Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Spotlight on Network's Teresa Bartosiak
Bartosiak One of Ten Up and Comers
Ann Corrigan
Missouri Lawyer's Weekly
8/30/04
National counsel for Thermadyne, administration and marketing her focus.
Bartosiak Article.pdf
Monday, August 30, 2004
Defense Verdict in Medical Malpractice Case
Keith Phoenix and Joe Callahan of Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard P.C. received a defense verdict recently in a medical malpractice case filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri against St. Louis University and a doctor.
Plaintiff claimed he contracted an infection of the right knee during a hospitalization in January, 2001. He alleged the infection was not diagnosed and properly treated, which led to an above-the-knee amputation in September 2001. Plaintiff's wife also filed a loss of consortium claim.
Plaintiffs were seeking approximately $4 million in damages comprised of past economic damages of $133,000, past non-economic damages of $1 million, future medical damages of $308,000, future economic damages of $1.8 million, future non-economic damages of $1 million and $500,000 on plaintiff's wife's loss of consortium claim.
It was the position of the defendants that the plaintiff did not have an infection but, instead, was suffering the effects of a bone graft rejection. It was also the position of the defendants that had there been an infection, it was properly treated by antibiotics. The defendants also pointed to the fact that the plaintiff had had a number of knee operations during his life, all of which contributed to an unstable knee and eventually necessitated an amputation.
The trial lasted two and a half weeks and the jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of defendants.
Keith Phoenix Obtains Summary Judgment in Product Liability Case Against Plate Manufacturer
Keith Phoenix of St. Louis member firm Sandberg, Phoenix & von Gontard, P.C. recently obtained summary judgment on behalf of Synthes, a leading international medical device company specializing in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of instruments and implants for the surgical treatment of bones.
Plaintiff, a middle-aged nurse who had complained of pain and numbness in her neck, right shoulder, arm, and hand, received a Synthes plate in March 2000 in order to fuse the C6 and C7 vertebrae. Although she made progress initially, by September 2000 the vertebrae had failed to fuse and the plate cracked. Her doctor performed a second surgery during which he removed the broken plate and inserted a new one.
In her complaint, which included theories of strict liability, negligence, and res ipsa loquitur, plaintiff alleged the breakage of the plate permitted motion and movement of the spinous processes, causing her pain and discomfort and putting her at risk for permanent paralysis. She named two experts: her treating physician and her employer who testified regarding her work performance before and after the second surgery. She also attempted to name a third expert, a metallurgist, but failed to comply with Illinois' stringent disclosure requirements regarding experts, which mandate that parties detail each expert's opinions, conclusions, and the bases underlying them.
In its motion for summary judgment, Synthes highlighted the testimony of plaintiff's own treating physician/expert, who acknowledged devices such as the Synthes plate are designed to hold things in place until healing occurs, and that if healing is delayed or does not occur, the implant may fail, no matter how big or strong the device. He also testified breakage can be caused by a variety of conditions particular to each patient, and that each of these facts has been known and well accepted in the scientific community for years.
Synthes also emphasized plaintiff had failed to offer competent evidence supporting her allegations the plate was defective or unreasonably dangerous. Plaintiff's metallurgist was not properly disclosed; moreover, a letter he had written to plaintiff's counsel, as well as a subsequent letter plaintiff's counsel had written to defense counsel, showed that the metallurgist had conducted no testing and had formed no opinions about the plate. Although plaintiff relied upon an interrogatory answer to suggest her expert would have opinions regarding certain subjects, the interrogatories were not verified and did not indicate what opinions, if any, the metallurgist would have regarding causation.
Plaintiff took the position Synthes was on notice of the metallurgist's involvement in the case, and the case should be allowed to proceed to trial. The court disagreed, ruling from the bench in favor of Synthes on the day of the hearing.
There were no demands, offers, or settlement discussions during the litigation.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Survey Says General Counsel More Concerned About Justifying Their Own Value Than Keeping Costs Under Control
Justifying value of in-house counsel tops the list. Budget concerns at bottom
Legal Week
Legal Director
8/26/2004
Tricks of Info Theft Prevention
Technology is often not enough; employee monitoring is also needed
Michael R. Levinson and Patrick E. Zeller
The National Law Journal
08-26-2004
According to the 2002 Computer Security Institute/FBI Computer and Security Survey, available at the Computer Security Institute, www.gocsi.com, the theft of proprietary information totaled $170,827,000 for only 26 companies. Even more startling is the 2002 survey by the American Society of Industrial Security (ASIS) of Fortune 1,000 corporations and 600 small to midsized U.S. companies, which reported the theft of proprietary information and intellectual property losses at between $53 billion and $59 billion annually. See www.asisonline.org. The ASIS reported that the greatest threat to proprietary information and intellectual property is the trusted insider: in other words, current and former employees, contractors, consultants and temporary employees.
Metadata a Major Factor in E-Discovery
Samantha L. Miller
The National Law Journal
08-26-2004
Article discusses importance of metadata (those pesky, hard to shake bits of information attached to MS-Word, e-mail and other electronic documents) that reveal past drafts, hidden (blind) cc's, and other information.
Best Law Firm Website Designs
James Tuke, Legal Week
8/26/2004
Legal Week (a British legal trade magazine) discusses the "best" law firm websites based on a survey by Legal IT.
Freshfields' website (http://www.freshfields.com/) (voted no.1 in a survey by Legal IT measuring content, usability and design) is simple, clean, and easy to navigate. It really is a good design.
Beachcroft Wansbroughs (no. 2) goes in a different direction, with flash animation, a scroll, more glitz (http://www.bwlaw.co.uk/).
Herbert Smith (no. 3) is a compromise. See http://www.herbertsmith.com/.
Notice the use of color on all three. All use lots of white space (as background) and one or more shades of blue (found to be easiest on the eyes, like the sky; most appealling).
Also, the survey mentions other factors such as navigability, printability, and search engine friendliness.
Crisis Management for In-House Counsel
Richard Levick
Legal Director, 8/26/2004
Article by president of Levick Strategic Communications (Washington, DC) counsel that the response to early warning signs of a crisis is twofold: assemble a crisis team and consider alternative courses of action.
The team must include accounting, legal and communications experts. The plan should include a template to determine, among other things:
. a sense of the cost of doing nothing;
. a tracking of developments and evaluation of new factors;
. who the spokesperson(s) is to be;
. articulation of the message;
. informational resources, including websites, that can be marshalled;
. third-party supporters who can be recruited; and
. a logistical schedule for regular meetings and seamless company-wide communications.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Top Tips for Working the Room
By Jeffrey M. Horn
Principal & Co-Leader, Brand Consulting Initiative
Towers Perrin, New York
12/16/03
Law Firm Tag Lines
100 of the "Best" from LawMarketing.com
Here is a list of more than 100 law firm tag lines, many of which were supplied to lawmarketing.com by marketing directors nationwide.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Philadelphia Law Firms Bumping Up First-Year Salaries to $110K-$125K+
Jeff Blumenthal
The Legal Intelligencer
08-20-2004
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Leading New Mexico Plaintiff Attorney "Never Whupped so Bad" As by Network Attorney Billy Gunn
By Scott Sandlin
Journal Staff Writer
Albuquerque Journal, Aug. 5, 2004
The Albuquerque Journal reports that a federal jury awarded an injured volunteer firefighter a paper verdict of $8.75 million after two weeks of trial but because of the way jurors apportioned blame in the complex case, the plaintiff will recover only 17 percent of the $1.53 million judgment after attorney fees and litigation costs.
The defendant, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., manufactured a pumper truck that became mobile without a driver during a response to a fire and pinned plaintiff against a post.
A second defendant reached a confidential settlement with the plaintiff during trial.
The Albuquerque Journal reported that the longtime New Mexico trial attorney who represented the plaintiff said of the verdict, "I haven't been whupped this bad in all my years of practice".
Atlanta defense attorney and Network firm member Earl "Billy" Gunn, defended Northrop Grumman.
Workers' compensation insurance paid about $1 million in medical costs. Plaintiff sought $10 million, based on future needs and lost earnings, plus punitive damages.
Plaintiff's attorneys hoped to be able to purchase a van, a home that would better accommodate plaintiff's situation and money to pay an estimated $135,000 a year for medical care.
Plaintiff's attorneys called engineers to make a case that a defective design on the truck permitted it to shift unexpectedly when the pump was activated.
The design was called into question in the mid-1980s by the manufacturer's own engineers. But design changes were never made because, the defense said, the company hadn't had any problems with it.
Jurors decided Grumman was negligent, but in apportioning fault they assigned 17.5 percent of the blame to Grumman and 82.5 percent to the Fire Department, which couldn't be sued under state law.
Saturday, August 07, 2004
Corr Cronin Accounts for 5 of Washington's Super Lawyers
Once again, Network attorneys and founding members Kelly Corr and Bill Cronin have been selected by Law & Politics Media, Inc., publishers of Law & Politics Magazine. The list of Super Lawyers® 2004 is based on surveys of more than 20,000 lawyers across Washington and is limited to the top 5% of the Washington bar. Guy Michelson, Josh Preece and the firm's newest partner, Paul Raskin, were also named to the list of Washington's top lawyers this year.
Both Kelly Corr and Bill Cronin were voted among the top 100 lawyers statewide and Kelly was voted among the top 10 in any practice area for the state.
GCs Want More Attention From Outside Litigation Counsel
Adrienne Sanders
The Recorder
08-06-2004
GCs are willing to pay a premium for the right outside counsel, but they want plenty of attention for their buck.
Those were among the findings of a survey conducted by a Houston-based law firm that surveyed 300 general counsel from 41 states on U.S. litigation trends.
When seeking outside litigation help, just over a third of GCs said their top priority was specific case experience, and another third said general competence was key. Only 6 percent said they were concerned most about cost-effectiveness when choosing a firm. In other words, they're not bargain-hunting.
A scant 2 percent ranked service and responsiveness as the primary factor in deciding their beauty contests. Once they crown a winner, however, clients want that firm to stick around.
Nearly half of the respondents said they were most troubled by their litigation counsel's lack of communication, and 37 percent cited a lack of responsiveness.
To reduce or control costs, just over half of the GCs said they were turning to a regional or national firm to handle all of their litigation of a certain type.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
The Network of Trial Law Firms is #1 on Google
In-house counsel searching for "trial firms" on Google will have over 2 million choices from which to select, and over a million for "trial law firms". But in both cases, first on those Google lists as of today are the 26 member firms of The Network of Trial Law Firms and the trademarked web site domain name, TRIAL.COM.
And, thanks to the overwhelming popularity of our "Litigation Management in a New York Minute" and "Securities Arbitration and Litigation" CLE programs, TRIAL.COM is also listed first on Google for searched phrases like "Litigation Management CLE" (first among 106,000 choices) and "Securities Arbitration CLE" (first among 56,000 choices).
The Network's TRIAL.COM website has been in existence since 1995 and is about to unveil its fourth major makeover, making the website even easier for in-house counsel to find information about the 26 member firms and their upcoming Litigation Management SuperCourse CLE programs. Soon after the launch of the new look (slated for August, 2004) the site will offer online CLE to in-house counsel through streaming video and PowerPoint presentations converted to web-friendly Flash animation.
All of our website work is done in-house and we are very happy with the visibility that our website has acheived. The Network spends no money on advertising its website, uses no search engine tricks (e.g., meta tags, invisible print, etc.). Our #1 listing position results, we believe, from our "dead-on accurate" content, continually updated material and actual hits which translate into traffic and hits on member law firm websites.
