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05/13/2008
Yes, the days of Fen Phen lawsuits were a lucrative time indeed. In fact, too lucrative for some lawyers. Not content with just their standard contingency fee, three attorneys are going on trial over charges that they basically used the Fen Phen verdict they won for their clients as their own personal piggy bank.
Somehow, I'm guessing that your poor clients who suffered harm from their diet pills didn't really mean to subsidize your BMW and Porsche purchases. And especially not your racehorse habit. And yet, if you believe prosecutors, the indicted attorneys — Shirley Cunningham, William Gallion, and Melbourne Mills — tried to use much of the $200 million verdict they got for their plaintiffs for just such purposes. They apparently thought that about $65 million of that money was theirs to do with as they pleased.
There was just one problem: those pesky ethical rules. Oh, and money laundering laws, of course. But that allegedly didn't deter the larcenous litigants — the prosecution expects to show how they moved money between bank accounts, violating at least four laws as well as 13 ethics rules. But maybe it was all worth it — the indicted lawyers got courtside seats at Rupp Arena and were also able to buy the racehorse who won the 2007 Preakness race (part of the Triple Crown of racing).
The defense appears to be that while it's true that the clients only got $74 million out of the original $200 million, the clients were "thrilled" to donate excess monies to a charitable fund (which the attorneys paid themselves six figures to manage). Government witnesses, however, will testify that the alleged thrill on the part of the clients was, in their own words, "bovine excrement." Come to think of it, I've never known many clients who would be thrilled to cough up millions of dollars either.
I suppose the lesson is that while of course most class action cases are for the attorneys, you have to draw a line somewhere short of looting the settlement.
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