Business Development

Sunshine State Freezes Caps

After tobacco pact, Florida ices private lawyer fees in state cases

Jul 1, 2010 8:20 AM CDT

Stocking Up

An equity stake can be an attractive fee option

Jul 1, 2010 7:00 AM CDT

9th Cir. Reverses Judge’s $25K Attorney’s Fee Sanctions in Winning Discrimination Case

A federal appeals court has reversed $25,000 in attorney’s fee sanctions imposed by a judge on a practitioner who won discrimination cases against FedEx, saying that the lawyer should have been given a chance to defend himself and correct errors. In an unpublished opinion (PDF), the San Francisco-based 9th U.S.…

Jun 22, 2010 9:47 PM CDT

Law Firm Loses Bid to Force Client’s Ex-Wife to Pay Part of Its Fee, as a Matter of Equity

Haas & Gottlieb had an agreement with its client, David Addison, that one-third of any money recovered in a bankruptcy litigation would go to the law firm. But the Scarsdale, N.Y., firm didn’t have that same arrangement with his ex-wife, who was entitled to half of Addison’s recovery under an…

Jun 17, 2010 8:15 PM CDT

BigLaw Firm Hit with Big-Bucks Sanction for Pursuing Billionaire’s ‘Ridiculous’ Claim

A BigLaw firm and another well-known partnership face a likely seven-figure sanction for pursuing what a New Jersey judge described as a “ridiculous” frivolous claim on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman. Perelman, represented by Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison along with Lowenstein Sandler, had contended that his 85-year-old former…

Jun 16, 2010 6:50 PM CDT

Who Can Fire Vorys Sater? Ohio Supreme Court Rules for Judges in Feud

The law firm Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease has earned about $17 million in fees in the last decade representing the county of which Cincinnati is the seat on riverfront development issues. But that representation will be coming to an end, despite the county’s objections, because of a ruling by…

Jun 11, 2010 10:30 AM CDT

Ballard Spahr Bill Near $750K in Ongoing School Laptop Webcam Case

Legal fees charged by Ballard Spahr and a computer forensic expert the law firm retained are nearing $750,000 in a four-month-old matter concerning a school district’s controversial remote activation of webcams on the laptop computers it issued to students. A lawyer for the plaintiffs in a federal class action seeking…

Jun 8, 2010 2:44 PM CDT

Lawyers Lower Fees After Judge Rejects 9/11 Settlement

In an effort to salvage a major settlement, lawyers representing thousands of World Trade Center ground zero workers have agreed to lower their requested legal fees. The law firm Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern said it will cap its rate at 20 percent, or $115 million, after a U.S.…

Jun 3, 2010 3:20 PM CDT

Alleged Ponzi Schemer Tells Judge He Doesn’t Know How His Lawyers Have Billed $6M So Far

In the last year, insurance companies have paid out more than $6 million to lawyers for Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, who is accused of masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Yet at a hearing last week in an insurance coverage suit, Stanford said he didn’t know what some of…

Jun 1, 2010 7:51 PM CDT

Songwriter Nearly Depletes Savings Fighting to Regain Legal Control of His Life

A Nashville songwriter declared mentally disabled in October 2007 and committed to a psychiatric ward has regained legal control of his affairs after an expensive battle. Songwriter Danny Tate didn’t have a lawyer and he wasn’t in court when Judge Randy Kennedy first found him disabled because of his drug…

May 28, 2010 11:00 AM CDT

Frustration Over Uncontained Gulf Oil Spill—and Tort Claim Contingency Fees of Up to 50 Percent

As crude oil continues gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a record-breaking rate from an undersea BP well, frustration with the situation is building. A little over a month after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and burned, killing 11 workers, it appears that a combination of factors ranging…

May 25, 2010 1:44 AM CDT

4th Circuit Says Judge Erred By Cutting $6M Fee PI Firms Sought to $600K

Reversing and remanding a trial court’s ruling on the appropriate legal fee for plaintiff’s personal injury lawyers who negotiated a $18 million settlement, including $6 million in attorney’s fees, a federal appeals court sent the case back along with detailed instructions for a do-over. In a written opinion yesterday (PDF),…

May 20, 2010 12:47 AM CDT

Law Firm Sues Sex Offender for $2M in Fees, Says Nonprosecution Agreement Violated

A Miami law firm claims in a lawsuit that a billionaire sex offender owes it $2 million in fees for representing more than a dozen of his victims. The firm, Podhurst Orseck, alleges Jeffrey Epstein owes the fees under a federal nonprosecution agreement, according to stories in the Palm Beach…

May 19, 2010 4:51 PM CDT

Sued By Chevron for $4M, Lawyer Scores Interim SLAPP Suit Victory in Malicious Prosecution Case

A plaintiff’s lawyer sued for $4 million in damages by Chevron has scored a significant interim victory in the malicious prosecution case, winning a court ruling eliminating a large portion of the company’s complaint on the grounds that it amounts to a strategic lawsuit against public participation under California law.…

May 14, 2010 3:29 AM CDT

Court Order Nixed in Case re Lawyer’s Claimed $6K Baby-Purchase Offer

A judge in Utah has dismissed a protective order giving the state custody of a baby whose Arizona parents are accused of arranging to sell it for $6,000 to a local lawyer. Because the infant hasn’t yet been born, the state has no jurisdiction, ruled 3rd District Juvenile Judge Jim…

May 12, 2010 8:35 PM CDT