Law Firms
Irell & Manella Settles Malpractice Suit over Two Deleted Paragraphs
Posted Feb 12, 2009, 11:55 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A malpractice suit against Irell & Manella stemming from an associate’s contract error has settled for an undisclosed amount.
A Feb. 10 court filing disclosed the settlement but reveals no details, the National Law Journal reports. The $150 million malpractice suit was filed by Charter Communications over an alleged error that occurred as the firm was representing Charter and its chairman, Paul Allen, in a series of cable company acquisitions.
The error was apparently caused by an unnamed associate who deleted two paragraphs from a contract, causing stock that was supposed to be owned by Charter to instead be transferred to Allen, the NLJ says. He sold 70 percent of the stock back to the cable TV company for $48 million.
Irell & Manella had sought to dismiss the suit on the ground that Allen’s refusal to waive the attorney-client privilege made it impossible to defend the action. The dismissal motion was denied.