Akin Gump Hit with $72.6M Malpractice Verdict
Updated: Jurors in a San Antonio federal trial have awarded plaintiffs $72.6 million in a malpractice case against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.
The firm plans to appeal. And in a statement released to the ABA Journal late this evening, Akin Gump says, it “is disappointed with the verdict, but is optimistic that either the district court or the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals will conclude that the verdict is not supported by the evidence.”
A Texas company, Air Measurement Technologies Inc., and one of its founders had claimed a former Akin Gump lawyer erred in handling a patent application for a safety device used by firemen, according to the Tex Parte Blog and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. As a result of the errors, Air Measurement had to settle patent infringement suits for less money than it deserved, the lawsuit asserted.
John Raley of Houston, one of the lead trial lawyers for the plaintiffs, told the San Antonio Express-News that the plaintiffs had alleged the law firm failed to disclose material information to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and did so with an intent to deceive. “The result of inequitable conduct is that a patent is not enforceable,” he said.
Akin Gump’s statement asserts that jurors weren’t given a special verdict form on the questions on which the plaintiffs bore the burden of proof, and plaintiffs neither requested nor obtained a jury finding of “inequitable conduct” on the part of Akin Gump or a jury finding of the intent necessary to support “inequitable conduct.”
“In addition, the trial court ruled as a matter of law that there was no evidence of gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty or any other conduct that would support a punitive damage award,” the firm says.
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog says malpractice claims against law firms often settle. “The verdict, rendered after a four-week trial, strikes us as one of the larger malpractice awards against a law firm in recent memory,” the blog says.
Updated at 6:30 p.m. to add a response from Akin Gump.
