Overlawyered » Shirley Allen Cunningham Jr. http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Breaking: Guilty verdict in Kentucky fen-phen criminal retrial http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/breaking-guilty-verdict-in-kentucky-fen-phen-criminal-retrial/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/breaking-guilty-verdict-in-kentucky-fen-phen-criminal-retrial/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:10:15 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=10258 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]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/breaking-guilty-verdict-in-kentucky-fen-phen-criminal-retrial/feed/ 3 July 20 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2008/07/july-20-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/07/july-20-roundup-2/#comments Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:51:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=7292
  • Judge Henry Lackey, who went to feds to report bribe attempt by Dickie Scruggs associate, gets award and standing ovations at Mississippi bar convention, says he was just doing a judge’s job [NMC/Folo]

  • Related: should Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat have used official university stationery for his letter pleading leniency for chum/ benefactor Scruggs? [Daily Mississippian and editorial via YallPolitics, continuing coverage at Folo; earlier]

  • Stephen Dubner: if lawyer/subscriber can sue Raleigh News & Observer over perceived decline in its quality, who’s next? [NYT/Freakonomics blog, earlier]

  • Maneuvering over retrial of Kentucky fen-phen defendants Gallion and Cunningham [Lexington Herald-Leader]

  • A Fieger sideshow: though acquitted in recent campaign laundering prosecution, controversial lawyer fared less well in lawsuit against Michigan AG Michael Cox; Sixth Circuit tossed that suit and upheld order that Fieger fork over attorney fees to Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman over subjecting the justice to unfounded vilification [ABA Journal; fixed typo on Circuit]

  • Citing long history of frivolous litigation, federal judge in central Texas fines disbarred lawyer Charles Edward Lincoln and his client and bans Lincoln from bringing any more federal suits [SE Texas Record]

  • Faced with $18 million legal-malpractice jury verdict, Indiana labor law firm stays in business by agreeing to make token payment, then gang up on its liability insurer for the rest [Indianapolis Business Journal, Ketzenberger/Indy Star via ABA Journal]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/07/july-20-roundup-2/feed/ 6 Gallion: Stan Chesley forced his way into our Kentucky fen-phen settlement http://overlawyered.com/2008/06/gallion-stan-chesley-forced-his-way-into-our-kentucky-fen-phen-settlement/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/06/gallion-stan-chesley-forced-his-way-into-our-kentucky-fen-phen-settlement/#comments Sat, 07 Jun 2008 16:03:19 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=7119 William Gallion takes the stand in the Kentucky fen-phen settlement criminal trial:

Gallion alleged that Chesley forced his way in by using his influence with the fen-phen maker’s counsel to stifle proposed settlements that Gallion, Mills and Cunningham had on the table with the drug maker.

“We knew that if we were ever to get our cases settled, we’d have to come to an agreement with Stan Chesley,” Gallion said.

Chesley isn’t charged in the case but is a defendant in a civil suit filed by more than 400 of the former clients against their ex-lawyers. The other lawyers lost a $42 million judgment in that case; a jury will decide how much of Chesley’s $20.5 million fee he must return.

Chesley’s counsel has indicated he will refuse to testify in the criminal trial, citing his right not to incriminate himself.

Yesterday’s most explosive testimony came from a former lawyer for Gallion and [Shirley] Cunningham who said his clients approved a filing with the Kentucky Bar Association that grossly exaggerated the amount of money they had paid to their clients in the fen-phen case.

Lawyer Whitney Wallingford said he made a calculation error in 2002 that led him to tell the bar association that the clients had been paid more than $116 million of the $200 million settlement. In fact, they got only about $73 million.

Wallingford said in a letter to the bar association that Cunningham and Gallion had “approved” the filing.

In court, Wallingford said he had sent a copy of it to both of them and heard nothing back from either. He said Chesley eventually called him and told him to file it.

(Andrew Wolfson, “Gallion doesn’t address charges”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Jun. 7). Gallion will return to the stand Monday; defendant Melbourne Mills is expected to testify, and Cunningham has not yet decided whether to testify. (Beth Musgrave, “Fen-phen lawyer testifies”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Jun. 7). The attorneys continue to blame everything on Chesley and Judge Joseph Bamberger.

Attorney Whitney Wallingford testified there was nothing unethical about having the Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living–created by a court order by Judge Bamberger–pay Bamberger $5,000/month to sit on its board. (Andrew Wolfson, “Witness praises lawyers’ managing of nonprofit fund”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Jun. 6). Which says something either about Wallingford or about Kentucky legal ethics.

Meanwhile in the civil case, one is inclined to call shenanigans on the attorneys’ lease of a million-dollar racehorse to one’s wife and another’s girlfriend. (Andrew Wolfson, “Horse pulled from stakes race”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jun. 6) (h/t R.U.).

The court is struggling to maintain control over the trial; the first prosecution witness was cross-examined for a full week when the judge started putting time limits on the parties. (Jim Hannah, “I had to include Chesley”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jun. 7).

And the question remains: why hasn’t Stan Chesley been indicted?

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/06/gallion-stan-chesley-forced-his-way-into-our-kentucky-fen-phen-settlement/feed/ 2 Kentucky Fund for Healthy Living http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fund-for-healthy-living/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fund-for-healthy-living/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 16:12:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=7031 The name does have a clean, daisy-fresh smell to it, like a good laundry. In this case the laundering being done was of settlement money in the Kentucky fen-phen scandal. (WSJ law blog, Louisville Courier-Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader, Krauss @ PoL).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fund-for-healthy-living/feed/ 2 Kentucky fen-phen trial opens http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fen-phen-trial-opens/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fen-phen-trial-opens/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 17:57:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=6842 We’ve extensively covered the scandal over charges that attorneys William Gallion, Shirley Allen Cunningham Jr. and Melbourne Mills Jr. siphoned off $65 million or so in settlement money due claimants in the diet drug litigation, using the proceeds to buy, among other things, the Preakness-winning race horse Curlin. Ted notes the latest developments over at Point of Law, as does Carter Wood. (Wolfson/Courier-Journal, WSJ law blog).

More from WSJ law blog: Mills’ lawyer tells jury his client “was hospitalized for an ‘alcoholic seizure’ a month after the case was settled, didn’t take part in any court hearings and was too drunk at the time to be responsible,” while prosecutor says “that Mills ’sat back and laughed’ when the other two described a plan to overcharge the clients.”

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/kentucky-fen-phen-trial-opens/feed/ 1 November 2 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2007/11/november-2-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/11/november-2-roundup/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:35:37 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=5516
  • Curlin gets 400 new owners, as the Kentucky fen-phen plaintiffs ripped off by their attorneys get the right to seize Shirley Cunningham Jr. and William Gallion’s 20% share of the Preakness Stakes winner. [AP/NYT; earlier]
  • As Lerach pleads guilty, LA Times editorial defends class action abuses, incorrectly says that the PSLRA fixed everything and that Lerach didn’t act illegally after it was passed. [LA Times]
  • That $10.9 million verdict against the Westboro Baptist Church was “not about the money.” [Reuters] Really, now, this case imposing bankrupting damages for a protest on a public sidewalk is appalling. Granted: Phelps is bigoted scum, and rude bigoted scum at that. But Albert Snyder’s claimed physical injury is that the protest exacerbated his diabetes: what sort of junk science is that? NB that Snyder was not even aware of the protest at the funeral until he watched it on television. Why not liability for the news program? Even those happy to see the anti-gay bigotry of the WBC punished should take pause: Snyder testified at length that the protest upset him particularly because his son was not gay.
  • Overlawyered favorite Willie Gary (Apr. 29, Oct. 2004), on the hook for $28,000/month in child support for love child. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
  • Deep-pocket search in Great White fire case. [Childs]
  • Lawsuit over which school 9-year-old can play football for. [Tulsa World (via TMQ G. Easterbrook)] Worse, the judge rewarded the plaintiff by second-guessing the league decision. [Tulsa World]
  • It only takes ten months of legal proceedings for Cal-Berkeley to evict trespassers squatting on university property. [SF Gate]
  • Don’t hold your breath: who’s watching the trial lawyers? [Examiner]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2007/11/november-2-roundup/feed/ 9     Kentucky fen-phen lawyers are jailed http://overlawyered.com/2007/08/kentucky-fen-phen-lawyers-are-jailed/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/08/kentucky-fen-phen-lawyers-are-jailed/#comments Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:35:07 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=5211 “The court finds that there is a serious risk that the funds will be moved offshore and that with these funds at their disposal, the defendants will flee to a country with which the United States has no extradition treaty or otherwise disappear,” U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman wrote in the Friday order sending Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion, and Melbourne Mills Jr. to jail without bond until the January 7 trial date. (Jim Hannah, “Fen-phen lawyers are jailed”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 11). We have lots of coverage of the Kentucky fen-phen lawyers, who have been found in a civil case, to have misappropriated $62 million of settlement funds by overcharging on attorneys’ fees and other diversions. Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley, who has not been criminally indicted, is also civilly liable on part of his $20 million fee for helping to negotiate the settlement, with the scope of liability yet to be determined; trial has been delayed while the criminal trial is pending.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2007/08/kentucky-fen-phen-lawyers-are-jailed/feed/ 3     Kentucky fen-phen scandal, cont’d http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/kentucky-fen-phen-scandal-contd/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/kentucky-fen-phen-scandal-contd/#comments Wed, 14 Feb 2007 00:12:24 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=4525 It just keeps getting juicier:

    The attorneys accused of misappropriating more than $64 million from Kentucky’s fen-phen settlement initially withheld another $27.7 million, which they turned over to their clients only after the Kentucky Bar Association began investigating the case, newly filed court records show.

    The additional payments also came after one of the lawyers — Melbourne Mills Jr. — discovered in January 2002 that the settlement was for $50 million more than the other two lawyers, William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., had told him, according to the records.

    Mills was so angry that when Gallion showed up at his birthday party on Feb. 6, 2002, Mills called him “a thief” and insisted that more money be given to the clients, according to a deposition from Mills’ administrative assistant, Rebecca Phipps.

    (Andrew Wolfson, “Lawyers held 2nd cache of diet drug settlement”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Feb. 11; Beth Musgrave, “Fen-phen ruling could come soon”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Feb. 13). Earlier coverage: Mar. 6 and Aug. 25, 2006, Jan. 24, 2007, etc.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/kentucky-fen-phen-scandal-contd/feed/ 0     Lawyer: guess maybe we burned that fee documentation http://overlawyered.com/2007/01/lawyer-guess-maybe-we-burned-that-fee-documentation/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/01/lawyer-guess-maybe-we-burned-that-fee-documentation/#comments Wed, 24 Jan 2007 00:04:09 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=4450 Sensational new disclosures in the scandal (Mar. 6, Aug. 25, etc.) over self-dealing by lawyers in divvying up the results of fen-phen litigation in Kentucky:

    The three lawyers accused of plundering Kentucky’s $200 million fen-phen settlement “tore up or burned” notes showing how much they paid themselves and their clients, according to one of the lawyers.

    Depositions obtained by The Courier-Journal include Lexington attorney Melbourne Mills Jr.’s description of a secret meeting that he said he and lawyers William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., also of Lexington, held at Gallion’s house in 2001 to divvy up an extra $10 million beyond what they’d already paid themselves from the settlement. …

    [Attorney Angela] Ford alleges that Mills’ description is a “dramatic indication of a cover-up.”

    She has asked that those lawyers and another attorney, Stan Chesley of Cincinnati, who helped negotiate the settlement, be forced to surrender $62.6 million in funds they allegedly misappropriated — as well as $59.5 million they paid themselves in fees….

    Kentucky courts have never required a lawyer to “disgorge” or return a fee for misconduct, but courts in other states have done so, according to Ford’s motion….

    Chesley, who was hired by the Lexington lawyers to negotiate the settlement, said he had no reason to question why he was paid $20.5 million — $7 million more than his contract outlined — in part because he could not “believe that these good folks would have sent me more money than I was entitled to.”

    In her motion to force the lawyers to give up their fees, Ford said the defendant lawyers, including Chesley, breached their duties in a “spectacular and unparalleled way” by giving only about one-third of the settlement to the clients.

    “The facts of this case truly are as egregious as it gets,” she said in court papers. ..

    Since the settlement, Gallion and Cunningham have both become permanent residents of Florida, a state that Ford notes allows debtors to keep their homes when they take bankruptcy.

    Stanley Chesley was, and remains, one of the most famous plaintiff’s lawyers in the United States and a major powerbroker in national Democratic politics. The article also sheds further light on the close ties between now-disgraced Judge Joseph F. (”Jay”) Bamberger, who approved the Kentucky fen-phen settlement and has since resigned, and the plaintiff’s team in the litigation. (Andrew Wolfson, “Lawyer: Fen-phen notes destroyed”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 21).

    More: a companion piece in the same paper profiles the Cincinnati-based Chesley (Andrew Wolfson, “A breach of duty; wealth mounts for ‘prince of torts’”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Jan. 21)(via Lattman).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2007/01/lawyer-guess-maybe-we-burned-that-fee-documentation/feed/ 3     Kentucky fen-phen lawyers suspended http://overlawyered.com/2006/08/kentucky-fen-phen-lawyers-suspended/ http://overlawyered.com/2006/08/kentucky-fen-phen-lawyers-suspended/#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 04:03:16 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=3870 Melbourne Mills, Shirley Cunningham Jr. and William Gallion were “temporarily suspended” from the practice of law by the Kentucky Supreme Court this week. The three had taken well over half of a $200 million settlement Wyeth had given them on behalf of 440 fen-phen users they had represented. (Brandon Ortiz, “3 Fen-phen case lawyers are suspended”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Aug. 25; Andrew Wolfson, “Fen-phen case fees poured into racehorses”, Louisville Courier-Journal, May 30; Andrew Wolfson, “Judge: Fen-phen lawyers breached duty”, Louisville Courier-Journal, Mar. 10; Beth Musgrave and Jim Warren, “Fen-phen settlement is back in the courtroom”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Jan. 29, 2005 (reprint)). More: May 10, 2005 (civil lawsuit); Mar. 6 (judge who profited from approval of settlement resigns).

    Mills was recently in the news because he won a suit against a secretary who claimed (with the help of a recording) that he promised her an “Erin-Brockovich”-style payment for her help in the settlement. (Brandon Ortiz, “Ruling benefits Melbourne Mills Jr.”, Lexington Herald-Leader, Apr. 4). (cross-posted at Point of Law)

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