Philadelphia -- August 9, 2007-- WolfBlock is pleased to announce that Litigation Partner Juliane Balliro has achieved a successful verdict on behalf of plaintiffs Peter Limone and his family and the Estates of Henry and Jeanette Tameleo in a civil suit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Judge Nancy Gertner of the U.S. District Court in Boston awarded damages of $101.7 million to be paid by the federal government for the wrongful convictions and nearly four-decades of false imprisonment of Balliro's clients, as well as Joseph Salvati, The Estate of Louis Greco and their families.

Judge Gertner announced the verdict on July 26, 2007, finding against the FBI for the wrongful conviction of plaintiffs Limone, Tameleo, Salvati and Greco. The decision in the civil suit marks the largest award for a wrongful conviction in U.S. history. It follows the case in which a state judge overturned the murder convictions of the four men after FBI files were discovered more than seven years ago that had never been turned over during the original murder trial in 1968. Balliro, and her co-counsel, successfully argued that the FBI suborned perjury and deliberately withheld documents that would have exonerated the men, who had been framed by the FBI for the murder of Edward Deegan.

Judge Gertner ordered the federal government to pay a record $101.7 million, finding that agents encouraged witness Joseph Barboza to lie, knew that Barboza had falsely implicated the men in order to protect another FBI informant and withheld evidence the FBI knew could prove the four men were not involved in the murder.

A partner in WolfBlock's Business Litigation Practice Group, Balliro represents companies, executives and individuals in complex business, employment and white collar criminal matters. She has tried more than 100 cases in state and federal courts, and her previous successes have included a $5 million judgment in a civil rights matter and a judgment exceeding $1 million dollars in a claim for retaliation based upon pregnancy discrimination.

Balliro is a frequent lecturer on labor and employment, criminal defense and civil rights issues and has been a contributing author to a wide variety of legal publications. She was formerly president of the Massachusetts Association of Women Lawyers and a former member of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Balliro received her J.D. from Boston College School of Law in 1981 and her B.A. from Boston College in 1978.