A recent Law 360 story by Hailey Konnath, “Jones Day Says Pharma Client Owes $5.3M in Legal Bills,” reports that Jones Day sued a pharmaceutical company in New York state court, claiming the former client has refused to pay nearly $5.3 million in legal bills it racked up while the firm defended it in two patent disputes.  According to the complaint, Serenity Pharmaceuticals LLC researches and develops patented pharmaceuticals to address urinary conditions.  The company tapped Jones Day to represent it and several affiliated companies in a pair of patent lawsuits over antidiuretic products in 2017, the firm said.

Jones Day "zealously represented" the company in both suits, dedicating nearly a dozen attorneys and staff and spending more than 15,000 hours working the cases, the firm said.  And up until December 2018, Serenity paid its bills in full, it said.  But starting that month, the company stopped paying, and now it owes nearly $5.3 million in fees and costs, according to the complaint.

"Serenity has never disputed that it owes this sum in full," Jones Day said. "Because Serenity still has not paid what it owes, Serenity is in breach of the engagement agreement and Jones Day now brings this action."  Serenity confirmed Jones Day's billing arrangement, including its attorneys' hourly rates, in an engagement agreement dated July 2017, the firm said. 

Following the agreement, Jones Day represented Serenity through "complex fact and expert discovery and extensive motion practice," including the successful defense of two summary judgment motions, the filing of a motion to dismiss, a preliminary injunction hearing, a bench trial, post-trial briefings and appellate proceedings, the firm said.

"Defendants often praised Jones Day for its work related to the representation," the complaint said.  And throughout its representation, the firm regularly sent detailed billing statements to Serenity and its CEO, Dr. Samuel Herschkowitz, Jones Day said.  On top of not paying Jones Day, Serenity owes third-party service providers — including experts, a trial graphics vendor, a document management vendor and court reporters — almost $468,000, the firm said.

Jones Day said it spent six months meeting, emailing and speaking on the phone with the company, trying to reach an agreement regarding payment.  But over the course of those meetings, emails and phone calls, "Serenity declined to provide payment for the overdue Jones Day legal fees," it said.  The firm said it asked to withdraw from one of the cases, but was told such a move would be impractical given a trial that began in July.  Since then, the firm continued its "uninterrupted representation," though it informed the company it would not be representing it in an upcoming appeal, per the complaint.