Wednesday, January 31, 2001
DINNER in LAS VEGAS, WED., FEB. 21
Below is a form of invitation you could use to invite guests to a special dinner being hosted by a number of participating law firms under the direction of Mary Anne Mellow of the Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard law firm (St. Louis).
Mary Anne invites you to participate on the following basis:
a. Cost sharing -- participating firms will pay equal shares toward the total cost of the dinner. The total cost is estimated to be less than $100 per person multiplied by the number of persons in attendance. Mary Anne is planning for 30 to 80 persons in attendance. Thus, an estimate of $500 to $1,000 for dinner per firm is probably good.
b. Client participation -- participating firms must bring clients. A robust client turnout is possible (we've had 50 or more clients attend previous dinners). But the only way to assure a healthy client attendance is for each participating firm to bring its own clients.
c. Printed Invitations -- attached to this e-mail. Upload to your word processor and fill in your firm's name. Then mail the invitations to inhouse clients whom you have reason to believe might be in Las Vegas Wednesday, Feb. 21. Also, bring invitations with you to distribute in Las Vegas.
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[Firm Name]
cordially invites you to join us at
Wolfgang Puck's "Chinois"
at the
Forum Shops at Caesars
Las Vegas, Nevada
7:00 p.m. Wednesday
Feb. 21, 2001
Crisp Shrimp with Basil-Wasabi Vinaigrette; Curried Chicken Spring Rolls with Honey-Five spice Dipping Sauce;Pan Toasted Pork Potstickers with Soy-Chili Vinegar; Mongolian Beef Satays with Thai Peanut Sauce; Chili Chicken Satays with Sweet and Sour Sauce; Field Green Salad with Radicchio; Crisp Leeks and Ginger-Sesame Vinaigrette; Szechuan Pancakes with Stir Fried Peking Duck; Julienned Vegetables and Plum Sauce; Charcoal Grilled Szechuan Beef with Dried Fried Green Beans and Caramelized Shallot Sauce; Chocolate Melting Cake with Seasonal Berries Gratin
Open Bar
– Hosted By –
Baker, Sterchi, Cowden & Rice Kansas City, MO
Halleland Lewis Nilan Sipkins & Johnson Minneapolis, MN
Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Sommerville Birmingham, AL
Morgenstein & Jubelirer San Francisco, CA
Nixon Peabody Rochester, NY
Rome McGuigan Sabanosh Hartford, CT
Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard St. Louis, MO
Snell & Wilmer Phoenix, AZ
Thomas, Hine & Flory Cleveland, OH
Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial Atlanta, GA
Wheeler Trigg & Kennedy Denver, CO
* * *
R.S.V.P. to Mary Jennings at 314-802-3215 A.S.A.P.
Substitutions, Additions and Guests Welcome
* * *
"You Are So Hot."
"You are So Sued!"
California Opens to the Door to Employee Practices Liability
Make Sure to Take Your Brief Case and Don't Forget Your Employee Practices Liability Insurance Policy
SiliconValley.com
Friday, Jan. 26, 2001
Travis Armstrong
"California legislators have revised the law on sexual harassment in the workplace, and it now allows one employee to go after another's assets.
"California's prior law on workplace harassment had permitted people to seek damages from their employers but not co-workers. Sheila Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat, sponsored the legislation last year to expand the law. The revisions, which took effect Jan. 1, are far beyond what the federal government and many other states permit in their courts."
At Long Last, Lawsuits -- Shareholder Cases, Once Taboo, Are Hitting Japan Inc.
Business Week Online
The number of [shareholder] court cases pending has risen from 31 in 1992 to more than 280 in 1999, according to figures compiled by Japanese courts.
Jurys' Awards to Consumers Are Higher as Lawsuits Drop
Greg Winter
New York Times Service
After years of little change, jury awards to consumers suing over defective products are rising sharply in many industries, from cars and tools to toys and appliances.
.
But at the same time, far fewer such cases are being brought, and many lawyers are turning away clients because their injuries are not debilitating enough to bring in big awards.
Juries Handing Out Bigger Product Liability Awards
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
1/31/01 1:50 AM
Juries were a lot more generous during the 1990s to people harmed by defective products than to those injured in other ways, but the overall size of jury verdicts in injury lawsuits remained roughly constant, an independent study showed.
Awards grew dramatically in product liability cases, from a median of $500,300 in 1993 to $1.8 million in 1999, but with significant fluctuations in between, the study released Tuesday by LRP Publications concluded.
Don't Move to Change Venue Out of Galveston
Hon. USDC David Norton (D.C. S. Carolina) offers the following for our consideration:
SMITH v. COLONIAL PENN INSURANCE COMPANY
United States District Court, S.D. Texas Nov. 6, 1996. 943 F. Supp. 782
KENT, District Judge.
This is a breach of contract case based on an insurance contract entered into by Plaintiff and Defendant. Now before the Court is Defendant's October 11, 1996 Motion to Transfer Venue from the Galveston Division to the Houston Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a).
For the reasons set forth below, the Motion is DENIED.
Defendant's request for a transfer of venue is centered around the fact that Galveston does not have a commercial airport into which Defendant's employees and corporate representatives may fly and out of which they may be expediently whisked to the federal courthouse in Galveston. Rather, Defendant contends that it will be faced with the huge 'inconvenience' of flying into Houston and driving less than forty miles to the Galveston courthouse, an act that will 'encumber' it with 'unnecessary driving time and expenses.'
The Court certainly does not wish to encumber any litigant with such an onerous burden. The Court, being somewhat familiar with the Northeast, notes that perceptions about travel are different in that part of the country than they are in Texas. A litigant in that part of the country could cross several states in a few hours and might be shocked at having to travel fifty miles to try a case, but in this vast state of Texas, such a travel distance would not be viewed with any surprise or consternation.
Defendant should be assured that it is not embarking on a three-week-long trip via covered wagons when it travels to Galveston. Rather, Defendant will be pleased to discover that the highway is paved and lighted all the way to Galveston, and thanks to the efforts of this Court's predecessor, Judge Roy Bean, the trip should be free of rustlers, hooligans, or vicious varmints of unsavory kind. Moreover, the speed limit was recently increased to seventy miles per hour on most of the road leading to Galveston, so Defendant should be able to hurtle to justice at lightning speed.
To assuage Defendant's worries about the inconvenience of the drive, the Court notes that Houston's Hobby Airport is located about equal drive time from downtown Houston and the Galveston courthouse. Defendant will likely find it an easy, traffic-free ride to Galveston as compared to a congested, construction-riddled drive to downtown Houston. The Court notes that any inconvenience suffered in having to drive to Galveston may likely be offset by the peacefulness of the ride and the scenic beauty of the sunny isle: 'The sun is 'rize, the sun is set, and we is still in Texas yet!'
As to Defendant's argument that Houston might also be a more convenient forum for Plaintiff, the Court notes that Plaintiff picked Galveston as her forum of choice even though she resides in San Antonio. Defendant argues that flight travel is available between Houston and San Antonio but is not available between Galveston and San Antonio, again because of the absence of a commercial airport. Alas, this Court's kingdom for a commercial airport!
The Court is unpersuaded by this argument because it is not this Court's concern how Plaintiff gets here, whether it be by plane, train, automobile, horseback, foot, or on the back of a huge Texas jackrabbit, as long as Plaintiff is here at the proper date and time. Defendant will again be pleased to know that regular limousine service is available from Hobby Airport, even to the steps of this humble courthouse, which has got lights, indoor plummin', 'lectric doors, and all sorts of new stuff, almost like them big courthouses back East.
For the reasons stated above, Defendant's Motion to Transfer is hereby DENIED. The parties are ORDERED to bear their own taxable costs and expenses incurred herein to date. The parties are also ORDERED to file nothing further on this issue in this Court, including motions to reconsider and the like. Instead, the parties are instructed to seek any further relief to which they feel themselves entitled in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, as may be appropriate in due course. IT IS SO ORDERED.
Tuesday, January 30, 2001
On the Firing Line
Laura Roe Stevens
The Industry Standard
January 30, 2001
The Industry Standard Internet companies are not the only employers being sued for wrongful termination, but they are particularly vulnerable to such suits. Their anti-bureaucratic cultures and desire to be different from stodgy old firms can result in an environment where managers make their own rules. Labor law attorneys say new economy companies are learning the hard way that old labor laws still apply.
New Jersey High Court Grants Three Big Wins to Med-Mal Plaintiffs
Michael Booth
New Jersey Law Journal
January 30, 2001
In three decisions last week, including one overturning a 77-year-old precedent, New Jersey's supreme court made it easier for patients to sue for malpractice. Reversing a 1933 ruling which held wrongful death claims cannot be pursued if a personal injury action had not been filed, the justices found a decedent's failure to file a medical malpractice suit in her lifetime did not bar a wrongful death claim.
Jury Awards Soar as Lawsuits Decline on Defective Goods
New York Times, 1/30/01
by Greg Winter
After years of little change, jury awards to consumers suing over defective products are rising sharply in many industries, from cars and tools to toys and appliances. But at the same time, far fewer such cases are being brought, and many lawyers are turning away clients because their injuries are not debilitating enough to bring in big awards.
The median award — not including punitive damages — has more than tripled since 1993, from $500,300 to over $1.8 million in 1999, according to a study of 2,751 product-liability verdicts to be released today by LRP Publications, one of the only nonpartisan groups to track cases in several states each year. Much of that rise has come the last three years, and awards are now growing at the fastest rate in two decades.
In the mid-1980's, when corporations and politicians warned that a litigation explosion threatened economic growth, the size of defective-product awards actually dropped as often as it climbed. But in recent years, they have increased four times as fast as the sums doled out in medical malpractice lawsuits, even though tort reform has been in full swing and juries have begun giving less to the casualties of fender benders and slips and falls.
There is no way of knowing if American manufacturers are paying more to injured consumers over all. Most states do not track the number of cases filed much less keep a running tally of outcomes.
Nonetheless, now that George W. Bush is in the White House, after a campaign in which he emphasized his efforts to limit civil damages in Texas, many manufacturers expect him to push for caps on product-liability awards at the federal level.
Manufacturers and defense lawyers have long attributed large verdicts in defective product cases to what they call Robin Hood jurors who relish sitting in judgment of powerful corporations, if only for a day. But a growing number of legal scholars say that rising awards are, to a large degree, the unexpected outcome of rules that make it harder to sue manufacturers and win.
A series of Supreme Court rulings from 1993 to 1999, embraced by defense lawyers as a way of knocking out lawsuits against companies, have raised the bar on who can testify as expert witnesses, the backbone of any product-liability trial.
To better their prospects under the new rules, many plaintiffs' lawyers are buttressing their arguments with platoons of experts, and improving their chances of winning by choosing only truly egregious cases involving the most seriously injured parties.
"I've had plenty of defective products, clearly defective, where I won't even talk to the people because their injuries aren't severe enough," said Craig E. Hilborn, president of Hilborn & Hilborn, a small law firm in Birmingham, Mich. "If they're not a quadriplegic, a paraplegic or losing some part of their body, there's no way I'm going to take that case."
In fact, the number of product- liability cases filed in federal court has dropped by more than half the last four years, from 32,856 in 1997 to 14,428 in 2000, according to the Administrative Office of the United States Courts — a reflection, some legal scholars say, of how selective many lawyers have become.
It is not that the lawyers are unsympathetic, legal experts argue, but rather a matter of economics. With the greater emphasis on expert witnesses, product-liability suits are increasingly expensive to bring, often costing well above $100,000.
For many lawyers, who usually bear the cost of trying a case and are paid only if they win, picking more seriously injured clients is the surest way to meet expenses and make the substantial risk of losing worthwhile.
"I can't take cases on any more unless I am absolutely positive that I have one worth at least $2 million," said James L. Gilbert, president of the Attorney Information Exchange Group, an organization of about 500 plaintiffs' lawyers nationwide. "I can no longer afford to spend $300,000 trying a case that is only worth $500,000, and that's ridiculous."
For some injured consumers, juries will award more money than their lawyers ask for. In 1997, when a washing machine made by Pellerin Milnor kept spinning, even with the lid open, a curious 4-year-old named Malik Singletary reached inside. After 13 hours of surgery, his arm was reattached, but it functioned poorly and left no feeling in his hand. In the 30 years or so the machine has been on the market, at least four other lawsuits for strikingly similar injuries had been filed against Pellerin Milnor, and none had yielded more than a $50,000 settlement, the company said. But after the Singletarys sued for $1 million, the Los Angeles jury that heard their case in 1999 awarded $5 million. "I've never seen anything like that," said Gregory Yates, the family's lawyer, who has been practicing for 28 years.
The insurance industry is blaming the escalating awards for the double-digit increases for basic coverage that many businesses are now facing. They are the highest rate increases since the liability crisis of the mid-1980's, the industry says, when playgrounds were chained shut and diving boards were stripped from pools for fear of the injuries — and lawsuits — they might induce.
"It is cause for alarm," said Dr. Robert P. Hartwig, chief economist of the Insurance Information Institute, the industry's primary trade group. "We've seen a much more aggressive trial bar since the tobacco settlement. They are flush with cash and looking to generate a high rate of return."
But as plaintiffs' lawyers seek out more valuable cases, some worry that finding representation has become significantly more difficult, even for those who suffer injuries from truly dangerous products.
"Smaller cases are getting priced out of the market," said Marc Galanter, a professor at the University of Wisconsin law school. "There are people with legitimate injuries who will not be able to take advantage of the redress the law provides."
Connor Corrigan may be one of them. In 1997, when he was 2 years old, a pickup truck rear-ended his family's 1993 Plymouth Grand Voyager in their hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. The boy was strapped in a car seat behind his mother, but in the impact her seat collapsed backward, smashing his eye socket and fracturing his skull.
With surgery, he escaped any permanent damages other than a large scar. Still, his parents became enraged when they learned that the minivan's seats had also bent backward in several similar accidents, causing other drivers to lose control and ram nearby cars. DaimlerChrysler, which now makes Plymouth, said that collapsing seats are a common cause of lawsuits for all auto manufacturers, but knew of no design flaws specific to the minivan.
For two years, the Corrigans tried to mount a case, hoping to force Chrysler to fix the problem. But because Connor fully recovered and their economic losses came to about $30,000, paid mostly by insurance, they eventually stopped trying.
"Everyone seems interested until you tell them the details, and then they give you the same story: they can't take it because it's not worth it," said Michael L. Corrigan Jr., Connor's father. "It was very frustrating because every time I see another child sitting in their seat, I still think to this day, `Oh my God, I know what can happen to them.' "
One big reason defective-product cases have become so expensive to bring, legal experts argue, is that lawyers are bulking up on expensive expert witnesses as never before.
In the past, a case may have rested on a few doctors or engineers who testified that a person's injuries stemmed from a dangerous product, not personal negligence.
But the recent Supreme Court decisions, applying to federal courts but also adopted by a majority of states, have led to a 36-fold increase in the number of courtroom battles over whether testimony by expert witnesses should be allowed in civil cases, according to a recent study by Prof. D. Michael Risinger of the Seton Hall University law school.
In response, plaintiffs' lawyers have begun building fortresses of expert testimony that they hope will withstand any challenges. To prove a car is unsafe, for example, lawyers now routinely hire separate experts to analyze the crash site, the road conditions, the body's response to an impact and the vehicle's design — then pay other experts in the field to verify the findings.
"These days you need to have experts on experts," said Ned Miltenberg, associate director of legal affairs for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. "And sometimes that doesn't help either."
The wave of experts has helped plaintiffs' lawyers improve their batting average in court. While most injured consumers lose defective product suits, their success rate rose from 39 percent in 1993 to 46 percent in 1999, according to the study by LRP, based in Horsham, Pa.
"It debunks the notion of the frivolous lawsuit," Stephen Daniels, senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, a nonpartisan research group. "The plaintiffs' attorneys believe that the tort reform movement has poisoned the jury box, so they're extra prepared."
What juries actually think is a matter of debate, fueled by the widespread attention paid to large awards. Some argue that recent notable cases involving executive cover-ups have led jurors to believe that corporate malfeasance is common.
In the early 1990's, for example, jurors quipped about the grandmother who spilled coffee in her lap and won a $2.9 million award against McDonald's. But now, some jury experts say, jurors mostly think of the lawsuits brought by states against tobacco companies, and the truckloads of secret documents they uncovered. Increasingly distrustful of corporations in general, jurors are awarding more money, experts say.
"That's the contamination that I'm beginning to see," said Joseph A. Rice, president of the Jury Research Group, which analyzes jurors — mostly for defendants. "They're drawing from a news item that they've read or heard about and bringing it into the process."
But many academics believe jurors are surprisingly impartial. Valerie P. Hans, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware who has studied juries the last decade, said juries hold corporations to a higher standard than they do individuals but are equally skeptical of plaintiffs, hesitant to side with them simply to bond with the underdog.
Nor are demographic factors like race, sex or income likely to influence a juror's mind, she said, even though lawyers often view them as predictors of how a jury will decide.
"It's a myth," said Professor Hans, who interviewed hundreds of jurors in the Northeast. "In fact, people you might expect to have a sense of being oppressed by big business often seem to have less sympathy for those who are suing corporations. But if they believed in a litigation explosion, then they were the defense's best friend.`
Most defective product lawsuits are filed in state court, leaving some proponents of tort reform to wonder how effective any efforts by the Bush administration to limit jury awards can be. Several longstanding advocates of caps on awards in civil lawsuits have left the Senate, making it potentially more difficult to have such legislation passed.
"The assumption is that Republicans are going to line up in support of tort reform, and that is incorrect," said Victor Schwartz, general counsel to the American Tort Reform Association, which backs limits on civil awards. "It's not going to happen. The votes aren't there."
Newell Rubbermaid Names Matschullat General Counsel
Reuters, 1/29/01
Dale Matschullat was named the company's general counsel. He joined the Freeport, Ill.-based company in 1983 as vice president-finance after serving as president and chief executive of the Mirro Corp. Matschullat, 55, joined Newell Rubbermaid in 1989 as vice president-general counsel after holding a similar position with Allis-Chalmers Corp. A graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School, he has been active in acquisitions since joining the company.
Vanguard Airlines general counsel joins Phoenix Regional Airline
The Business Journal, Kansas City, 1/28/01
Brian Gillman, a former senior executive with Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines, has joined Mesa Air Group, a regional airline based in Phoenix. Gillman had been with Vanguard since July 1996 and was vice president, general counsel and secretary. He was responsible for all legal matters, including raising capital, corporate governance, human resources, litigation and regulatory compliance. Previously, he had been an associate with the law firm of Stinson, Mag and Fizzell in Kansas City. Mesa operates in Kansas City and throughout the Midwest as US Airways Express. The airline flies to more than 142 cities in 36 states.
Georgia-Pacific's Asbestos Suits Mount
Atlanta Business Chronicle, 1/26/01
Georgia-Pacific (NYSE: GP) now has some 52,000 asbestos-related lawsuits pending against it in U.S. courts, all claiming that asbestos-containing products it made back in the 1960s have contributed or could create health problems. The company said that as of the end of 2000, it already had settled orresolved some 232,000 similar lawsuits.
Monday, January 29, 2001
Law.com Notes ELawForum's Success in Cutting Lawyer Prices
Now hear this from Law.com:"Last fall, when FMC Corp. decided to file a patent suit against another company, the Old Economy chemicals and machinery supplier went New Economy. The company hired eLawForum to auction off the case on the Web. FMC posted a request for proposals through eLawForum's site. Bids poured in from a handful of big firms, and those big firms did something they don't often do. They competed on price."
(N.B. from Law.com's "about" page: "Based in San Francisco, law.com is owned by U.S. Equity Partners, L.P., a private equity investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein Perella & Co., a leading international investment bank, and SOFTBANK Capital Partners LP, a late-stage Internet venture investment group sponsored by SOFTBANK CORP.")
Hot Topical Sites for Tort Lawyers
Robert J. Ambrogi
Law Technology News
January 29, 2001
"For personal-injury lawyers, success can turn on their depth of knowledge concerning the cause of an injury. Tort lawyers realized early on that the Web could be most valuable not for legal research, but for factual investigation. Today, whether the plaintiff's injury resulted from years of cigarette smoking or the sudden blowout of a tire, there is sure to be a Web site devoted to the topic."
Sunday, January 28, 2001
News Corp. Taps Lon Jacobs Exec VP and Deputy General Counsel
Variety.com, 1/25/01
Jacobs, 45, worked on most of News Corp.'s major transactions in his five years at the company, including those relating to Fox Sports Net and the TV Guide/United Video/Gemstar mergers as well as the pending acquisitions of station group Chris-Craft. He will continue to report to senior exec VP and group general counsel Arthur Siskind. News Corp. is negotiating several major transactions, including the purchase of U.S. satellite company DirecTV and the possible sale of all or part of Fox Family Entertainment.
Texas lawmaker named to handle tire lawsuits
Lawyers for auto crash victims say hire is Bridgestone/Firestone ploy to stall lawsuits
Associated Press
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Caller.com
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. has hired a South Texas lawmaker (who tried a products case in the 1980s and never before sued or represented a tire company) to help defend the company in at least three lawsuits involving its tires, according to court documents.
Prize-Winning Product Warning Labels
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Last week, Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW) announced the winners of its national Wacky Warning Labels contest. Out of 132 entries, the grand prize went to a warning on shin guards for bicyclists. It read: "Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover." Second place went to a sticker on a public toilet that warned: "Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking." Third place went to a personal watercraft label that read: "Warning: Riders of personal watercraft may suffer injury due to forceful injection of water into body cavities either by falling into the water or while mounting the craft."
Parents Blame Son's Suicide on Accutane Acne Medication [Is Dermatology Now a High Risk Medical Field?]
KGW.com (Oregon/Washington)
January 27, 2001, 12:15 PM
By AP staff
MEDFORD, Ore. -- The parents of a teen-ager who committed suicide are suing a dermatologist and pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche, claiming that Accutane acne drug may cause depression and contributed to their son's death.
"Patch-a-Flat's" $80 million Exploding Tire Verdict
San Antonia Express News
By John Tedesco
Express-News Staff Writer
A South Texas jury awarded $80 million Saturday to an Alice couple who claimed a common repair product caused a truck tire to explode. Express News reports that "defense attorney John G. "Buster" Adami, who represents manufacturer Tradco Corp. of Akron, Ohio, said he was surprised by the size of the jury award." In February 1999, Pennzoil withdrew a similar brand, Fix-a-Flat, which had been linked to six explosions that killed one person and injured five others. Most of the industry has replaced propane and butane with less combustible ingredients. The only national chain that sells Patch-a-Flat is Dollar General Corp. of Nashville.
UPCOMING BUSINESS MEETING -- MEMBER FIRMS SHOULD PLAN FOR CLEVELAND MEETING, MARCH 8-9:
Member Firm Contact Persons attending our upcoming Network of Trial Law Firms business meeting are asked to plan now (e.g., airplane reservations) to send up to two (recommended) representatives to Cleveland, March 8-9 (only 6 weeks from now) for our meeting to be hosted by Ohio member firm, Thompson Hine & Flory.
-- Arrive by 6:00 p.m. Thursday, March 8:
Attendees should plan to fly into Cleveland's Hopkins Field arriving by 6:00 p.m. Thursday, March 8. Taxis to Public Square in Cleveland should charge approximately $18.
-- Stay at the Marriott Hotel Downtown Key Center (at Public Square):
The Marriott Hotel, where we have blocked rooms for you (we will be providing the hotel with a rooming list so please do not make your own room reservations with the hotel; make them with us instead), and
Thompson Hine's offices are next door to each other at Key Center (Public Square).
-- Arrive for Dinner Thursday Night:
Dinner Thursday evening will be at 7:00 p.m. above the Marriott Hotel at the Club at Key Center (216-241-1272) where we will be the guests of club member and Thompson Hine managing partner David Hooker.
-- Some Cleveland Area Attractions and Other Information:
---- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
---- Pro Football Hall of Fame (Canton, Ohio)
---- Cleveland Live (News and Information about Cleveland)
Friday, January 26, 2001
Awh! Florida Bar Withdraws Opinion Favorable to Litigation Funding Companies
Adam Miller
Miami Daily Business Review
January 26, 2001
The Florida Bar has withdrawn a proposed legal ethics opinion that would have given attorneys a green light to help clients obtain cash advances from litigation funding companies while awaiting the resolution of lawsuits.
Rod Heard (Wildman Harrold - Chicago) Hosts 18th Annual Center for Public Resources Institute for Dispute Resolution Awards for Excellence in ADR as Network Member Firms Loom Large in ADR's Highest Circles
Asked back because of his comedic performance at last year's awards dinner, our own Rod "Chevy Chase" Heard regaled an SRO dining room of ADR notables and dignitaries last night with humor (I'd repeat some of his jokes but you had to be there) before turning the show over to fellow Network of Trial Law Firms member Bill Leahy (Thompson Hine - Cleveland), one of the distinguished presenters who introduced the awards recipients. Among the judges of this year's entries were Janet Kloenhamer of Fireman's Fund Insurance Companies (a client of many Network firms and a past Network program attendee), Hon. Harvey Smith of Network member firm Lowenstein Sandler (Northern New Jersey), Harry Trueheart III of Network member firm Nixon Peabody (NY, MA, NH, RI, DC) as well as Rod Heard. Present for the program and full of myrth were Wildman partners Tom "I am sleeping at my cousin's house, taking a subway and train from Grand Central to catch a 7:00 a.m. from Central Islip, New York's most remote airport, just to save my firm money; am I a hero or what?" Lynch and Donald ("you can call me Don, just call me, please") Flayton who barbed and jibed away over drinks at the Peninsula Hotel's hoydy toydy bar after dinner. (Partners meetings at Wildman must be real fun.)
I found the following titles of interest among the works that were recognized:
1. Adler, Robert S., Silverstein, Elliot M., When David Meets Goliath: Dealing with Power Differentials in Negotiation, Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Vol. 5, Spring 2000.
2. Mnookin, Robert H., et al., Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes,", Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.
3. Deutsch, Morton and Coleman, Peter T., The Handbook of Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.
Smart Marketing: What to Do When a News Reporter is on the Phone
Legal.Pro2Net.com
Larry Bodine
"Rule One: Always return reporters' calls. Whether you call back or not, the reporter will do the story anyway:
A good [story], where you could have been quoted as an "expert".
A neutral [story], where you could have earned "points" with the reporter for future consideration.
A negative [story], where you could have gotten your viewpoint heard.
"Rule Two: Call back within the hour, if possible, and within the same day, in any event. Reporters are always working against a deadline, usually expiring the same day they call. If you call back too late, you will miss your chance to shape the story and promote your firm. Even worse, you will convince the reporter that you are unresponsive and he will not call you again. Opportunities for good publicity are short-lived.
"Rule Three: Give the reporter something he can use. If you leave the reporter with nothing, he has no reason to ever call you again. Suppose a reporter calls you and he or she is working on a story. You do not have the answer to his questions. Rather than say, "I don't know, I can't help you," tell him, "I'll do some checking," and call him right back. In the interim, gather your thoughts. Set your agenda: decide what you want to accomplish, the points you want to make in the interview, and how you will fit in mentions of the firm in the conversation. Call back with a statistic, a quote, or a contact person to call. Just be sure to give the reporter something he or she can use.
"Once you have made a good contact with a reporter, follow up and offer to meet him for lunch or breakfast. The idea is to build a relationship. You do not have to become the reporter's best friend; just establish a business relationship where you are the information source and the reporter is the information consumer. Remember to bring at least one story idea to the meeting. It does not matter if the reporter actually uses it; the point is that you showed up with something to offer."
See also:
What to Do When the Press Calls by
Dennis Rawlinson, Legal.Pro2Net.com
Smart Marketing: How to Make Friends With Reporters and Influence the Press by Larry Bodin, Legal.Pro2Net.com
Wednesday, January 24, 2001
Coca-Cola names Litigator Deval Patrick as General Counsel
The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) has named Texaco Inc. Vice President Deval L. Patrick general counsel. Patrick also is general counsel at Texaco and serves on its executive council. Prior to joining Texaco, Patrick was a partner with the Boston law firm of Day, Berry & Howard, where he oversaw major commercial litigation.
Court Decision Expected Soon on Legality of Virginia's Wine-Shipping Ban Prohibiting Shipment of Wine from Outside of Virginia to Consumers' Homes in Virginia
Similar arguments are being made in six other states where direct-shipping lawsuits are currently in different stages of progress.
Tenet Healthcare
NewsPress.com, Santa Barbara, CA, 1/24/01
"National Medical Enterprises, which is now Tenet Healthcare Corp., has agreed to settle 570 lawsuits filed by former patients who claimed the company fabricated illnesses to extend stays in psychiatric hospitals as a way of profiting from patients' insurance policies."
Roberts Sheridan Merges With D.C.s Dickstein Shapiro
Saturday, January 20, 2001
SD2001 Seminar Committee Kick-off Meeting Sets Preliminary Topics List
The Seminar Committee has been working on cutting edge topics and formats for our upcoming seminar at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, April 26-29, 2001.
Network Business Meeting Scheduled for March 8-9 in Cleveland
Thompson Hine & Flory, our Network's most recent-to-join member, will host our Winter 2001 business meeting in Cleveland Thursday evening, March 8 and Friday, March 9. Bob Monnin will be working with our Network staff to make dinner and hotel arrangements for Thursday night, March 8. Details to follow. Member firms are asked to send one or two partners to this important meeting and to make your flight arrangements now. Please plan to arrive at CLE by 5:00 p.m. so you can attend dinner on Thursday night. Homeward bound flights leaving from CLE beginning at 3:00 p.m. Friday, March 9 are suggested. We are looking forward to reuniting with David Parham, Earle Maiman and so many of our other good friends at Ohio's premier law firm.
Thursday, January 18, 2001
Intuit (QuickBooks, Quicken) Strikes Again with QuickBase -- Online Easy Database
It's finally here. A database program that you can actually use. Imagine that. And it's online, waiting for you to sign in and create your own database. Plus, it comes with mucho preset, ready-to-use, off-the-shelf database templates so you don't have to roll your own if you don't want to (but you can if you do). QuickBase is an easy-to-use, Web-shareable information manager that allows small businesses and corporate workgroups to manage, organize, and share data across the Internet. And it's FREE!!!!! (sort of -- the first three databases you create are free; if you want more, it's reasonably priced at $15 per month for up to 15 databases, but it's worth it). Check out our sample databases for SD2001 Topics and Seminar Committee Members.
Wednesday, January 17, 2001
Jim Moorhead Named VP and General Counsel of Columbia, Maryland-based Codeon Corp.
BizJournals.com/Baltimore
Bill Hawkins Appointed General Counsel at Convergys
BizJournals.com/Cincinnati
The Internet Roundtable #16 - A Continuing Discussion of Law Firm Marketing On the Internet
Maryland Plaintiff Attorney Peter Angelos Joins Lawsuit on Cell-Phone Injuries
SunSpot.com
Baltimore lawyer Peter G. Angelos jumped yesterday into the legal fray over whether wireless telephones cause cancer, joining in the lawsuit of a local physician who claims he developed a brain tumor from using one of the increasingly popular devices.
Angelos, who made a fortune suing asbestos makers and stands to collect millions more from tobacco litigation, signaled his entry into the wireless-phone issue by having his firm file as co-counsel in an $800 million suit pending in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.
Milberg Weiss Gears Up for Patent Suits
Having seen its near monopoly over securities litigation slip in the last two years, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach has set its sights on a new, and potentially lucrative, area of the law.
The idea: represent small companies that claim larger businesses have infringed their patents. That is likely to mean more grief for high-tech companies, many of which have already been hit by Milberg Weiss with stock-drop suits.
The firm has already taken on its first patent infringement case and is in the process of building an intellectual property department.
Tuesday, January 16, 2001
Attorneys Advertise on the Web
AP via New Jersey Online
How Much Salary War Can the Legal Market Take? -- Brobeck Raises First Years to $170K!!!!!!!!
San Francisco Reporter
San Francisco's Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison fired the first shot in what could be a new salary war, raising first-year associate pay to as much as $170,000. Hours after Brobeck's announcement Friday, Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich announced it would match the increase, and Seattle's Perkins Coie raised its Bay Area associate salaries. But it's unclear whether Brobeck is starting a full-scale battle or merely a salary skirmish.
Monday, January 15, 2001
Internet Still a Major Business Growth Area
PlanetIT.com
"The Internet created 600,000 jobs in the first half of last year, a gain of 24 percent. Only 28 percent of Internet workers were in technical positions, with the largest portion, about 33 percent, involved in sales and marketing." Download the study.
"The Internet Economy has grown more rapidly than anyone could have envisioned even five years ago, opening up new vistas of communication, collaboration and coordination between consumers, businesses and trading partners. What started out as an alternative marketing channel has quickly turned into a complete economic system consisting of (i) ubiquitous, low cost communication networks using Internet technologies and standards, (ii) applications and human capital that enable business to be conducted over this network infrastructure, (iii) interconnected electronic markets that operate over the network and applications infrastructure, (iii) producers and intermediaries providing a variety of digital products and services to facilitate market efficiency and liquidity, and (iv) emerging policy and legal frameworks for conducting business over the Internet." The Internet Economy Indicators
FilesOnTheNet.com -- Scan, index and send documents, then view them at FilesOnTheNet.com
Suited to large document cases requiring access to source document images from multiple locations. An alternative to rolling your own.
Salomon Smith Barney Says North Carolina's Bank of America (no. 1), First Union (no. 4) and Wachovia (no. 8) Among the Top 10 Banks with the Most Exposure to Corporate Loans at Risk of Default
Associated Press
Other banks on the report's watch list and their ranking are: 2, Bank One; 3, J.P. Morgan Chase; 5, FleetBoston; 6, Bank of New York; 7, KeyCorp.; 9, U.S. Bancorp; 10, Comercia.
Bank of America is a participant in three of the five largest syndicated loans on SSB's watch list. They include loans to: Owens-Illinois, a Toledo, Ohio-based packaging company, for $4.5 billion;Finova, a financial-services company in Scottsdale, Ariz., for $4.7 billion; and J.C. Penney, the retail chain based in Plano, Texas, for $6 billion.
First Union is exposed to J.C. Penney and auto parts maker Federal-Mogul of Southfield, Mich., which was loaned $2.1 billion.
Wachovia is exposed to Owens-Illinois and a $7 billion syndicated loan to Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox.
Asbestos Harms Corporate Health as Lawsuits Grow
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Since October, three major firms have filed for bankruptcy protection from asbestos claims."
"A measure in a congressional committee, the Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act, would bar punitive damages in asbestos liability cases and move lawsuits out of the courts into a new federal agency. It would also establish strict medical criteria for claims."
Decrease in Frivolous Shareholder Lawsuits Under Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
BizJournal.com
"The common scenario: A company's stock price or market capitalization drops precipitously for some reason, and the firm is sued for withholding information, which supposedly had enabled insiders to unload their stock before the price decline.
"Passage of the 1995 federal law was supposed to stem the tide of abusive litigation and coercive settlements resulting from shareholder fraud suits. Yet the law has turned out to be insufficient.
"After a brief drop-off in 1995, cases filed increased from 1996 to 1998. The first decline since 1995 came when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its SGI decision in July 1999. [In SGI] the appeals court interpreted the 1995 law as having established a tough burden of proof for plaintiffs. The court required plaintiffs to produce facts showing a "strong inference" that companies being sued intended to defraud stockholders.
Since then, these cases have decreased nationally. Some 270 were filed the year before the SGI decision, 239 the year of the decision and 228 in 2000.
Sunday, January 14, 2001
New Magazine to Welcome New Attorneys to the Legal Jungle
JD Jungle to offer advice to legal newbies fresh out of law school. April launch expected with controlled circulation of 80,000 through law schools and paricipating law firms.
Plaintiff Attorneys Using Web to Attract New Business
News-Herald.com
"As Americans flock to the Internet to investigate nearly every problem of human life, lawyers are greeting them with invitations to sue someone."
One plaintiff firm allows potential clients to sign up for class actions online.
Inhouse Lawyers in Cubicles -- What Impact on Outside Counsel?
Corporate America is overhauling its offices to retool for the new economy, and some lawyers are losing their walls.
Study says Insurers May Face Huge Y2K Liability Over Obscure Policy Clause
Insure.com
The study, "Y2K Remediation Costs Lawsuits: A Wake-Up Call for Property Insurers?,"estimates that companies in the United States spent $50 billion on Y2K remediation costs in 1998 and 1999. This represents an "unprecedented level of potential claims," with losses in the areas of environmental and asbestos compliance and litigation its only potential equal, the study says.
The legal basis for recovering Y2K remediation costs is the obscure "sue and labor" clause found on many commercial policies. This clause allows the policyholder to take steps to prevent an actual or imminent loss that would be covered by the policy at the insurer's expense.
Malpractice Liability Tide Turns Against HMOs and Managed Care Facilities
PropertyandCasualty.com
Saturday, January 13, 2001
Manvilles Asbestos History Lives On
Builder Online
Federal-Mogul Gets New Credit Lines, Plans to Fight Asbestos Litigation
Quicken.com
GAF (nka G-I Holdings) Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filing Cites Exposure in Asbestos Cases
Wall Street Journal
USG Takes Charge for Asbestos Liability
Crain's Chicago Business
USG Takes Charge on Asbestos Litigation Following Bankruptcy Filings By OCF, Armstrong, B&W and PC; Federal-Mogul Secures $550 Million Credit
Merrill Lynch report estimates total asbestos liabilities for companies at $20bn-$30bn and growing. That sum is above what it estimates are companies' aggregate asbestos reserves of $15bn-$25bn.
USG Details Costs for Asbestos and Restructuring Initiatives Year-End Charges Will Total $904 Million
USG's Asbestos Woes Bring $904 Million Charge
ChicagoTribune.com
USG Corp. to take a Nearly Billion Dollar Charge for Asbestos and Reorganization Initiatives
HomeCenterNews.com
Out of Court Becoming in with Creditors
TheDeal.com
Is the bankruptcy boom over-rated, over-stated? Although government statistics show that corporate bankruptcy filings have steadily decreased since 1993, including another 6.6% last year, a reversal of the trend may be around the corner.
Friday, January 12, 2001
George Schieren named Associate General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Merrill Lynch & Co.
Mr. Schieren began his career with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 1974. He joined EF Hutton & Co., Inc. in 1981 as vice president and associate general counsel. He joined the Merrill Lynch Litigation Department in July 1981, was named assistant general counsel in 1986, and became first vice president in 1988. He served as executive assistant to the chairman and president of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. from April 1993 to April 1995, and as senior vice president and general counsel, compliance and litigation, for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. from April 1995 through June 1996.
27 Snell & Wilmer Lawyers Included in The Best Lawyers in America 2001-2002
Selection based on exhaustive peer-review survey of 15,000 attorneys casting more than 500,000 ballots.
GAF Affiliate Brings RICO Action Against Leading Asbestos Plaintiff Law Firms in SDNY
DRI Product Liability Seminar
Mary Anne Mellow (314 231 3332) of the Sandberg Phoenix law firm (St. Louis) is organizing a dinner Wednesday night, February 21, in Las Vegas and welcomes attending inhouse counsel and Network member law firms. The dinner would be at:
Chinois* (one of Wolfgang Puck's four fine dining restaurants in Las Vegas)
3570 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, Nevada 89109
Tel: +1 702 737 9700
Each participating law firm would pay a share of the total cost. Last year several member firms organized a dinner in Las Vegas during the DRI product seminar and drew 26 people. The cost was approximately $3,000.
Please let Mary Anne Mellow know if you are interested in participating.
Rod Heard Emcee at CPR Dinner
Wildman Harrol's (Chicago) Rod Heard is master of ceremonies at the CPR's Institute for Dispute Resolution's Awards Dinner at the University Club in New York City on January 25, 2001.
New Business
Rod Heard (Wildman Harrold -- Chicago) reports referring a new product liability case to Thompson Hine's Columbus, Ohio office.
Susan Artinian (Dykema Gossett -- Detroit) reports having received a new matter from Nixon Peabody. Susan also reports that one of Dykema's long-time clients who attended our Kiawah 2000 CLE program has sent more than a dozen new matters to Dykema following the program. Steve Muhich (Dykema Gossett -- Grand Rapids) is handling those matters.
Jeff Ment (Rome McGuigan - Hartford) reports that his firm was retained this week by AIG.
Milwaukee Magazine Covers Kravit Gass Law Firm's $105 Million Verdict in Commercial Litigation
The arcticle leads with "[w]as it deception, arrogance, or CEO . . . obstinancy that led the once admirable Wisconsin Energy to the biggest environmental pollution penalty in state history? The inside story of a major blunder."
* * *
"[Ric] Gass taught evidence at Marquette University Law School," and he was, according to state mediator retired judge George Burns, Jr., "a scholar as well as a good trial attorney and justifiably, a little cocky. * * * Ric Gass is a pretty good lawyer." p. 60
* * *
"Gass began by showing jurors an enlarged photograph of the tons of waste and pooling blue water. 'Promise me one thing,' he said, "that you will never forget this picture." Then Gass called [defendant's] expert . . . as an adverse witness. Before [defendant] could make any points with [its own] star witness, Gass had [him] recounting manufactured gas history from 1806 until the late 1950s. When he finished, the jurors realized that even in the 1800s, the industry . . . knew how dangerous oxide box waste was.
"By agreeing with Gass' account of manufactured-gas plant history, [defendant's star witness] told the jury that plaintiffs weren't trying to apply today's environmental standards to 1959. They were applying the standards of the day.
"[Defendant's star witness] also admitted that before he knew his employer planned to use the 'we dumped it in the lake' alibi, he called it 'unreasonable' . . ..
"In his deposition, [another witness] revealed 'everybody in the company knew' [box waste] was 'bad stuff.' 'We were not merely pigs. We were polluters.'" pp. 61-2.
Thursday, January 11, 2001
Black Hills Corporation Names Steven J. Helmers General Counsel
Source:PRNewsWire
Ocean Power names Thomas G. Redmon General Counsel
Source: BizJournals.com
Waste Management names Mark Schwartz VP and Assistant General Counsel
Source:SolidWaste.com
Ross Stores names Mark Arkansas General Counsel
Source: just-style.com
Tuesday, January 09, 2001
The Network Tests ListBots for E-Mail Community Communications
Free services are now being offered on the Interent (such as the listbot discussed here, our calendar, lawsuit news feed and discussion board from Master.com and our daily log from Blogger) that allow us to incorporate features and functionality without hosting the software ourselves. That allows us to save money by reducing our dependency on licensed software currently providing now replaceable functionality.
For listservs, we are now testing two listbots -- "Bankruptcy" and "General" which would replace similarly named listservs that we currently license and host ourselves. At our level of utilization, the "ListBots" are offered by MicroSoft at no cost. Depending on member reaction we may migrate away from the ListServs that we host and move to ListBots for the various e-mail communities that we currently host.
For attorneys at member law firms whose practice includes bankruptcy. Please join our ListBot mailing list by entering your email address below and clicking the 'Join List' button:
This list is for attorneys at member firms. If who would like to join our new GENERAL mailing list, please enter your email address below, then click the 'Join List' button:
Monday, January 08, 2001
250,000 Member Medical Monitoring Class Action Goes to Trial in WV
Sunday, January 07, 2001
Jim Dorr (Chicago) Elected to American College of Trial Lawyers
Don DeVries (Baltimore) Elected to American College of Trial Lawyers
Kelly Corr and Bill Cronin (Seattle) Selected as Top Guns
Saturday, January 06, 2001
Featured Web Resource -- INSURE.COM -- Insurance Company Info
Insure.com provides comprehensive and current insurance information. Insure.com claims to be the Internet's best provider of insurance information and has received recognition from U.S. News & World Report, Dow Jones Business Directory, and the Washington Post, among others.
The site offers a newsy Lawsuit Library and a search feature to find insurance company information quickly online.
Insure.com combines the reporting style of a daily newspaper with a wealth of up-to-date resource information in specialty areas, such as property and casualty.
Insure.com has been on the Internet for over five years and is wholly owned by Insurance News Network, LLC, an independently owned company founded in 1994 and located in West Hartford, CT.
Friday, January 05, 2001
The Internet Roundtable #15 - A Continuing Discussion of Law Firm Marketing On the Internet
Tuesday, January 02, 2001
Questions emerge over effectiveness of class action lawsuits -- Financial Times
