Tort Law

Longtime Colleagues Split PI Firm Known for Robert Vaughn Ads

Two longtime colleagues in a well-known North Carolina personal injury firm are parting ways, splitting up their Lewis & Daggett partnership. The firm is known for television advertising that features actor Robert Vaughn. Michael Lewis, a 40-year practitioner, is forming Lewis & Associates with 36 of the Winston-Salem firm’s attorneys…

Jan 22, 2010 5:53 PM CST

Attorney with Big Ad Budget Can Open Law Office LLC in 49th State, Court Says

In a ruling that is sure to disappoint competing firms that sought to block a national attorney known for his blockbuster advertising budget from establishing a local foothold, the Rhode Island Supreme Court today ruled that James Sokolove can form a law firm limited liability corporation there. It will be…

Jan 22, 2010 12:54 AM CST

Drinker Biddle Wins $1.78M Bill Battle; Firm Clocked 5,225 Hours in 3 Months

Drinker Biddle & Reath has won a $1.78 million award from a Pennsylvania state-court jury in a hard-fought legal bill battle that bared ordinarily confidential fee details in a bet-the-company patent litigation case. It all began in 2006, when AgriZap Inc. retained the Philadelphia-based firm to handle a patent dispute…

Jan 21, 2010 11:14 PM CST

Ex-Client Sues Law Firm, Says Sex Trial Statements Cost Him $21.5M

Once a high-flying real estate mogul in South Dakota, Doug Hamilton says he lost his entire net worth of over $21.5 million as a result of adverse testimony and arguments by a former employee and her counsel at his sexual harassment trial. Now he is trying to regain at least…

Jan 21, 2010 6:08 PM CST

Liberal Law Prof Thrills Conservatives with Claim of Class Action ‘Pathologies’

A respected senior academic known for his groundbreaking theory, while still a third-year law student at Harvard University in 1970, that the constitution protects corporate speech is making another novel argument. And, ironically, the argument by Martin Redish, a longtime Northwestern University law professor whose personal political leanings are liberal,…

Jan 21, 2010 12:06 AM CST

Ads by Personal Injury Law Firm Poke Fun at Faked Injuries

A personal injury law firm in New York is differentiating itself with TV ads that poke fun at plaintiffs who fake and overstate their injuries. One ad for Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman begins with a woman sitting at a kitchen table describing her pain, the New York Times reports. “The…

Jan 20, 2010 2:18 PM CST

Tenn. High Court’s Divorce Ruling Costs Class Action Lawyer $6.8M

Tennessee class action lawyer Gordon Ball will have to give his former spouse an extra $6.8 million because of a ruling by the Tennessee Supreme Court on the division of property acquired after a divorce filing. Ball was awarded a $17 million fee after his wife, Marn Suzanne Larsen-Ball, filed…

Jan 20, 2010 1:57 PM CST

Uncomfortable About Blowing Own Horn, Lawyer Talks About Electric Car in TV Ad

Uncomfortable about directly seeking clients for his auto accident practice, a South Carolina attorney and admitted car buff urges viewers to promote electric-powered vehicles on a television ad. “I think it’s awful when lawyers go on there begging for someone to have a crash,” Gary Ling tells the Post and…

Jan 20, 2010 12:41 AM CST

Unswayed By ‘Tiger Woods’ Defense, Judge OKs Charges in Letterman Extortion Case

Unpersuaded by a defense argument that a television producer accused of attempting to extort money from David Letterman should be treated just like women who received seven-figure payoffs from golfer Tiger Woods, a New York judge has OK’d the continued prosecution of Robert “Joe” Halderman. In a bid to get…

Jan 19, 2010 6:35 PM CST

Orrick Lawyer Demands Takedown of $100K Blog Bounty Offer for Info on Apple Computer

An attorney for Apple reportedly sent a takedown demand to a tech industry gossip site, contending that Valleywag’s offer of up to $100,000 in bounty for information about his client’s much-anticipated tablet computer amounts to illegal encouragement to steal trade secrets. In a contest announced earlier this week, the Gawker…

Jan 15, 2010 7:43 PM CST

Ex-Client Sues Debevoise for $55M re ‘Variety of Chimera & Boondoggles’

It’s a truism that a law firm that sues a client to collect an unpaid bill is almost asking for a malpractice claim. And a $6 million unpaid-bill suit filed by Debevoise & Plimpton last year against a former client is not the exception that proves the rule. In an…

Jan 14, 2010 7:03 PM CST

China Cyber-Attack May Have Targeted Law Firm & Other Companies, Too

A Los Angeles law firm representing a software maker in a federal-court piracy case against the Chinese government may have been targeted in an apparent China-based cyber-attack that led Google Inc. to threaten this week to suspend Internet service in the Asian country. Gipson Hoffman & Pancione says in a…

Jan 14, 2010 1:43 AM CST

Sanctions Sought, But $100M RICO Claim Survives in Hard-Fought Divorce

Seeking to up the ante in a high-profile years-ago divorce case, the ex-wife of one of Wall Street’s wealthiest hedge fund managers filed a federal civil racketeering suit against him and his companies last month, contending that she had been defrauded through a scheme to conceal assets. She had gotten…

Jan 13, 2010 9:36 PM CST

Ethics Ruling Finds $2M Attorney Fee Excessive in Class Action Aiding 7 People

The founding partner of a Florida law firm violated legal ethics rules by arranging a $7 million class action settlement on behalf of seven individuals rather than all Miami taxpayers, a referee in a Florida Bar attorney disciplinary case has determined. And Henry Adorno of Adorno & Yoss also breached…

Jan 13, 2010 12:45 AM CST

Top 10 Wage-and-Hour Settlements Tally 44% More in 2009

In a trend that is expected to continue in 2010, settlements in major wage-and-hour lawsuits against corporate defendants rose 44 percent last year. The top 10 cases in 2009 racked up a total of $364 million, compared to $253 million in 2008, a law firm known for its employment defense…

Jan 12, 2010 11:12 PM CST