Vaccine Counsel Ordered to Attend Ethics CLE for Issuing Subpoena

CONCORD, N.H. - An attorney who represented plaintiffs in a mercury exposure case has been given three months to complete a continuing legal education ethics program after allegedly abusing his subpoena power to gain access to information from the creator of an autism advocacy web site. Sykes v. Bayer Corp., et al., No. 08-13 (D. N.H.).

Magistrate Judge James R. Muirhead of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire ordered Virginia attorney Clifford J. Shoemaker to attend the CLE classes as sanctions for what the judge said was an "unwarranted and unseemly" effort to "vilify and demean" …