Ethics Breach Means Law Firm Disgorges Fees

You have to love it. An insurance defense law firm has been ordered to give up millions of dollars in fees that were paid to it. The problem? The firm assisted one client to set up a competing business. Of course, that was against the interests of another client.

But to make matters worse, the law firm breached its duty to an exiting client by "participating in a scheme to transfer policyholders to another insurer."

All in all, the law firm had to forfeit all the legal fees that it received from the original client, placed at $3.4 million.

I cannot help but wonder what partner gave his/her OK for the above activities!

Milberg Weiss Indictment

As reported in the Federalist Society's recent publication, Class Action Watch, a
major law firm that specializes in class actions is in a heap of trouble. It seems likely that this law firm actually PAID plaintiffs to be plaintiffs. Nope, more than that, only the lead plaintiffs got paid (by the law firm) to be plaintiffs.

One guy, a plaintiff in more than 50 class action suits, Seymour M. Lazar was indicted for receiving more than $2.4 million in payments for more than twenty-five years.

The charges against the law firm partners? racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud, money laundering, filing false tax returns and obstruction of justice.

The law firm in question responded to the indictment.

Of course, this is a slightly old story, but see the indictment here.

At least the Ohio Attorney General fired this same law firm because he thought the firm's indictment "severely compromised" its representation of clients.