DealBook: Wesley Clark, Retired General, Joins Blackstone as an Adviser

Lucy Nicholson/ReutersWesley K. Clark will focus on deals in the energy sector.

Wesley K. Clark, a retired Army general and onetime supreme allied commander in Europe for NATO, has joined the Blackstone Group as a deal adviser in the energy sector.

General Clark will also serve as a director of Fisterra Energy, a company formed by Blackstone and a management team led by Pedro Barriuso, a former executive chairman of Element Power. Fisterra focuses on developing and running power projects in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

Lars Thunell, a former head of the World Bank‘s financing arm, will also join Blackstone as an adviser and Fisterra as a director.

General Clark is the second former Army general to join a private equity firm in as many months. Last month, David H. Petraeus, a retired four-star general and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, was hired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to lead its KKR Global Institute.

Since retiring from the Army and briefly running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, General Clark has turned to business matters. He founded a consulting firm, Wesley K. Clark & Associates, that advises clients in a number of areas, including energy.

He is also a co-chairman of Growth Energy, a group representing the American ethanol industry, and a director of BNK Petroleum, an independent oil exploration company.

“Helping countries overcome their energy challenges and develop energy security is critical to economic growth and sustainable development,” General Clark said in a statement. “I am pleased to join Fisterra’s board of directors and look forward to supporting the team as they work to accomplish their goals.”

Retired Philadelphia Judge Gene Cohen Joins Cohen Seglias

Retired Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gene D. Cohen has joined Philadelphia-based Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman as a partner in its commercial litigation group.

Retired Philadelphia Judge Gene Cohen Joins Cohen Seglias

Retired Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gene D. Cohen has joined Philadelphia-based Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman as a partner in its commercial litigation group.

Retired Judge Loses Suit Over Health Care, Sick Days

By Brendan Pierson All Articles 

New York Law Journal

November 9, 2012

A unanimous New York Appellate Division, Second Department, panel on Wednesday dismissed a suit by a former Orange County town justice seeking pay for unused sick days and lifetime health benefits for him and his wife. Retired New Windsor Town Justice Donald Suttlehan alleges the town agreed to pay the full cost of his medical care after he retired. In May 2009, less than three months before Suttlehan retired, the town passed a resolution requiring elected officials, including town judges, to pay 25 percent of the cost of a family medical plan after retiring. Suttlehan alleges the resolution was discriminatory.

The panel dismissed that claim, saying the resolution was not discriminatory because it "was not solely targeted at the judiciary, but was applicable to various elected officials," and that the resolution "did not violate any rights." The unsigned opinion affirmed a ruling by Orange County Justice Lewis Lubell.

Suttlehan also said he was entitled to pay for 397 unused sick days accrued over his 30-year career. The panel dismissed that claim too, saying that, under the First Department's 1992 decision in Grishman v. City of New York, 183 AD2d 464, 465, retired public employees are not entitled to accrued unused sick time unless explicitly provided by statute. That ruling reversed Lubell, who had refused to dismiss the claim.

The panel, which addressed the health care and sick day issues in two separate opinions, consisted of Justices Reinaldo Rivera, Cheryl Chambers, Sheri Roman and Robert Miller. The cases are Suttlehan v. Town of New Windsor, 10701/09, D36347 and D36348.