Order for Attys to Donate $500K to Charity Backfires on Judge
When Tennessee Judge Hamilton Gayden presided over a case involving of stockholders in a class action against CVS/Caremark, he wanted to see someone benefit besides the lawyers. After all, only the lawyers would see any money, in the form of legal fees, from the eventual settlement.
So Gayden ordered attorneys to donate $500,000 of their attorney fees to charity. Judge Gayden even picked the charity for them, tickets for underprivileged children to attend Nashville Predator hockey games, the Tennessean reports.
The judge tells the paper that attorneys agreed in open court to donate $400,000 to the Nashville Public Benefit Foundation for the purchase of hockey tickets and the rest to the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
The idea, from the judge’s perspective at the time, was to increase attendance at the hockey games, which in turn would help preserve a local tourist attraction and support the economy.
But the lawyers involved in the case reportedly changed their minds, fearing the charity donation could be an ethics violation.
The Tennessean reports that one of the lawyers, John Stranch asked for an advisory opinion on the matter from the Board of Professional Responsibility, which advised the lawyers to appeal Gayden’s order.
When lawyers appealed, Gayden recused himself from the case.
“At the time it seemed like a good idea,” Gayden says. “It definitely backfired.”
