Fee Dispute Hotline
(312) 907-7275

Assisting with High-Stakes Attorney Fee Disputes

The NALFA

News Blog

Law Firms Seek Unpaid Legal Fees

April 8, 2016 | Posted in : Ethics & Professional Responsibility, Fee Agreement, Fee Collection, Fee Dispute, Fee Dispute Litigation / ADR, Unpaid Fees

A recent Bloomberg BNA story, “Big Law Docket Scanner: Firms Do Battle Over Unpaid Fees” reports that some law firms use courts to collect unpaid legal fees.  Below is a list of large law firms that have appeared in litigation as a plaintiff or defendant from March 29 to April 7, according to docket searches on Bloomberg Law.  The search scanned AmLaw 100 firm names as either plaintiffs or defendants in federal, state and international courts.   Here are a few:

Shearman & Sterling filed a complaint against Safka Holdings, LLC on March 30 in the New York Supreme Court seeking payment for legal services performed in the amount of $25,645.65.

Shen Zen New World Investment brought a suit against Holland & Knight and partner Lynn Cadwalader in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 30.  The suit focuses on Lynn Cadwalader’s time as Co-Chair of Holland & Knight’s Global Hospitality, Resort and Timeshare practice.  The suit alleges legal malpractice during Holland & Knight’s representation of Plaintiff’s failed bid to convert a hotel they had purchased from a Marriott branded hotel to a Hyatt.  The dispute surrounds pending arbitration between the Plaintiff and Hyatt and involves a conflict of interest allegation due to lead partner Lynn Cadwalader’s subsequent representation of Hyatt and her recent move to DLA Piper, who is currently representing Hyatt against the Plaintiff in the pending arbitration.  Plaintiff seek damages to be proven at trial but claim losses between $10 million and $104 million.

Blank Rome accuses defendants Princes Point, LLC, Lawrence Bresnock, Albert Bresnick and Cohen Group JS, LLC of failure to pay $2.2 million in legal fees.  The complaint was filed on March 30 in the New York Supreme Court and involves services in a case in the same court: Princes Point LLC V. AKRF Engineering, P.C., et al., Index No. 601849/2008

Center Lane Partners and other lenders representing the bankruptcy estate of Debtor Evergreen International Aviation, Inc. brought a legal malpractice and disgorgement of legal fees action against Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom in a complaint filed in the New York Supreme Court on March 31.  The suit alleges the diversion of assets to insiders at the expense of the Debtor, claiming that Skadden benefited from conflicting representation of Evergreen International Aviation and its founder and former owner, Delford Smith, a Portland, Oregon based entrepreneur.  The Plaintiff lenders claim losses of $19.8 million.

Akin Gump filed a notice of removal on April 4 to move a state court action in Bexar County, TX to the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas, where the plaintiffs in the original state action filed for bankruptcy.  Those plaintiffs, Advanced Bio Prosthetic Surfaces, Ltd., ABPS Venture One, Ltd., ABPS Management, LLC and Palmaz Scientific. Inc., allege a breach of fiduciary duty when Akin Gump represented the plaintiffs to form the entities intended to create medical advancements based on the work of Dr. Palmaz, inventor of the first commercially available intravascular stent.  The original complaint alleges that Akin, Gump structured a license agreement that ensured financial benefit to itself while denying benefit to Plaintiffs and further alleges that while the firm Baker Botts had learned that that Akin Gump was responsible for damages, it failed to communicate it.  Baker Botts is also named in the original action which claims damages over $10 million.

Area 55 and SAB Holdings filed a complaint on April 1 against Morrison & Foerster and partner Eric Acker in the San Diego Superior Court.  The complaint alleges legal malpractice, stating that Morrison & Foerster failed to present a basic defense in a class action case.  The complaint asserts that “that the sole putative class plaintiff did not even own the claims he was suing on because he had ditched them in his bankruptcy”.  Plaintiffs are seeking $1.1 million in damages.