Source: Friends of Maldives.

Supporters of the Maldives democracy movement protested outside the London office of the giant public relations firm Hill & Knowlton over its work for the oppressive regime of President Gayoom, who has been in power for 28 years. Friends of Maldives argue that "there have been few real democratic reforms since Hill and Knowlton began the contract with the Government of Maldives three years ago. Arbitrary detention, repression of independent media, and an increase in military expenditure remain pillars of support for the regime." Tim Fallon, a former adviser to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is head of corporate affairs at Hill & Knowlton and has carriage of the Maldives account, claims the firm is "helping the smooth transition of the Maldives towards a free and fair democracy." The Maldives government is reported to be paying Hill & Knowlton approximately $20,000 a month for their work, which includes heading off a tourist boycott of the country.

Former executive of the PR firm Fleishman-Hillard (F-H) Doug Dowie, who was convicted in 2006 of overbilling the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other clients, is suing his former employer to recover $3 million in legal fees. The LA Daily News reports that, in his statement of claim, Dowie argues that F-H had promised to pay all his legal bills but only covered them until he was indicted on federal charges in June 2005. "By then, (Dowie) had been fired from his job with Fleishman-Hillard, was impecunious and financially unable to engage new counsel," his lawsuit states. F-H senior partner Rich Jernstedt told (sub req'd) O'Dwyers PR Daily that the company stopped paying Dowie's legal fees "when we concluded it was no longer appropriate or required to do so." Dowie is scheduled to begin serving a 42-month prison sentence in March.

Richard Zitrin, a San Francisco-based lawyer who teaches at the University of California, warns that the willingness of lawyers to reach secret out-of-court agreements with drug companies can have dangerous consequences for patients. Referring to Eli Lilly's settlement in 2005 of 18,000 lawsuits over the side-effects of Zyprexa, Zitrin writes that "when secrecy is the price of a legal settlement, wrongdoers hide their mistakes as if they never happened and continue with business as usual." Those involved in the 2005 settlement agreed to secrecy provisions on documents that showed the dangers of Zyprexa and how it was marketed. "When lawyers cut secret deals behind the public's back, what we don't know can and does hurt us. The civil justice system belongs to all of us, and no one should be allowed to use it to keep the public in the dark," Zitrin argues.

Source: www.zyprexa-lawyers.com

Federal court judge Jack B. Weinstein has lifted an injunction on U.S. websites distributing copies of internal Eli Lilly documents on the adverse side effects and marketing of Zyprexa, a drug used to treat bipolar disorder. However, in his decision, Weinstein directed eight defendants to return their copies of the documents to Eli Lilly and was highly critical of a New York Times reporter for his role in obtaining them and publicizing their contents. Weinstein justified the gag order against the defendants on the grounds that "selective and out-of-context disclosure may lead to confusion in the patient community and undeserved reputational harm." Philip Dawdy, who writes the blog Furious Seasons, asks, "and what would be the problem with patients having complete information about the drugs they take and how the company that makes said drugs has behaved, conducted research and marketed its products?"