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Former Client Fights Law Firm’s $1.9M Attorney Fee Lien

May 3, 2022 | Posted in : Attorney-Client Relationship, Fee Dispute, Fee Entitlement / Recoverability, Fee Jurisprudence, Fee Lien, Fees & Withdrawing / Terminated, Fees in Escrow, FRCP, Practice Area: IP Litigation, Settlement Data / Terms, USPTO

A recent Law 360 story by Matthew Santoni, “Ex-Client Fights Buchanan Ingersoll’s $1.9M Fee Lien” reports that a former client of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC has said the firm isn't entitled to $1.9 million from a settlement in a patent dispute, but it offered to put a smaller amount aside while the parties litigate whether the firm overcharged for its work.  Best Medical International Inc. opposed Buchanan Ingersoll's motion for an attorney's lien on its settlement with Varian Medical Systems Inc., arguing in a brief to a Pennsylvania federal court that its former firm wasn't as instrumental as it claimed in securing the settlement and couldn't seek fees for the work while the reasonableness of those fees was at the heart of the current lawsuit.

"BIR has produced no evidence whatsoever that any settlement discussions began because of the quality of or the quantity of BIR's work," Best's reply brief said.  "Settlement discussions which resulted in an actual settlement did not result until after a substantial amount of additional work was done by other law firms once BIR withdrew from, or were substituted as to, representation of BMI in the Varian case."  Best urged the federal court to deny Buchanan Ingersoll's motion to enforce the $1.9 million lien and offered to put $700,000 in escrow with the court "as a good faith gesture, and without admitting liability in any amount."

Best had sued Buchanan Ingersoll in July 2020, alleging the Pittsburgh-based firm had overcharged for representing the medical device maker in a pair of patent disputes, including the fight with Varian.  Best broke off its relationship with Buchanan Ingersoll in March 2020.  Best and Varian announced a settlement in Delaware federal court April 18, and Buchanan Ingersoll filed a motion with the Pennsylvania court to enforce a lien on the settlement proceeds April 26, expressing concern that its former client would spend or otherwise dispose of the funds before the firm could claim its share.

Although the law firm claimed its engagement contract with Best included a clause saying it would be governed by Virginia law, Best argued that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding liens superseded the choice of law provision and that the law of the state where the lien was brought should apply.  And under Pennsylvania law, Best claimed that Buchanan Ingersoll had failed to make the necessary showing that its work contributed substantially to the settlement it sought the lien against.

Buchanan Ingersoll said it did most of the work on the Varian case in Delaware and on six "inter partes review" challenges that Varian had filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  But Best countered that more was done by the successor law firms, including a "substantial amount of discovery, the taking and defending of depositions, significant briefing and oral argument before the USPTO … and appeals of the IPR final decisions to and currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit."

"It is this substantial work by others, not BIR, that ultimately led to the Varian case settlement more than two years after BIR's representation was terminated," Best's reply said.  Even if the court agreed with Buchanan Ingersoll that Virginia law applied, the firm had not given all parties to the settlement — including Varian — that state's required notice that a lien might be applied to the settlement proceeds, Best said.

Moreover, Best said that Virginia law required Buchanan Ingersoll to show that the fees it sought to recover were reasonable, and the current lawsuit contended that they were not.  Best cited the Virginia Supreme Court's 1997 ruling in Seyfarth Shaw Fairweather & Geraldson v. Lake Fairfax Seven Limited Partnership to support its argument.

"Similar to issues in the instant case, the issues in Seyfarth involved the law firm expending an unreasonable amount of time in the performance of legal services and, therefore, the total amount of legal fees charged was unreasonable," Best's reply said.  "Any fees recoverable must be reasonable and … the party claiming legal fees has the burden of proving prima facie that the fees are reasonable and necessary.  Clearly, BIR has not met its burden of proof, nor has there been any adjudication, that the fees in dispute allegedly owed BIR were reasonable and necessary."