KUTAK’S NUCLEAR REACTION

April 15, 2002

A Washington, D.C. lawyer travels to the heart of Texas to take on Russian scientists who could bring the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, David Baldacci, call your agent: here’s your next project. Jeffrey Jacobovitz, a partner at Kutak Rock, recently won a case on behalf of the Institute of Applied Science, a Reston, Va-based organization that brings scientists who worked on the Soviet Union’s nuclear program to the United States and trains them to work in areas other than nuclear weaponry. After a year or so they’re supposed to return home, but two Russian computer programmers who worked at Austin, Texas-based Digital Motorworks decided they would try to stay here for good. Fearing that allowing such a move would encourage a “brain drain” from Russia to the West, the institute sued the programmers for breach of contract. Last week, it won in a federal court in Austin. “Both the Russian and U.S. governments were watching this one,” says Jacobovitz.

JIM OLIPHANT