committee in 2014. Unanimous vote. Can you see the cronyism that exists at a high-degree in America’s First State. Buying a new pair of shoes has been known to take longer! Please look at this story below from just two years ago by Celia Cohen about our esteemed Chancellor of Delaware’s equity court, the Court of Chancery, which is famous for its fair decisions, which is one of the reasons Delaware is the nation’s incorporation leader. Read about Bouchard’s 13-mintues below, and see for yourself my friends:  

SPEED-VOTING FOR CHANCELLOR

By Celia Cohen

Posted: April 10, 2014

Grapevine Political Writer

 

“Thirteen minutes were all it took for Delaware to get a new chancellor.

Seven minutes for a confirmation hearing by the Senate’s Executive Committee, another six minutes for consideration by the full Senate for a unanimous 21-0 vote on Wednesday in Legislative Hall in Dover, and that was that.

It put Andy Bouchard a swearing-in ceremony away from the most storied judgeship in the state as the chief of the Court of Chancery, the famed forum for corporate law.

Buying a new pair of shoes has been known to take longer. A lot longer.

It went so fast that Greg Lavelle, the Republican minority whip, felt compelled to explain the rapid roll call, almost sheepishly, to a visiting delegation of lawmakers from Kenya.

“For our guests, sometimes this is worth repeating, there’s a nominating process for all these positions, a lot of vetting, a lot of interviews and discussions. While there are not any questions here today, the questions have been asked on the front side of these proceedings,” Lavelle said.

Without the words to the Kenyans, Bouchard could have been out of there in twelve minutes.

Still, Lavelle had something there. This is the way it goes in a small state, where everybody knows everybody else or at least they like to think they do. Even the official nominating channels — with candidates passing from the Judicial Nominating Commission to the governor to the Senate — seem to hold less sway than the informal evaluation that goes on.

Bouchard, who will be leaving behind a corporate practice at Bouchard Margules & Friedlander, is a well-regarded presence in legal circles. If he was not a unanimous choice for chancellor among the bench and bar — and who would be? — there was certainly a consensus he was up to it.

The downside to the small-state familiarity that makes a known quantity out of its judicial candidates is the coziness that goes with it.

Ever since Myron Steele announced shortly after Labor Day he would be stepping down as chief justice, it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that Leo Strine Jr. would be elevated from chancellor to chief justice with Bouchard in line to take over in Chancery.

While there was nevertheless a robust pool of applicants for chief justice, the sense of inevitability prevailed by the time it came to choose a chancellor, and the Judicial Nominating Commission was left to beg for candidates not named Bouchard.

Bouchard has 30 days from his confirmation to take his judicial oath for a 12-year term.

He is a graduate of Salesianum, Boston College and Harvard Law, and he chaired the Judicial Nominating Commission until he left it to apply himself. He was a regular contributor to Democratic campaigns, although those contributions have to stop now, with checks going to Jack Markell, the governor who appointed him, as well as the vice president and the congressional delegation.

Another reason for the speed-voting on Bouchard may well be judgeship fatigue.

The Senate had to plow through nine confirmations for judges last year, and it has handled the nominations for chief justice and chancellor, the state’s premier judicial assignments, this year.

Nor is it done yet. Not only is there a Superior Court opening, but Jack Jacobs, a Supreme Court justice, unexpectedly announced his retirement as of July 4.

Since Jacobs is departing four days after the legislature’s regular session ends on June 30, the Senate will have to return for a special session, probably in August or September, just as the campaign season is coming on.

If Jacobs’ replacement is drawn from a lower court, it would mean yet another special session.

At least Bouchard comes from private practice, so nobody has to be nominated to replace him.”

THE ANNUAL BANQUET

THE CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS OF DELAWARE CORDIALLY INVITES YOU AND YOUR GUESTS TO ATTEND ITS TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL BANQUET GUEST SPEAKERRamesh Ponnuru Senior Editor, National Review; Columnist for Bloomberg View;and Visiting Fellow at American Enterprise Institute Sunday, October 14, 2018 Cocktails at 1:00 P.M.(Cash Bar)Dinner at 2:00 P.M.Harry’s Savoy Ballroom2020 Naamans Road, Wilmington, DelawareR.S.V.P. by Tuesday, October 9, 2018 [email protected]

Ramesh Ponnuru is a Senior Editor for National Review, a Columnist for Bloomberg View, a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the National Review Institute. In the fall of 2013, he was a resident fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. He has been a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London and a media fellow at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Mr. Ponnuru has published articles in various newspapers, including The New York TimesThe Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Newsday, and The New York Post. He has also written for First Things, Policy Review, The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, Reason, and other publications. He has appeared on numerous television news programs, such as Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, CSPAN’s “Washington’s Journal,” and NPR’s “Morning Edition.” He is the author of The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life and author of the learned treatise, The Mystery of Japanese Growth. Mr. Ponnuru grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He attended Princeton University where he earned a B.A. in history and graduated Summa Cum Laude.