We told you the Kentucky fen-phen scandal — which we’ve been covering since 2005 — was serious. Now it’s resulted in the permanent revocation of the Kentucky license to practice of famed “Master of Disaster” tort specialist Stanley Chesley, whose office is across the river in Cincinnati, Ohio. Two lawyers who directly represented fen-phen clients in Kentucky, “Shirley Cunningham Jr. and William Gallion, are serving prison sentences for bilking clients out of $94 million in settlement money.” While Chesley did not represent Cunningham’s or Gallion’s clients, and denied holding any legal responsibility toward them, he accepted a $20 million fee, far in excess of negotiated sums, for representing the lawyers themselves in the settlement that brought in the cash, a sum that “was unreasonable, especially in light of his professed ignorance and lack of responsibility for any aspect of the litigation except showing up at the mediation and going through the motions of announcing the agreement,” the Kentucky Supreme Court concluded. Chesley participated in the diversion of the pilfered funds into a trust (pleasantly named “Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living“) intended to conceal the skimming, and helped orchestrate the lawyers’ cover-up. Wrote the court: “The vast amount of evidence compiled and presented in this matter demonstrates convincingly that respondent knowingly participated in a scheme to skim millions of dollars in excess attorney’s fees from unknowing clients.” [ABA Journal; court order, PDF; Louisville Courier-Journal; Daniel Fisher, Forbes; David Lat, Above the Law]
Tagged as:
attorneys' fees,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
Stan Chesley
Among the departing lawyers are those representing the state of Ohio in a public employee retirement fund-led class action; the state may not appreciate the fallout from Chesley’s efforts to fight disbarment in Kentucky over the fen-phen scandal. [Cincinnati Enquirer] Many of the one-time “Master of Disaster’s” bipartisan political ties, however, remain cozy:
Chesley noted that Hamilton County [= Cincinnati] Prosecutor Joe Deters, who has worked for Chesley as a private attorney for four years, continues to work at the firm.
Deters also works as a private attorney for the new firm created by Chesley’s former lawyers. Deters, a leader in Hamilton County’s Republican Party, praises Chesley, who has helped raise millions for Democrats…
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Cincinnati,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
Ohio,
Stan Chesley
- More on prosecution of “jury nullification” activist Julian Heicklen [Brian Doherty, Tim Lynch/Cato, earlier]
- Age-bias litigant who complained about 88 year old judge is reassigned same judge [NYDN via Ellie K., earlier]
- Court certifies Nutella class action [Russell Jackson, earlier here and here]
- D.C. agency dismisses Banzhaf’s complaint about single-sex dorms at Catholic U. [Caron, earlier]
- After SCOTUS decision in Brown v. Plata, L.A. faces possible release of thousands of inmates [PoL, earlier here, here and here, Federalist Society panel]
- Cautionary tale of star attorney Stanley Chesley [Corporate Counsel] Ken Feinberg, Harvey Pitt back off expert avowals in Chesley cases [Robert Ambrogi] Judge Bamberger disbarred in Kentucky fen-phen scandal [ABA Journal]
- Texas doctor will surrender license in case where nurses faced false criminal charges [PoL, earlier]
- Mistrial in case of New Jersey lawyer Paul Bergrin [Star-Ledger, earlier]
Tagged as:
age discrimination,
jury nullification,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
prisoners
- Bizarrely overbroad: “Tennessee law bans posting images that ’cause emotional distress’” [Tim Lee, Ars Technica]
- “Superlawyer Stanley Chesley Faces Reckoning Tuesday” [Dan Fisher, Forbes, Cincinnati Enquirer, reporter Jim Hannah, earlier]
- More on record run-up in used car prices [Perry; my Cato take]
- Winkler County, Texas nurses case illuminates evils of prosecution-as-weapon [Texas Observer via PoL; earlier here, here, and here]
- Not a parody: claim that litigious celebs should be doing more to support Litigation Lobby [CJD]
- “Feminism by Treaty: Why CEDAW is Still a Bad Idea” [Christina Sommers, Policy Review]
- Why do agents of so many miscellaneous government agencies pack guns? [Quin Hillyer last year]
- New idea for who to sue over sex scandals [Conan show lawyer ad parody, adult content]
Tagged as:
autos,
emotional distress,
international human rights,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
litigation lobby,
online speech,
Stan Chesley,
Tennessee
- “Lawyer held in contempt for advising clients to retake foreclosed home” [Ventura County Star, earlier]
- Some perspective on Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s plans: about half the states curtail some or all public-sector unionism [Barro]
- Guy who sued over Jimmy Carter book offers his side of story [Turley, earlier]
- “Disbarment recommended for litigator Chesley over fen-phen fees” [NLJ, PoL, previously on scandal] Kenneth Feinberg affidavit in case draws scrutiny [Steele/LEF, Frank/PoL]
- Mississippi: “Minor, 2 ex-judges disbarred by state Supreme Court” [Sun-Herald, related on scheduled resentencing, earlier]
- “AIG Ended Up Having To Pay Millions For the Duke Lacrosse Stripper Lawsuit” [Business Insider, earlier]
- Labor Department hotline to put workers in touch with private lawyers [Fox Biz, Wood/PoL]
- Underage man on hook for child support to older woman [seven years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
mortgages,
Paul Minor,
Stan Chesley,
wage and hour suits,
Wisconsin
- Gender imbalance in Wikipedia and geographic bees? Find something else to worry about [Heather Mac Donald, Slate, via Secular Right; Perry] “On Equality: The Anti-Interference Principle” [Donald Kochan, Chapman, SSRN]
- High-profile NY attorney suspended after “avalanche” of complaints [Turkewitz, more]
- Credit unions vs. class action lawyers [Funnell]
- Obligation to use club cards to facilitate recalls? CSPI’s strange lawsuit against Safeway [Goldfarb, Food Liability Law]
- “Arkansas Justice Has a Generous Lawyer Friend, Disclosure Forms Reveal” [Weiss, ABA Journal]
- NYC pols plan regulatory squeeze on popular inter-city “Chinatown bus” operators [DNAInfo, Reason]
- “Kentucky appeals court reverses $42 million fen-phen fraud judgment” [Courier-Journal, PoL]
- $1,500 per lead brought in: why you see so many mesothelioma ads on the web [three years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
Arkansas,
banks,
class actions,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
NYC
- Judge bans $1.35 billion sugar beet crop for lack of environmental impact statement [NY Times]
- Brennan Center, Justice at Stake attracting attention with new report on money in state court judicial races [report in PDF, Kang/ConcurOp]
- Obama signs “libel tourism” bill into law [Levy, CL&P]
- “Zach Scruggs claims new evidence clears him” [Patsy Brumfield, NE Mississippi Daily Journal via YallPolitics]
- Second Circuit panel blasts 1980s abuse-accusation panic in ruling on Friedman case [opinion via NYT and Bernstein/Volokh]
- Famed Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley may face disciplinary action before Kentucky bar over role in fen-phen scandal [Courier-Journal via Dan Fisher and PoL]
- Sexual harassment verdict against California casino “amounts to 2/3 of the company’s net worth” [Fox, Jottings]
- Every White House needs to hire some partisan brawlers. But with “ethics czar” duties? [Matt Welch, Reason]
Tagged as:
Barack Obama,
child abuse,
damages,
Dickie Scruggs,
environment,
ethics,
harassment law,
judicial elections,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
libel slander and defamation,
Stan Chesley
Tagged as:
Australia,
Brazil,
fraud,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
libel slander and defamation,
McDonald's,
Nevada,
Ninth Circuit,
patent law,
Phoenix,
police,
third party liability for crime
- The wages of addiction: former basketball star Roy Tarpley settles his $6.5 million ADA lawsuit against NBA and Dallas Mavericks [Randy Galloway, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Sports Law Blog]
- One result of litigation-fed “vaccines cause autism” scare: parents turn to dangerous quack treatments [Arthur Allen, Slate; in-depth coverage at Kathleen Seidel's and Orac's sites]
- Julie Hilden on First Circuit “true statements can be defamatory” ruling [FindLaw, earlier here and here]
- More coverage of conviction of Kentucky lawyers for grabbing much of fen-phen settlement [Louisville Courier-Journal, earlier]
- Judge dismisses most counts in lawsuit against Richard Laminack of Texas’s O’Quinn law firm [Texas Lawyer, earlier; FLSA overtime claims remain]
- All but three of the outstanding 9/11 airline suits due to settle for $500 million [AP/NorthJersey.com]
- One needn’t make the Community Reinvestment Act a scapegoat for unrelated credit woes to recognize it as an ill-conceived law [Bank Lawyer's Blog]
- U.K.: Woman who plays classical music to soothe horses told she must pay for public performance license [Telegraph]
Tagged as:
autism,
aviation,
banks,
copyright,
Dallas,
disabled rights,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
September 11,
sports,
vaccines
You may recall the earlier trial of the Kentucky fen-phen attorneys who had stolen tens of millions of dollars from their clients ended in a mistrial for two and an acquittal for their third compatriot. This time around, a federal court jury, after ten hours of deliberation, found William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr. guilty of eight counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy. A streamlined prosecution case no doubt helped make a difference; defense attorneys sought to blame the matter on Stan Chesley, who negotiated the underlying settlement and received millions more than he was contracted to receive, and it remains mysterious why he was not charged. [Courier-Journal]
Tagged as:
crime and punishment,
ethics,
fen-phen,
Kentucky,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
Stan Chesley
The retrial of disbarred lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham began this week after an earlier jury deadlocked; a third defendant, Melbourne Mills, Jr., was acquitted. The three had diverted to their own use large portions of a $200 million settlement fund for fen-phen plaintiffs. We’ve covered the seedy saga in depth since it hit the headlines.
Tagged as:
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud
- NYC judge tosses injury suit against Lawyers Athletic League filed by a player on Milberg’s team [NYLJ]
- Kentucky fen-phen lawyers Gallion and Cunningham disbarred [Lexington Herald-Leader]
- Worker’s comp doc claims he noticed abnormal lab result and told patient to check with his primary doc. Patient didn’t and harm ensued. Malpractice? [CalLaw Legal Pad, KevinMD, Happy Hospitalist]
- Federalist Society publishes text of Judge Dennis Jacobs’s speech on pro bono, but Chemerinsky digs in rather than apologize [PoL]
- Are HIPAA privacy rules suspended during emergencies? No, and what lovely situations that’s likely to cause [HIPAA blog, more]
- One of the more unusual personal injury lawyer websites is “like a touchy-feely hybrid of Myst and The Office” [Above the Law]
- Gold-collar criminal defense work? McAfee decides $12 million too rich a sum for defending CFO Prabhat Goyal [Bennett & Bennett, Greenfield]
- Sounds promising: “Texas Supreme Court decision could end peremptory strikes in jury selection” [SE Texas Record]
Tagged as:
chasing clients,
feeing frenzy,
HIPAA,
jury selection,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
Milberg Weiss,
Texas
- Eeeeeeuw: House of Meats employees show reporter “they have all ten of their fingers” after customer reports human digit in her dish of oxtails [BayNews 9 Tampa]
- Press keeps digging into Joe Biden ties to asbestos bar [American Lawyer, more links in PoL roundup]
- Black eye for big law site FindLaw with reports that it’s been selling law firms links in editorial material, a practice sure to raise Google wrath [Oilman, Kevin O'Keefe/Real Lawyers Have Blogs, ABA Journal, Search Engine Land, National Post] More: WSJ on FindLaw’s denial; O’Keefe.
- Overlawyered favorite Fred Baron, of Rielle Hunter generosity, much in evidence at Democratic convention [Dallas Morning News, ABC News] Texas trial lawyer Steve Susman is only individual lawyer listed as convention sponsor [AmLaw Daily, scroll]
- As if legislative expansion of the Americans with Disabilities Act weren’t worry enough, 1,000 pages of new DoJ regulations will add billions in costs, as by requiring that 50 percent of miniature golf holes be wheelchair-accessible [Las Vegas Review-Journal via ABA Journal]
- “Bond reduced for two fen-phen attorneys” in Kentucky [Lexington Herald-Leader, more]
- Cozen O’Connor and insurers dealt big setback as Second Circuit’s Judge Jacobs rules they can’t sue Saudi government over 9/11 [Philadelphia Inquirer, more; related on FOIA, Legal Intelligencer; earlier here and here]
- Jury awards $500,000 in malpractice suit against D.C.-based plaintiffs’ firm Cohen Milstein Hausfeld & Toll [Legal Times]
- Australia: “A serial protester who injured a policewoman during the G20 riots wants her conviction overturned so she can still practise as a lawyer.” [Melbourne Herald Sun, Julia Dehm]
Tagged as:
asbestos,
Australia,
Cozen O'Connor,
disabled rights,
finger in the chili,
Fred Baron,
insurers,
Joe Biden,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
Michael Hausfeld,
miniature golf,
politics,
Rielle Hunter,
Saudi Arabia,
September 11,
stephen susman
- Speech tribunal in Alberta, Canada, acquits Ezra Levant over publication of Mohammed cartoons, and it only cost him C$100,000* [National Post, his site, Daimnation]
- Must not cover John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story … must not cover John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story … oh darn!
- U.K. version of a story we’ve seen stateside: noise restrictions threaten roving musical ice cream trucks [Telegraph, Times Online, earlier from NYC]
- “Lawyer Who Says She Was Chastised for Not Being Sweet Is Allowed to Sue” [ABA Journal]
- More thoughts about “going on disability” [White Coat Rants]
- Willie Gary perhaps less than gallant (though undeniably hard-hitting) in countering woman’s claim of sexual assault [WPTV, ABA Journal, Ambrogi]
- Arguing against release, federal prosecutors say millions in assets of two Kentucky fen-phen defendants can’t be traced [Lexington Herald Leader]
- Virginia restaurantgoers looking forward to sangria on sultry evenings [Lindsay Nair, Roanoke Times]
- “It’s true that [veep-buzzed Sen. Bayh] sided with Republicans on tort reform … but do Democrats really want to be the kind of party that makes litmus tests out of those issues?” [Patashnik, TNR "Plank"]
- Third Circuit strikes down ban on “depiction of animal cruelty” as unconstitutional, protecting both bullfight travelogues and those bizarro-fetish “crush videos” [Volokh, our 1999 report]
- Sen. Lieberman brought an outspoken pro-legal-reform voice to the Democratic ticket [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
*Levant can recover nothing from his tormentors because the so-called human rights tribunals are given a special dispensation from the normally prevailing Canadian rule of loser-pays.
Tagged as:
free speech in Canada,
John Edwards,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
loser pays,
politics,
Rielle Hunter,
Virginia,
Willie Gary
