Award to Ex-Sonnenschein Partner Drops from $3M-Plus to About $66K
A Washington, D.C., judge has cut a jury award to a former partner of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal from more than $3 million to just $65,639.
Judge Melvin Wright cut the award to former partner Douglas Rosenthal after the law firm argued that jurors had not properly calculated the award, Legal Times reports.
Rosenthal had contended in his lawsuit that his former firm failed to properly compensate him for representing the families of victims killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. And he said the firm didn’t give him origination credit for helping bring in business from Sun Microsystems.
Sonnenschein had filed a motion in April seeking the reduced award, the Legal Times story says. The request said the $3.73 million award represented the amount Rosenthal should have been paid over the course of several years, but it should be reduced by the actual compensation he received. That would cut the award to $365,639. Then the award should be reduced by $300,000, the firm said, for its successful counterclaim that had contended Rosenthal and his new law firm interfered with Sonnenschein clients when he left in 2005. Wright granted the motion.
