TORONTO - Conrad Black, convicted in Chicago this month of obstruction of justice and defrauding the newspaper company he once headed, has hired heavyweight New York lawyer Andrew Frey to handle his appeal.
"I'm honoured and pleased ,'' Frey said in an interview Friday.
"I think it should be a fun case. It looks like there are some very good issues, from my first look at it. So I'm optimistic about it, but we'll see.''
Frey said he can't discuss the merits of the case, "but for all the media attention, what he was convicted of is not much, it seems to me.
"I've met with him, with Lord Black. I liked him. I thought he was interesting guy. And it's the kind of assignment that one loves to get.''
Frey (pronounced "Fry''), who was once named one of the top 100 most influential lawyers in America by the U.S. National Law Journal, is a partner at Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP and helped prepare a written submission on behalf of U.S. investment banker Frank Quattrone.
Frey helped succeed in overturning Quattrone's convictions of obstruction of justice and witness tampering, arguing that jury instructions were flawed.
In Black's case, Frey said: "I don't see much evidence of an intention to obstruct justice. There certainly wasn't much evidence of that in Quattrone, either.''
Prosecutors had accused Quattrone of ordering employees to clean out their files when he learned his employer, Credit Suisse First Boston, was under investigation by the U.S. federal government.
Black's obstruction-of-justice conviction followed his unauthorized removal of files from the Toronto offices of Hollinger Inc. (TSX:HLG.C), which he once headed.
Frey has argued more than 60 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, 11 federal courts of appeal and 11 state high courts.
Frey has also worked on the government side, with 14 years of service in the Office of the Solicitor General, mainly as deputy in charge of the government's criminal litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On July 19 in Chicago, Judge Amy St. Eve set Black free on bail until his Nov. 30 sentencing hearing.
But his travel will be restricted to the northern district of Illinois or the district in Florida where his Palm Beach home is located, and his passport will remain in the court's possession.
The question of whether Black, a Canadian-born British citizen, can travel to Canada will be discussed at a second bail hearing Aug. 1.
