Costa Rican Law Firm Gets Half-Million for U.S. Asset Seizure Cases

Posted by Stephen Peacock - August 15, 2005 at 10:33 pm
The U.S. Marshals Service this week cemented a deal to have a Santa Ana, Costa Rica-based law firm oversee its asset-seizure efforts in that nation. BLP-Abogados, located in the Forum Business Park, will get nearly a half-million dollars over the next year to perfom those services. BLP is the acronym for "Business Law Partners." The U.S. Marshals on May 5 announced its intention to award BLP a sole-source contract, the stated purpose of which is to "provide comprehensive care of seized and forfeited personal property and real property located in Costa Rica." The U.S. government on July 29 formally listed the contract award on the federal Electronic Posting System database.

BLP is "a law firm built on the conviction that legal advisers must become true business partners of their clients," according to BuyUSA.gov -- which ironically helps promote commercial services in Central America and elsewhere, while serving as a clearinghouse for information about the U.S-Central American Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA. "Over the years, the members of the Firm have earned their client's trust by using their expertise and capabilities to provide legal advice with a business sense. In doing so, the Firm adheres to the highest international quality, reliability and efficiency standards. The Firm and its attorneys have consolidated leadership positions in the local legal and business marketplace."

BLP belongs to the State Capital Global Law Firm Group, a self-described "association of independent law firms located in all 50 U.S. capitals and in business markets and financial centers around the world." BLP also is a member of Meritas, an association of independent business law firms located in 200 business markets around the world.

BLP staffers include Georgetwon University Law School graduate Luis Manuel Castro, former Washington, D.C.-based attorney Neftali Garro, Harvard Law School-trained attorney Vivian Liberman, and former justice of the Costa Rican Supreme Court of Justice Hugo Picado.

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About Stephen Peacock

I'm currently a high school English teacher and writer. I'm also a former Washington, DC, journalist, having worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, and The Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze.
http://jerseysandstorm.blogspot.com/
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About Stephen Peacock

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Biography
I'm currently a high school English teacher and writer. I'm also a former Washington, DC, journalist, having worked for Communications Daily and Washington Internet Daily (WID), investigative newsletters that cover the telecommunications, broadcast and Internet industries. Following the 9/11 attacks, my news beat expanded beyond Capitol Hill telecom/TV/IT policy and began to include technology-policy coverage at the Pentagon and Dept. of Homeland Security. I've written over a thousand articles about government and industry affairs, and I'm pleased to say that I was the reporter who broke the story about the Total Information Awareness surveillance/data-collection initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. I've written articles for publications including NACLA Report on the Americas, Drug Enforcement Report, Corrections Journal, and The Tampa Tribune. I've also written a memoir about my former career as a plainclothes security officer of the Helmsley Palace hotel in New York City, Hotel Dick: Harlots, Starlets, Thieves & Sleaze.