April 24, 2009 - 2:03pm
Inside Edge

HUMC hires big law firms for ethics training

The hospital that hired then-State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) as a plumbing consultant to help them secure millions of dollars in state budget appropriations, is hiring a mega lawyer to help them address ethics issues following Coniglio's conviction on federal corruption charges.

Hackensack University Medical Center is expected to announce next week that they have retained Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, one of the largest law firms in the world, to review their corporate ethics policies and practices.  Separately, the HUMC Board of Trustees will retain Clifford Chance, which is viewed as the largest law firm in the world, to conduct a similar ethics review and training.

Skadden has some experience when it comes to ethics and hospitals: one of their lawyers is Robert Del Tufo, a former U.S. Attorney and New Jersey Attorney General.  Del Tufo was the Chairman of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Board of Trustees after federal prosecutors appointed a federal monitor as part of a deferred prosecution agreement.

 

Wally Edge can be reached via email at politicsnj@aol.com.