The House Judiciary Committee will have a new subcommittee when Congress returns in January, incoming Chairman Lamar Smith said Monday.

Lamar Smith (Getty)

The Texas Republican will establish a panel that will focus on intellectual property, antitrust and Internet issues. The panel will replace the courts and competition policy subcommittee, which handles judicial and antitrust matters. The commercial and administrative law subcommittee will take on judicial matters in the next Congress. The jurisdictional lines between the other three House Judiciary subcommittees will remain the same in the next Congress.

“The protection of America’s intellectual property is critical to our economic growth, job creation and ability to compete in the global marketplace,” Smith said in a statement. “A separate IP subcommittee will ensure that the Committee remains focused on all aspects of intellectual property, including patent reform and copyright protections.â€�

Smith has yet to name a chairman for the new subcommittee or the top Republicans on the four other subcommittees. An announcement on the chairmen is expected in early 2011. Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.) is currently the top Republican on the courts and competition subcommittee.

Smith has said patent reform will be among the top priorities of his committee. He said the patent system must be improved to speed up the patent approval process and better combat IP theft.

Attorney General Eric Holder also has made protecting intellectual property rights a key Justice Department priority since taking office in 2009.

Holder in February launched the Task Force on Intellectual Property to improve coordination between the DOJ and law enforcement agencies on IP matters and boost efforts to fight IP crime.

The Attorney General said last week that the task force has been effective. But he called for more collaboration between public and private sector leaders on IP matters.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan lost sleep, shed pounds and missed some of her children’s events while dealing with cases that brought her office national attention over the last year, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Barbara McQuade (DOJ)

McQuade hit the ground running after the Senate her confirmed on Dec. 24, 2009. The U.S. Attorney received a message on her BlackBerry on Dec. 25 about suspected terrorist activity on a Detroit-bound airplane while celebrating Christmas with her family at home. On Dec. 26, authorities charged Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with attempting to blow up the airliner with a bomb in his underpants.

“I felt like I was really in the right place at the right time, because of my background in national security,” said McQuade, a former national security unit prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office, according to the newspaper. But, she added: “We certainly had never dealt with anything that significant.”

McQuade’s office also found itself in the headlines for the corruption cases involving ex-Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, who is married to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

In March, Monica Conyers received a sentence of three years and one month in federal prison and two years of supervised probation for her part in a bribery scandal. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy for accepting at least $6,000 in exchange for her support of a $1.2 billion waste disposal contract.

Conyers asked U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn to allow her to rescind her guilty plea, but the judge denied her request. She is appealing the judge’s ruling.

Then, on Wednesday, McQuade announced that Kilpatrick faces corruption charges for allegedly taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from city contractors.

McQuade said her later father, who worked for General Motors, would have been proud of her work.

“I was born here. I love this city. And I want to do everything I can to improve the quality of life here,” McQuade said, according to the Free Press. “And ridding the city of public corruption is a very important part of that.

The Senate confirmed five former and current prosecutors for federal judgeships over the weekend, following the confirmation last Thursday of four other new judges. The recent actions break a logjam of nominees that Democrats had complained were being held up by Senate Republican objections.

In the action over the weekend:

• Raymond Joseph Lohier Jr. was confirmed as a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. Lohier is the chief of the securities and commodities fraud task force in the criminal division for the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York. He has also served as deputy chief and chief of the office’s narcotics unit and deputy chief of the securities and commodities fraud task force during his 10 years at the office. Read more about him here.
• Carlton W. Reeves was confirmed as a U.S.  District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi. Reeves worked in the district’s U.S. Attorney office from 1995 to 2001. He served as chief of the civil division and district election officer. Read more about him here.
• Edmond E-Min Chang was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. He has been an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the district since 1999. He has served as chief of appeals in the criminal division and deputy chief of the general crimes division. Read more about him here.
• Ellen Lipton Hollander was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge for Maryland. She worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Baltimore from 1979 to 1983. Read more about her here.
• Denise Jefferson Casper was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge for Massachusetts. She worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston from 1999 to 2005. Read more about her here.

Raymond Lohier (New York University)

Carlton W. Reeves (Pigott Reeves Johnston)

Ellen Lipton Hollander (gov)

Denise Casper (Boston Bar Association)

Attorney General Eric Holder paid tribute on Friday to the new U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee at the prosecutor’s ceremonial investiture in Memphis, The Commercial Appeal reported.

Edward L. Stanton III (DOJ)

Federal, state and local officials looked on as Holder commended U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III for his intelligence, community work and dedication.

“I was really struck by his optimism,” Holder said, according to the newspaper. “He is a proud son of Memphis. Ed loves his hometown.”

Stanton said he will focus on fighting financial, violent and civil rights crimes as U.S. Attorney. He said he will create a division in his office that will bolster efforts to prosecute infractions of civil rights laws.

“We will succeed in becoming a stronger and safer and more vibrant community,” Stanton said, according to The Commercial Appeal. “Our next days will truly be our best days.”

Stanton has been U.S. Attorney since August. But, like many U.S. Attorneys, he decided to have a ceremonial investiture later on.

Holder has attended 16 U.S. Attorney swearing in ceremonies thus far.

King & Spalding announced on Monday that former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ross W. Nadel will become a partner in the firm’s special matters and government investigations practice. His work will focus on securities fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, off-label promotion and health care fraud and criminal antitrust and cartel matters.

Nadel, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s offices in the Northern and Eastern Districts of California from 1981 to 2005, will split his time between the firm’s offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. While working in the U.S. Attorney’s offices, Nadel served as chief of the criminal division, chief of the San Jose Branch office and chief of the economics crimes unit.

From 2008 to 2009 he worked as senior legal counsel for worldwide anti-piracy at Adobe Systems Incorporated. Nadel also worked as a partner at Cooley Godward Kronish LLP from 2006 to 2008.

Christopher A. Wray, chair of King & Spalding’s special matters and government investigations practice said, “With more than 25 years’ experience of distinguished service at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern and Eastern Districts of California, plus additional work in private and corporate practice, Ross has a reputation as one of the most respected government investigation practitioners in the Bay Area.” He added, “We are excited Ross is joining our team. The knowledge, experience and skill he brings with him will anchor and significantly expand our government investigations and white-collar criminal defense footprint onto the West Coast.”

Herbert M. Berkowitz (Clark & Martino, P.A.)

Former Justice Department lawyer and Assistant U.S. Attorney Herbert M. Berkowitz was appointed this week by Gov. Charlie Crist to the bench of the Hillsborough County Court in Florida.

Berkowitz, who has focused on personal injury and malpractice litigation since entering private practice in 1980, will fill the seat vacated by Judge Cheryl K. Thomas, who has been appointed to the 13th Circuit Court.

A 1971 graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School, Berkowitz worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Cleveland from 1975 to 1978 before joining the Justice Department’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force, which he left in 1980.

Berkowitz is currently of counsel at Clark Martino P.A., a trial firm based in Tampa. According to the firm’s website, Berkowitz is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Board of Trial Advocates, as well as a recipient of Justice Department’s Special Commendation Award.

The House Democratic Caucus approved Rep. John Conyers of Michigan to be ranking member of the Judiciary Committee when the 112th Congress convenes in January, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced Thursday.

John Conyers (Gov)

Conyers, who has been chairman since 2007, will succeed Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) as ranking member in January, when the Republican takes the panel’s gavel. The 23-term Democrat previously served as ranking member from 1995 to 2007.

He has spent decades on the Judiciary Committee since coming to the House in 1965. Conyers is the second-longest serving House member after Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.).

A spokesman for Conyers didn’t respond to a request for comment.

A court-appointed trustee handling the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s shuttered firm reached a $7.2 billion settlement with the estate of philanthropist Jeffry Picower, who was a major beneficiary of  the former investment adviser’s fraud.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York said in a statement on Friday that the settlement is “truly historic” and “a game-changer for Madoff’s victims.” The settlement is the biggest single forfeiture in U.S. history.

Bharara applauded Barbara Picower, who represented her late spouse’s estate, for going into the deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office. Her husband had a heart attack and drowned in his pool at his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion, a few months after Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for defrauding thousands of investors in an enormous Ponzi scheme.

Picower’s widow said in a statement that her husband wasn’t involved with Madoff’s fraud, but that the Picower estate would “return every penny received” through the convicted Ponzi schemer’s investments, according to the Associated Press.

Picower and his account-holders deposited $619.4 million with Madoff from the late 1970s until 2008, according to a forfeiture complaint. They withdrew $7.8 billion from Madoff’s firm, the court document said.

Barbara and Jeffry Picower (MIT)

“By returning every penny of the $7.2 billion her late husband received from [Madoff's firm] to help those who have suffered most, Barbara Picower has done the right thing,” Bharara said. “We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners … to track down any and all proceeds of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and return them to victims.”

The court-appointed bankruptcy trustee is Irving Picard a partner at the law firm of Baker & Hostetler LLP in New York, who has filed several civil lawsuits to recover funds for victims of Madoff’s fraud. Picard filed a complaint last year asserting that a sophisticated investor like Picower should have suspected fraudulent activity by Madoff, but Picower was never accused of criminal wrongdoing.

The settlement consisted of $5 billion to resolve Picard’s lawsuit and $2.2 billion to settle with federal authorities.

Picower’s wife is represented by William Zabel. He is the father of Richard Zabel , the criminal chief in the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney’s Office. The younger Zabel recused himself from the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lisa Baroni, Julian Moore, Barbara Ward and Matthew Schwartz handled the case and the ongoing Madoff investigation.

Marc O. Litt, who was a lead prosecutor in the Madoff probe, will join Baker & McKenzie LLP. He stepped away from the Madoff investigation in May to prevent conflicts during his job search.