Sunday, December 30, 2001
Asbestos Continue to Kill and Mame -- Companies and Shareholders, That Is
[Source: Overlawyered.com]
The market clipped $3.8 billion off the giant oil field service company's share valuation after Peter Angelos got a $30 million jury award against it. "The ruling is the fourth significant asbestos ruling against Halliburton since late October, according to Merrill Lynch ... Over the last 25 years, Halliburton has settled 194,000 asbestos claims, the company said. The average payment was about $200, according to Allen Brooks, executive director at CIBC World Markets. As of Sept. 30, the company faced 146,000 open asbestos claims and 182,000 more from a former subsidiary called Harbison-Walker." (David Koenig, AP/Yahoo, Dec. 8; Neela Banerjee, "Halliburton Battered as Asbestos Verdict Stirs Deep Anxieties", New York Times, Dec. 8).
Federal-Mogul, the big auto parts maker, became the latest large bankruptcy to result from asbestos litigation with a filing two months ago (Joe Miller, "Asbestos suits hurt Fed-Mogul", Detroit News, Oct. 2).
"In late October, a Mississippi jury ordered three firms, including oil-services giant Halliburton and manufacturer 3M, to pay six plaintiffs $25 million apiece. ...What made jaws drop was that the plaintiffs weren't even sick–their X-rays just showed they stood an increased chance of getting sick. 'Most of these guys have not missed a day of work in their lives,' their lawyer said. ... To unearth new clients for lawyers, screening firms advertise in towns with many aging industrial workers or park X-ray vans near union halls. To get a free X-ray, workers must often sign forms giving law firms 40 percent of any recovery." (Looking for some million-dollar lungs, U.S. News, Dec. 17). One solicitation reads: "SPREAD THE WORD — MESOTHELIOMA AND ASBESTOS INJURIES COULD MEAN MILLION DOLLAR LUNGS FOR YOU OR A FRIEND!'"
Some say asbestos defendants should try to avoid angering juries by paying claims without a fight, but an attorney for power plant maker Babcock & Wilcox said an uncritical approach to claims had proved too expensive for his now-bankrupt client: "In the past, you literally filled out a form in five minutes that stated the claimant had a note from the doctor saying he was coughing and had other symptoms and showed that he worked at the site. It took five to 10 minutes to fill out the form that would routinely lead to checks for thousands of dollars." (Terry Brennan, "Firms Wary of Challenging Asbestos Claims", The Deal, Nov. 13).
And battling continues in a case in which B&W and other asbestos defendants have attempted to turn the tables on leading plaintiff's firms, arguing that they have violated racketeering laws by coaching clients' testimony and by threatening retaliation against companies that seek a legislative solution to the litigation morass. (Mark Hamblett, "Asbestos Companies Bring RICO Suit Against Plaintiffs' Firms", New York Law Journal, Sept. 6).
This spring defendant law firms won a court order prohibiting the plaintiff companies from questioning their former, as well as their current, employees without counsel being present -- i.e., even if the former employees are eager to spill the beans they will not be allowed to do so except in the presence of someone representing their former employer. That certainly should put a chill on whistleblowing (Mark Hamblett, "Employees of Law Firms Charged With Racketeering Shielded From Interviews Without Counsel", New York Law Journal, April 11).
Plaintiff Law Firms Criticized for Asbestos Claims Practices
Lisa Girion, Times Staff Writer -- Los Angeles Times -- December 20
[Source: Overlawyered.com]
The L.A. Times looks at asbestos litigation and finds abuses and overreaching have gone so far that even some prominent plaintiff's lawyers agree on the need for action.
"An Oakland-based attorney who has represented asbestos victims for 27 years is leading a renegade faction of the plaintiffs' bar that has joined with many of the corporations they sue in calling for limits on claims from people without serious illnesses. 'It's too far gone to do anything else,' Steve Kazan said. 'The asbestos companies are really cash cows that we should care for and cultivate so we can milk them for years as we need to. But I have colleagues who'd rather kill them, cut them up and put them on the grill now.
We'd all have a great time, but there are people who will be hungry in five years.'" Over 15 years, now-bankrupt boilermaker Babcock & Wilcox "spent $1.6 billion on 317,000 claims that took paralegals five to 10 minutes each to prepare." (Lisa Girion, "Firms Hit Hard as Asbestos Claims Rise", L.A. Times, Dec. 17).
According to a letter sent by the Manville Trust to federal judge Jack Weinstein on Dec. 2, asbestos claimants with cancer or other grave illness are receiving reduced payments because "disproportionate amount of Trust settlement dollars have gone to the least injured claimants -- many with no discernible asbestos-related physical impairment whatsoever."
As usual, a key problem is the submission of questionable x-rays. (Queena Sook Kim, "Asbestos Trust Says Assets Are Reduced As the Medically Unimpaired File Claims", Wall Street Journal, Dec. 14)(online subscribers only).
Friday, December 28, 2001
Lawsuit filed against K-Mart corporation for neglecting safety stock procedures
Amanda Rylander -- Daily Journal/Messenger (Florida) -- Oconee County Reporter -- December 28, 2001
Walhalla - A Seneca attorney has filed a lawsuit against the K-Mart corporation for allegedly neglecting to stock or stack its merchandise in a safe manner.
The suit, filed last Friday, claims that Betty Holcombe of Seneca was reading the features on a box of shelving at the Seneca K-Mart store when another box fell from a shelf, striking Holcombe on the head and shoulders.
Read more . . .
"Going Rate" New York City Firms Paying Big Bonuses Despite Economy
Anthony Lin -- New York Law Journal -- December 28, 2001
Merchandise Falling From Shelves a New Growth Industry?
Texas leads nationwide trend in suits against megastores for on-site injuries
Pamela Manson -- Texas Lawyer -- December 28, 2001
As stores get bigger, so does the number of suits filed by shoppers who claim they got more than they bargained for. Texas is part of a nationwide trend accusing "super-warehouse stores" such as Home Depot and Wal-Mart of causing injury or death from falling merchandise. The plaintiffs -- including a French astronaut -- charge the retailers with negligence in stacking and moving goods.
Read more . . .
Tuesday, December 25, 2001
Some law firms changing from hierarchic to 'organic'
Timothy Mazzucca -- Washington Business Journal -- 12/21/01
Large law firms with offices in many cities -- and maybe even many countries -- traditionally have been organized in a hierarchical home-office/branch-office structure.
But a number of law firms today are questioning that structure. Among them is Latham & Watkins, a firm that was founded in Los Angeles in 1934 and now has more than 1,400 attorneys in 19 offices spread through the United States, Europe and Asia.
Rick Bernthal, managing partner of the firm's Washington office, says Latham & Watkins has evolved into an "organic structure," with no official headquarters. Individual offices are not considered branches of the firm but instead are viewed as equal parts of the same entity.
Support operations for the firm's attorneys -- such as human resources, technology and administration -- are dispersed throughout the 19 offices, Bernthal says.
Bernthal leads 170 attorneys in the D.C. office. He joined Latham & Watkins in 1986, after serving as a partner at Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn's Washington office for 14 years. Bernthal, who focuses his work largely in the communications sector, served on President Reagan's Transition Team for Communication after both the 1980 and 1984 elections.
Latham & Watkins' loose structure enables quick decision making, he says. That type of structure also makes it easier for different law firms to integrate their operations after mergers and acquisitions, which are running rampant in the legal profession today.
Bernthal spoke with contributing writer Timothy Mazzucca about the pros and cons of various ways to structure a law firm.
In a decentralized model, how is accountability maintained?
Accountability is put on the individual. In our model, I don't answer to anyone. Our executive committee employs a collegial decision-making process. There are no rigid lines or management structures. The profit sharing ensures that everyone acts in the firm's best interest because everyone shares in the profit. Individual incomes derive from entire success of the firm. Each of us feels like a partner.
Why don't all firms decentralize?
Most firms still have a home office where most of their business is generated. It's tough for those firms to push past the rhetoric and realize the benefits. A few firms have totally eliminated the home/branch [system] because of politics and power issues. Some people are reluctant to give up power and authority.
What could cause the decentralized model to fail?
If you think of [an office in a decentralized model] as a profit center and it does very well, then partners in that office would feel they were inadequately paid [if their income was not based on that particular office's profits]. Or, if the office performs poorly, firms restructure and shut down that office. That structure limits a firm's ability to synergize the size, scale, depth and breadth of its practice. However, if everyone contributes the same amount to the decision-making and profits are distributed firmwide, then those politics that self-destruct that model disappear. Each office should be looked at as an investment. Some D.C. branches are looked at as just an office that handles filings. They often feel removed from the decision-making process and usually don't prosper on their own. We, on the other hand, compete against a standard, not each other.
What are the advantages of having no headquarters?
When my partners in London succeed, I succeed. Latham & Watkins' committee system manages work flow, so each office is irrelevant because the committees decide as a whole what is best for the firm.
What are the disadvantages of having no headquarters?
The challenge gets greater for committees, departments and administration to fully understand and react properly in the different markets in which you have offices. The system is dependent on trust, communication and mutual support. Management has to depend on expertise and good faith.
What inefficiencies does this model create?
The committees within in the firm may seem inefficient in the immediate sense, but you can meet virtually every day through e-mail and teleconferencing. I am in constant contact with committee members and partners at other locations. Sometimes administrative tasks are difficult, but, again, technology takes care of that for the most part.
Do factions between partners form in a model like this?
No, because it wouldn't benefit an individual financially since everyone is sharing in the profits firmwide. We have associates on our committees, and we don't have more than a couple of people from each office on one committee. Having associates hold committee positions is a good recruiting tool and gets them intensely involved in the workings of the firm early in their careers.
Is it difficult getting everyone to work for a common goal?
It's sometimes difficult to promote a firmwide culture. Those affiliate networks that don't work usually don't work because they didn't get their firm's culture out. A firm's culture is the glue to hold it in place, and as a firm gets larger the culture becomes more important. The firms that don't have a competitive atmosphere have a lock-stepped pay scale that creates a disincentive to produce business. There is a lot of autonomy entrusted in the managing partners, but it also lets the managing partner act as an entrepreneur to build his office for the betterment of the firm.
Sunday, December 23, 2001
Jury issues $43 million verdict against Pfizer's Warner-Lambert in Second Rezulin Diabetes Drug Case Verdict
SeaCoastOnLine -- Associated Press -- 12/22/01
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Hours after losing a $43 million verdict Friday, Pfizer Inc. reached a settlement with lawyers for a woman who said her liver was destroyed by the company's recalled diabetes drug, Rezulin.
The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but Pfizer general counsel Paul Miller said it was ''substantially lower'' than the state court jury's verdict. The company did not admit liability.
The deal, which would erase the verdict on compensatory damages, was announced as the jury considered whether to add punitive damages against Pfizer's Warner-Lambert unit.
''The two parties said, 'Let's settle.' It was settled to everybody's mutual satisfaction. Everybody is happy,'' said Mike Papantonio, one of the lawyers who represented 63-year-old Margarita Sanchez.
On Monday, a Houston jury found the company not liable for a 58-year-old woman's death. It was the first verdict in a Rezulin-related litigation. [See story below.]
During the two-week Sanchez trial, the woman's lawyers said Warner-Lambert lied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about Rezulin's dangers.
FDA research has linked the drug to 63 deaths from liver failure. According to company documents, Pfizer faces more than 4,200 claims and lawsuits over Rezulin.
''I think it should be a very clear signal to people who own stock in this company that there's more to come,'' Papantonio said after the jury verdict on compensatory damages.
Pfizer, which acquired Warner-Lambert last year, had argued Sanchez's liver condition was caused by hepatitis. Company lawyers said they would have appealed if Sanchez hadn't settled.
Miller said the judge improperly limited Pfizer's ability to question witnesses and allowed jurors to hear prejudicial and hearsay evidence.
''In reaching settlement, the plaintiffs recognized that a second and fair trial was likely to lead to a very different outcome,'' he said. ''For Pfizer, the settlement, at a substantially lower amount ... was an attractive alternative to the additional expenses of continued litigation.''
The FDA approved Rezulin in 1997 to treat type II diabetes. The drug was taken by nearly 2 million people before it was removed from the market last year.
Warner-Lambert made $1.6 billion on the drug, Papantonio said.
In trading Friday, Pfizer stock fell 40 cents to $41.
Tuesday, December 18, 2001
Recession Takes Its Toll on Firms
As corporate work plunges, firms cut associates and get tough on partner promotions
Jennifer Myers -- Legal Times -- December 18, 2001
The economic pain wrought by the recession continues to mount as demand for corporate legal work plummets. Layoffs, once rare, are now part of the Washington, D.C., landscape: Two of the city's leading firms -- Shaw Pittman and Arnold & Porter -- let go a total of nearly 30 associates over the past few weeks. And just as the pain is not limited to tech-heavy Silicon Valley firms, the effect is not limited to layoffs.
But Things are Just Peachy at Some Firms
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld announced the promotion of 12 attorneys this year, a number similar to the 10 in 2000 and 13 in 1999. Covington & Burling elected five D.C. partners, after it elevated three in D.C. last year and five in 1999. Howrey Simon Arnold & White made seven associates D.C. partners, close to its eight in 2000 and nine in 1999.
Houston's Baker Botts increased its partnership ranks by 13 this year, the same number as in 1999. The firm added 24 partners last year, which it attributes to a shortening of the partnership track that caused two classes of associates to be reviewed at once. D.C.'s Hogan & Hartson also shortened its track last year, then it made 21 partners. In 2001, Hogan expects the numbers to return to normal figures, like the six it promoted in 1999.
Read more . . .
Monday, December 17, 2001
Beirne Maynard's Jack Urquhart Wins First Rezulin Diabetes Drug Case to go to Verdict
Warner-Lambert defeats George Fleming's (of fen-phen and polybutalene pipe fame) Efforts to Take $25 Million and Send a Message
Monday December 17, 2:45 pm Eastern Time -- Press Release -- SOURCE: Pfizer Inc
NEW YORK, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- A Texas jury today found that the prescription drug Rezulin was not a contributing cause in the death of Norma Culberson, Pfizer Inc said. The trial, begun November 27, took place at the 61st District Court of Harris County in Houston. The verdict was the first jury decision in litigation involving Rezulin claims. Trials are currently proceeding in Liberty, Missouri, and Corpus Christi, Texas, with verdicts expected soon.
Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997 for the treatment of type II diabetes, Rezulin was manufactured by the Warner-Lambert Company until withdrawn in March 2000 following the introduction of two newer medicines of the same class. Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert in June 2000. Pfizer said the Houston jury understood extensive testimony showing that Mrs. Culberson's death resulted from kidney failure due to diabetes and was not related to Rezulin, the only drug to have helped control her diabetes.
"Diabetes is a disease with devastating consequences, and we regret every death this disease causes,'' said Paul S. Miller, executive vice president and general counsel, Pfizer Inc. "We are pleased, however, that the jury in Houston differentiated between the kidney failure which was the immediate cause of Norma Culberson's death and the positive role Rezulin played in treating her diabetes.''
According to the Food and Drug Administration, of an estimated 1.9 million patients with diabetes who were prescribed Rezulin, fewer than 100 patients reported acute liver failure leading to death or transplant as of the date the drug was withdrawn in March 2000. For most of the relatively few patients who have reported any type of side effects with Rezulin, the side effects were transient and not serious.
From June 2000, when Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert,'' Mr. Miller emphasized, "we have clearly stated that Pfizer is committed to the fair and reasonable resolution -- without litigation -- of claims arising from those very rare injuries experienced by Rezulin patients. We have also said that, in cases where the alleged harm has not been demonstrably caused by Rezulin or where the plaintiff makes excessive demands, Pfizer will go to trial.''
Mr. Miller also reiterated that, considering its insurance and reserves, Pfizer is of the opinion that the Rezulin litigation should not have a material adverse effect on the financial position or results of the company.
Saturday, December 15, 2001
Multi-party IPO Suit Using Web Site to Cut Copying, Distribution Costs
Lawyers "Serve" the Website instead of Co-counsel
Carlyn Kolker -- American Lawyer Media -- December 17, 2001
At a routine hearing on Sept. 7, Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York suggested to the lawyers that they set up a Web site to post motions and pleadings. Plaintiffs' counsel, issuers counsel and underwriters counsel agreed to work on a site.
The case involves about 800 separate suits that allege misdeeds in handling the pricing of about 260 technology company initial public offerings. (Most of the separate suits have been consolidated.) In addition to the issuers, the suits name about 60 underwriters. More than 100 firms are involved in the case, from solo plaintiffs' lawyers to the city's largest firms.
Rather than serve each party in the case, a lawyer can [now] do it just once -- to the Web site. A lawyer uploads the document to a site hosted by Verilaw Technologies Inc. Verilaw will also scan material sent by fax. All parties, including the judge, will receive e-mail notifications of the posting, which will be in PDF format.
Verilaw charges each law firm $350 to sign up and $10 to serve a document, regardless of the size of the document or number of recipients. In a more traditional complex case, the cost of serving documents can reach millions of dollars, says Joseph Helfrich, vice president of Verilaw.
Although hardly novel, judges are starting to see the advantage of using a Web site as a focal point in a complex case. The lawyers in the Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. tires multidistrict litigation, for example, tap into a public Web site through the federal court in Indiana handling the case. Read more . . .
Australian Court's Assertion of Personal Jurisdiction Over U.S. Company in Internet Case Appealed
Case Portends Global Expansion of U.S. Law Firms' Litigation Practices
The Associated Press -12/17/01
Australia's highest court ruled that New York-based Dow Jones & Co. can appeal a potentially far-reaching lower court decision that allowed an Australian businessman to sue Dow Jones in an Australian court over an allegedly defamatory article published online in the U.S. but downloaded in Austalia.
Read more . . .
Friday, December 14, 2001
Survey Results -- 2001 ACCA Partnering with Outside Counsel Survey
Groundbreaking Survey Assesses the Relationships between Corporate Law Departments and Their Law Firms
The American Corporate Counsel Association recently released key findings of its 2001 ACCA Partnering with Outside Counsel Survey. This first of its kind survey of the ACCA membership (comprised exclusively of lawyers in corporate legal departments) explores the ways that law departments are managing their law firms to control costs and optimize results.
"We believe that the results of this survey provide valuable insights for our members into how their peers are structuring their relationships with their law firms," said Fred Krebs, president of ACCA. "It is also of great interest to those law firms that want to anticipate and meet the expectations of their corporate clients." The two hundred page Report includes tables and analysis for each of the sixty-six Survey questions.
View the Executive Summary.
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Mold: Will It Grow to be Bigger Than Asbestos?
Richfield, OH – (November 30, 2001) Alexander Robertson, Erin Brockovich’s attorney, recently commented that “mold is where asbestos was thirty years ago.” Mold-related property damage claims, like asbestos-related property damage claims 30 years ago, are being filed at an accelerated pace. Although different in certain factual respects, it is becoming abundantly clear that mold-related property damage claims are growing into the proportions that we saw with asbestos-related property damage claims — in both numbers and dollars.
Conversely, mold-related bodily injury claims, like asbestos-related bodily injury claims 30 years ago, are being viewed with skepticism. Because the bodily injuries allegedly associated with mold exposure could stem from a myriad of sources, they are difficult to attribute directly to mold. Those injuries include nasal congestion, bloody nose, cough, sore throat, fatigue, night sweats, low grade fever, rash, short-term memory loss and mood swings. Further, it has been observed that after the mold-related property damage is remediated or a person is removed from the mold environment, their health appears to revert to its pre-exposure state. While there is no consensus as to whether mold causes permanent bodily injury, scientific studies are currently addressing this issue. Until the results from these studies are conclusive, it is unclear whether mold-related bodily injury claims will reach the number of asbestos bodily injury claims.
Cases in state courts are sprouting up as quickly as the spread of mold itself. For example in approximately the last 24 months there have been numerous school closures in Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington due to mold contamination. In Martin County, Florida, a construction company is facing a $11,550,000 jury verdict for construction defects that caused mold growth on 60-65% of the exterior surface of a building. Farmer’s Insurance Group was hit with a $32.2 million jury verdict for not handling a mold claim properly. In Oakland, California, 130 residents of a housing project received a $1,300,000 settlement of a mold contamination claim. Additionally, in 2000, 300 New York City tenants of an apartment complex filed a lawsuit seeking damages in excess of $10 billion for personal injury and property damage arising from mold and fungi exposure.
According to EPA statistics, mold has affected approximately 10-25 million workers and 800,000-1.1 million buildings. The costs to remediate mold related property damage is enormous. According to a recent report from the Independent Insurance Agents of America, the cost to clean up a mold-contaminated commercial building normally exceeds $300,000. State Farm reports that the average cost to clean up a mold-contaminated home is $50,000. Who will bear the financial burden of these mold claims? In order to answer this question, it is important to understand the cause of mold.
Simply put, without the presence of water, mold will not exist. For mold to exist and grow, it requires water, a food source—any type of building material, time and bearable temperatures. Therefore, the focus of mold claimants will be determining how water entered a particular building, and whether such entry was caused by negligent design/construction or by a defective building product. Accordingly, the companies that will bear the financial burden of mold claims will likely be owners, designers, or constructors of buildings (including landlords, commercial real estate developers, architectural and engineering firms, construction companies, landscapers, etc.), and manufacturers of building-related products, such as windows, doors, roofing materials, carpet, ceiling tiles, cellulose and fiberglass insulation, wallboard (drywall and gypsum board), paints, sealants, etc.
Read more for a discussion of related insurance coverage issues . . .
Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Agent Orange Suits Still Viable, 2nd Circuit Says
New plaintiffs can't be held to 1984 settlement, appeals court rules
Bob Van Voris -- The National Law Journal -- December 12, 2001
Seventeen years after a class action settlement intended to end lawsuits over Agent Orange, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that two Vietnam veterans may sue companies that made the herbicide. The decision allows the vets, who developed cancer after the Agent Orange settlement wound down at the end of 1994, to pursue cases against more than a dozen chemical companies, including Dow Chemical Co.
Read more . . .
Sunday, December 09, 2001
Baxter International Expecting Kidney Dialysis Suits Over Perfluorohydrocarbon
Lawyers scouring globe to find more filter victims
Crains ChicagoBusiness -- Tue Nov 27 11:04:00 EST 2001 -- Sarah A. Klein
The lawyers are circling Baxter International Inc. Since the Deerfield-based medical products supplier announced that its kidney dialysis filters were the probable cause of a spate of deaths around the world, U.S. trial lawyers have been hunting for clients whose relatives were allegedly injured by Baxter, which is setting aside up to $150 million to cover damages and discontinue the product line.
It's not an easy job, since most relatives of victims of the allegedly faulty devices live overseas, don't speak English and have a limited understanding of the U.S. tort system. But that hasn't stopped enterprising lawyers from San Francisco to Minneapolis to Chicago. Law firms and associations of personal-injury lawyers have set up Web sites, some with pages translated into Croatian and Spanish, in hopes of recruiting the families of the 50-plus victims from Croatia, Spain, Taiwan, Germany and Italy.
The Web sites and a lawsuit filed in Chicago in mid-November have drawn equal interest from American dialysis patients who are concerned that they may have been exposed to the filters with residue of a potentially toxic processing fluid used to test for leaks in filters. The chemical, perfluorohydrocarbon, has a very low boiling point, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists theorize that it is heated by the bloodstream, sending deadly gas bubbles into the body.
[Note: Last month, Reuters (Tuesday November 13 5:17 PM ET, Faulty Dialyzer Maker Hit with First Lawsuit, By Julie Steenhuysen) reported the first U.S. lawsuit against Baxter and Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., on behalf of patients with kidney diseases treated with what the Kenneth B. Moll & Associates Ltd. law firm called ''potentially deadly'' dialysis products. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation for those injured and those that died from Baxter's dialyzers. The law firm said 56 people have died following use of the filters, including 23 deaths in Croatia, 15 deaths in Spain, 7 deaths in Taiwan, 5 deaths in Germany, 4 patients in the United states and 2 patients in Colombia. According to published reports, a total of 23 people died in Croatia, but two deaths were found not to have been linked with the equipment. A judge must rule on whether cases can be consolidated and receive class-action status. If certified, Moll believes the class may include up to 900,000 plaintiffs. According to the suit, Baxter manufactured 3 million dialyzers in 2000. Of those, the law firm estimates 30%, or about 900,000, were part of Baxter's recall.]
Read more . . .
Jury awards Ohio man $3.5 million in case against North American Refractories
Pittsburgh Business Times -- Dec 8 2001 3:39PM ET
A jury in Cleveland said Friday that Braddock-based North American Refractories Co. must pay $3.5 million to the family of a Hamilton, Ohio, man who died from mesothelioma -- an asbestos-related cancer. The jury awarded the family of Robert Robinson $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, according to Baron & Budd PC, the Texas-based law firm that represented the family.
Mr. Robinson worked as a rigger at the ARMCO Steel plant in Hamilton, where over the course of nine years he came into contact with several North American Refractories products that contained asbestos fibers. In November 1995, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a disease caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. He died two years later at the age of 49.
Cintas names general counsel
Cincinnati Business Courier -- Dec 7 2001 9:21AM ET
Thomas Frooman has been named vice president, secretary and general counsel for Cintas Corp. Frooman, 34, joins the company from the law firm Keating, Meuthing & Klekamp, where he was a partner and worked with clients to create corporate organizational documents, employment agreements and benefit programs. At Cintas, he will oversee all legal matters, including administrative issues and real estate transactions, as well as help the company develop policies. Mason-based Cintas is a manufacturer of uniforms and corporate identity products.
Ex-cruise line doctor sues over ship asbestos
John Pacenti -- Palm Beach Post Staff Writer -- Friday, December 7, 2001
A former physician for the Palm Beach Princess filed lawsuit Thursday saying the company that runs the gambling ship didn't tell passengers and crew about asbestos danger during renovations four years ago.
Mladen Pavic, who is back practicing medicine in his native Croatia, wants the company that operates the ship -- Palm Beach Casino Line -- to pay for lung X-rays and examinations of up to 80,000 passengers and crew.
Read more . . .
SpeechWorks Lands Lawyer
boston.internet.com Staff
SpeechWorks International (NASDAQ:SPWX), a Boston speech recognition and text-to-speech (TTS) software maker, has named Doron Gorshein vice president and general counsel.
Gorshein comes from EchoStar, a satellite communications company with sales of $2.7 billion (2000). There, he managed a variety of transactions including distribution contracts, preferred stock and other investments in technology companies, purchase of assets, and technology cooperation deals.
Prior to EchoStar, Gorshein held vice president and general counsel, legal advisor and director positions at Voxware, ECI Telecom and Turner Broadcasting.
Saturday, December 08, 2001
New York Law Firms and Resident Offices Dominate U.S. Legal Market -- Growth Continues During 2000
Dorothy Hughes -- New York Law Journal -- December 13, 2000
Every mega-firm in the U.S. soon will have a New York City office. New York City is clearly the capital of the U.S.'s legal service market. As the highest-price end of the legal market consolidates into a few dozen mega-firms, here's what the market is looking like.
NYLJ 100: Largest Law Offices in New York State
NYLJ 100: Alphabetical Listing
Top 25 New York City-Based Firms
Top 25 Manhattan Offices of Non-New York-Based Firms
Largest Minority-Owned Law Firms
20 Largest In-House Law Departments of Tri-State Area Corporations
Additional New York Resources:
Attorney Concentration by County
Largest Jury Verdicts of 2001
Major ADR Providers
District Attorneys' Offices
U.S. Attorneys' Offices
Corporation Counsel and Attorney General
New York State Law Schools
Tobacco Executive Admits to Document Destruction and Alleges Bribery
Nancy Zuckerbrod -- The Associated Press -- December 10, 2001
A tobacco company executive said he authorized the destruction of close to one million documents that might have aided plaintiffs in their suits against cigarette manufacturers. He also alleged the industry bribed international officials, according to documents made public by a leading tobacco critic in Congress.
The documents were letters from Ron Tully to a board member of the Tobacco Documentation Centre, a British-based industry consortium for which Tully once worked.
They were made public Thursday by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., after one of his aides saw them on the Web site for Philip Morris Inc. The company posts such documents as part of the tobacco industry's 1998 legal settlement with states over the cost of tobacco-related health problems.
Read more . . .
82 Associates Take Buyout at Brobeck
Brenda Sandburg -- The Recorder -- December 10, 2001
Eighty-two associates at San Francisco-based Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison have taken the firm up on its offer of severance pay to leave their jobs. Brobeck announced last month that it would pay associates in the business and technology group a lump sum equal to their base pay through April 15 if they left the firm. The so-called "separation incentive program" was open to associates who were on target to bill less than 1,300 hours by the end of the year. The deadline for applying for the package was Friday.
Read more . . .
Friday, December 07, 2001
Are insurers gouging after Sept. 11?
Prices higher than warranted by terrorist attacks, group warns
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 — Many insurance companies are raising prices far beyond what is warranted by the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks, a consumer group said Wednesday as Congress considers helping the industry.
Read more . . .
'Why We Sued Pfizer in US'
Amebo! News (Nigeria) -- 12/5/01
"The decision to sue pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer in the U.S. over its tests of the controversial meningitis drug, Trovan, in Kano in 1996, was informed by the need to prevent the company from using its influence in high places in Nigeria to scuttle justice for the victims, a lawyer involved in the case explained.
"The lawyer, Mr. Ali Ahmad, a Nigerian based in Maryland, U.S. alleged in an interview with the North America correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend that both the Federal and Kano State governments had compromised the interest of the victims and would therefore not want the case against the drug company to continue.
'''When government is interested in a case; when government has some interest to protect; when government does not want some information to come out; when government has compromised the rights of its citizens, which it did during Pfizer's test, it would not want the case to go on,'' he said.
"The said case was filed Aug. 29 in a New York court on behalf of 52 plaintiffs representing children who suffered death and various deformities when they participated in the trial of Trovan, an experimental drug for which Pfizer was seeking marketing approval from U.S. authorities."
Read more . . .
Newark sues makers of lead paint to fund cleanup
Wednesday, December 5, 2001 -- The Associated Press
NEWARK -- The city sued the lead paint industry Tuesday, seeking millions of dollars to remove or shield lead in thousands of residences built before the product was banned because it harms children. The city says the industry knew of the danger of lead paint but misled the public for five decades before the government banned its use. "It is now time to fix responsibility on those lead paint companies that have placed profit over human life," Mayor Sharpe James said. The city accounts for nearly one-third of New Jersey children with elevated blood levels of lead. About half its housing units were built before 1950, before lead content was reduced in paint.
A consultant for three of the paint companies, The Glidden Co., NL Industries Inc., and The Sherwin-Williams Co., said the industry "shouldn't bear the sole responsibility" for preventing lead exposure. More than a dozen similar lawsuits are pending. The industry has prevailed in 40 cases around the nation. It maintains that the suits are meritless grabs at its deep pockets. Among the defendants are SCM Chemicals Inc. and American Cyanamid Co., whose paint liabilities were assumed by Cytec Industries Inc. of West Paterson.
Read more . . .
VLG Slashes Salaries for Associates
Competitors say they aren't likely to follow VLG's lead
Renee Deger -- The Recorder -- December 6, 2001
Grappling with a double-digit decline in revenues, Venture Law Group has slashed base salaries for associates and will attempt to make up the slack by giving junior lawyers a greater share of the firm's profits. The Menlo Park, Calif.-based corporate boutique reduced first-year salaries to $100,000 from $125,000 and cut base pay for third-years to $115,000 from $150,000.
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Thursday, December 06, 2001
States' Anti-SLAPP Measures Meet Resistance From Business
Lobbyists stop some, but not all, legislation
Andrew Harris -- The National Law Journal -- December 6, 2001
With seven different states considering anti-SLAPP legislation this year, the movement would appear to be gathering steam. But with powerful business interests posing a stumbling block, that, in fact, may not be the case.
SLAPPs -- the acronym stands for "strategic lawsuits against public participation" -- are usually retaliatory suits aimed at muting community activists who speak out against developers, industrialists and city hall. Anti-SLAPP laws are supposed to make it easier for people defending against a SLAPP to obtain dismissal of a suit, meant to silence their opposition.
Read more . . .
Tuesday, December 04, 2001
Rates Rose at Many Firms
Steve Seidenberg -- The National Law Journal -- December 4, 2001
See National Law Journal's A Firm-By-Firm Sampling of Billing Rates Nationwide
See National Law Journal's Billing Rates: Junior to Senior Associates (and for Dec. 2002's numbers)
Despite the weakening economy, law firm billing rates continue to rise, according to data gathered as part of The National Law Journal's 2001 survey of the nation's 250 largest law firms. The rate increases, however, appear to be generally a bit lower than last year's. At the high end, 14 firms have reached the level of billing at the rate of $600 per hour or higher:
- Bracewell & Patterson (Houston)
- Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer (Boston)
- Cooley Godward (Palo Alto)
- Dow Lohnes & Albertson (DC)
- Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich (Palo Alto)
- Greenberg Traurig
- Hughes Hubbard & Reed (NY)
- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (LA)
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough (South Carolina) (highest billing rate is $750)
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (SF)
- Patton Boggs (DC)
- Steel Hector & Davis (Miami)
- Strasburger & Price (Dallas)
- Venable (Baltimore)
Of the 60 firms that reported on alternative billing methods, only 12 indicated that more than 15 percent of their revenues were obtained through such methods. Most of the firms that provided information on alternative methods listed the usual ones: blended rates, contingency fees, fixed fees or some combination of these methods.
The lack of any significant increase in the use of alternative billing methods results from business changes in 2001, according to Hildebrandt's Altonji. There is less corporate work, which is amenable to alternative fees, and more litigation and bankruptcy work, which is normally handled on an hourly basis. "The overall mix of work is more in the realm of hourly charges," he said.
Venable (Baltimore) bucked the trend. Its percentage of revenue from alternative billing has shot up, from 17 percent in 2000 to 33 percent in 2001. How has the firm managed this? By developing an extremely close working relationship with a dozen or so big clients, according to Venable's Shea. He said that in these relationships, "the use of alternative billing techniques is much more easily worked out." If one of these clients wants something handled as a fixed fee or a capped fee, he stated, the law firm can make up lost profits on other business from the client, either on an hourly fee basis or in a contingency fee where the firm gets more than its hourly rate.
Are Hourly Rates Going to Rise?: Yes
Overall, law firms appear likely to rein in their rate increases in the coming year, said Altonji. "I'm expecting the rate of pay increases to really slow significantly," he said. "I anticipate the rate increases will be modest -- in some cases, very modest."
"We're not planning an across-the-board or sweeping rate increase for 2002," said Venable's Shea. "But there will be selective places where we'll come closer to market rates."
"We hope to raise rates modestly in 2002," said Dukes of Nelson Mullins. "The primary reason for that is that statistically our rates are generally below the rates for the benchmark firms that we compete with. "Our increases will be at [the same rate] or less than in prior years, but ... because we're still below-market, we still have room to move."
See National Law Journal's A Firm-By-Firm Sampling of Billing Rates Nationwide
See National Law Journal's Billing Rates: Junior to Senior Associates
Alternative Billing Arrangements:
Sixty firms provided information about the alternative billing methods they use most often (sample below -- the percentages estimate portions of the firms' revenues obtained through such methods).
- Andrews & Kurth: 10% -- fixed rate or capped fees by matters or contingency, value/incentive billing
- Bracewell & Patterson: 5% -- contingency fee, fixed fee
- Bryan Cave: 5% to 10% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee
- Cooley Godward: 3% -- negotiated fixed fees for certain transactions
- Cozen O'Connor: 30% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee, performance-based billing
- Cummings & Lockwood: 25% -- contingency fee, flat fee
- Harris Beach: 10% -- contingency fee, reverse contingency fee, other results-oriented methods
- Holland & Knight: 20% -- blended rate; contingency fee, fixed fee
- Locke Liddell & Sapp: 15% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee, volume-based discount
- Loeb & Loeb: 5% to 10% -- fixed fee, percentage of clients' earnings
- Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman & Goggin: 10% -- contract fee arrangements
- Merchant & Gould: 1 to 3% -- contingency fee
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough: 15% -- contingency fee, fixed fee, fee for service
- Nossaman, Guthner, Knox & Elliott: 5% -- blended rate, contingency fee, flat fee
- Phelps Dunbar: 5% -- annual fixed fee, blended rate, contingency fee
- Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy: 10% to 20% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee
- Saul Ewing: 20% -- fixed fee
- Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis: 2.5% -- flat fee
- Smith, Gambrell & Russell: 1% -- contingency fee
- Stites & Harbison: 10% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee
- Thacher Proffitt & Wood: 30% -- fee cap, fixed fee
- Venable: 33% -- blended rate, contingency fee, fixed fee, matter or activity based discount, value/incentive billing, volume discount, other methods
- Winstead Sechrest & Minick: 2% to 3% -- contingency fee, fixed fee
Oldies but Goodies -- AmLaw 100 Results of Calendar Year 2000:
America's Highest-Grossing Law Firms in 2000
Gross Revenue By Location
Revenue per Lawyer by Location
Profits per Partner by Location
Compensation per Partner by Location
Relative Profitability of Top 100 Firms
Pro Bono
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