Business Development

Heavyweight Clients Help Ex-Irell & Manella Litigators Launch Own Firm

Bankrolled by a book of business including major corporate clients, a trio of litigation partners has left the Los Angeles office of Irell & Manella to form a new firm that is already looking to grow bigger. The new Kendall Brill & Klieger partnership includes Viacom Inc., CBS and Clear…

May 5, 2009 10:04 PM CDT

Craps-Style Strategizing Helps Push Boies Schiller into Ranks of Top 100 Firms

A contingency case has helped catapult Boies, Schiller & Flexner into the American Lawyer’s list of the nation’s top 100 law firms. Revenues at Boies Schiller increased by 18 percent in 2008, reaching $295 million, the American Lawyer reports. Profits per partner were $3 million, the third-highest on the Am…

May 5, 2009 2:10 PM CDT

Pay Problems

Firms scramble as clients push for write-offs, discounts and payment plans

May 2, 2009 12:50 AM CDT

Ex-Client’s Overbilling Suit Attaches Seeming Proskauer Internal Memo

A lawsuit brought by Swedish heiress Kristin Lindholm over a stolen Andy Warhol silkscreen has concluded unhappily for both attorney and client. Lindholm never got the $12 million work of art back, although the dealer who sold it served time for theft. And now she is suing Proskauer Rose, which…

Apr 28, 2009 11:57 PM CDT

Md. Builder Loses 3rd Legal-Fees Suit; Latest Counsel Collected in Advance

In 2007, attorney Terrence McAndrews agreed to defend Maryland homebuilder Vincent Serio in a lawsuit claiming Serio failed to pay legal fees. Since then, the tables have turned: This week, a Howard County District Court judge ordered Serio to pay McAndrews $10,000 in attorney fees in new litigation alleging that…

Apr 22, 2009 9:40 PM CDT

Rogue Juror’s Note Nixes $3M Pact, Ford Claims; Top Texas Court OKs Discovery

After a six-week trial in a products liability case over a Ford Explorer rollover accident, the forewoman of a jury in Brownsville, Texas, sent a note to the judge on the second day of deliberations. It read: “What is the maximum amount that can be awarded?” At that point, lawyers…

Apr 22, 2009 5:22 PM CDT

Is Associate Worth $450 Hourly? Fee Cited in Latham Dispute

Updated: Century Indemnity Co. says a charge of $450 an hour for an “unlicensed” associate at Latham & Watkins is excessive, as were other legal fees charged by the law firm in a toxic tort case. The insurer is asking a Los Angeles court to compel arbitration in the fee…

Apr 22, 2009 1:18 PM CDT

Former Employees Say Insurer May Have Paid Their Lawyer $5 Million

Did a major insurer make a $5 million payment to a law firm representing former employees against the company? That is the question that may soon finally be answered after more than five years of litigation between Prudential and some of the 359 employees who filed an earlier suit against…

Apr 21, 2009 12:52 AM CDT

Bad Hair, Harmonious Jury Helped Tip Scales of Justice Against Phil Spector

Now that the dust is settling on Phil Spector’s second-degree murder conviction this week, experts are pondering why a celebrity defendant whose initial trial ended in a deadlocked jury in 2007 didn’t beat the rap this time around. No less an authority than the London Times may have part of…

Apr 16, 2009 1:02 AM CDT

Arbitrators Can Award Legal Fees Despite Dutch-Treat ADR Pact, 2nd Circuit Says

The arbitration agreement between two insurance companies called for each to bear its own costs to resolve a dispute. But that didn’t prevent the arbitration panel from awarding sanctions, the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided. Overruling a federal trial judge on the sanctions issue,…

Apr 14, 2009 10:30 PM CDT

MoFo Accused of Charging ‘Staggering’ Attorney Fees

A suit filed by a former client claims Morrison & Foerster charged a staggering $4.8 million in attorney fees for its defense in a patent infringement suit, while failing to provide adequate representation. The suit was filed by Ecast Inc., an Internet digital entertainment company, the Daily Journal reports (sub.…

Apr 10, 2009 11:03 AM CDT

PowerPoint Presentation Sparked Jones Day-Motley Rice ‘Sandbox’ Spat

Updated: It now appears that it wasn’t merely a document but a PowerPoint presentation on legal costs allegedly purloined by an unknown person from a 2004 Sherwin-Williams board meeting that is at issue in a contentious dispute between Jones Day and Motley Rice. Motley Rice, which represents the state of…

Apr 10, 2009 12:59 AM CDT

Fleetwood Mac Drummer Sues Firm Over Attorney Fees

The drummer for Fleetwood Mac, Michael “Mick” Fleetwood, is among a group suing its onetime attorney in Maine, claiming the lawyer and his firm left them on the hook for $4.5 million in attorney fees. The Fleetwood group hired Paul McDonald and Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson in Portland to…

Apr 9, 2009 3:10 PM CDT

Supreme Court to Decide Whether Good Lawyering Merits Fee Boost

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether winning lawyers may be awarded enhanced fees under a fee-shifting statute because of good performance and a good result. The case stems from $10.5 million in fees awarded to Marcia Robinson Lowry of Children’s Rights Inc. and lawyer Jeffrey Bramlett, currently…

Apr 7, 2009 12:35 PM CDT

Weil Gotshal Could Earn $230M in Fees if GM Files for Bankruptcy

Weil Gotshal’s fees in a General Motors restructuring could reach $230 million, according to a law professor who teaches bankruptcy law. Weil is one of two law firms advising GM on a possible bankruptcy, according to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. And the firm hopes to take charge of…

Apr 7, 2009 11:24 AM CDT