Fakegate: Heartland Announces Legal Team

Published March 5, 2012

Gordon B. Nash, Jr., will head the legal team assembled by The Heartland Institute to represent the organization in connection with Peter Gleick’s  fraudulent conduct, Heartland President Joseph L. Bast announced today.

Disgraced climate scientist Gleick, now on leave as president of the Oakland, California-based Pacific Institute, fraudulently obtained documents from Heartland earlier this year by impersonating a member of Heartland’s board of directors. He circulated the stolen documents to sympathetic bloggers and journalists, along with a fake memo he claims came from an anonymous source.

Nash, a partner in the Chicago office of Drinker Biddle & Reath, is a former prosecutor in the office of the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, where he became chief of the Special Prosecutions Division and received the John Marshall Award from the U.S. Attorney General for outstanding legal achievement. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Nash is joined by James C. Dunlop, a 15-year veteran of Jones Day’s white-collar crime practice. Jones Day is a legal institution with more than 2,500 lawyers on five continents. Dunlop represents companies, institutions, and individuals in criminal matters worldwide, concentrating on investigations relating to criminal allegations, fraud, and unethical conduct.

Nash is also joined by Michael P. Padden, a partner in the Chicago law firm of Levenfeld Pearlstein, Heartland’s outside special litigation counsel. Padden has 30 years of litigation experience representing clients in commercial litigation involving trade secrets, tortious interference with prospective business relationships, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duties.

Maureen Martin, Heartland’s longtime counsel and senior fellow for legal affairs, is overseeing the overall legal strategy. Formerly a partner in a large Chicago law firm, she has been in the private practice of law for nearly 30 years concentrating in litigation and environmental law. She was an adjunct professor of environmental law at Loyola University in Chicago for more than 10 years.

Previous press releases from The Heartland Institute plus links to dozens of news reports and commentary on Gleick’s crimes can be reviewed at the “News Releases” page at Fakegate.org. For more information, contact Director of Communications Jim Lakely at [email protected] or 312/377-4000.


The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization with offices in Chicago, Illinois and Washington, DC. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.