Jump to full article: Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, 2002-10-07
Author: David Phelps / Star Tribune
Intro: Nearly 10 years after Bucky Zimmerman committed his small Minneapolis law firm to a role in one of the highest-profile cases in U.S. history, he and his associates are still waiting for the payoff.
The firm hit an unexpected stumbling block on the road to a substantial financial windfall two weeks ago, when a New York court ruling hampered Zimmerman's firm, at least for the time being, from collecting a handsome portion of a $1.25 billion fee settlement on behalf of 53 law firms that sued the tobacco industry in 26 states. The judge labeled the fee excessive.
The decision will be appealed, but it is another legal hurdle that Zimmerman and his colleagues and across the country had hoped to avoid. . .
Zimmerman, whose given name is Charles, is a senior partner of Zimmerman Reed, a law firm of 14 Minneapolis attorneys on the fifth floor of Gaviidae Common where the tony restaurant Azur used to stand. . .
Zimmerman Reed was an early member of the Castano group, and Zimmerman served on some of the group's steering committees.
The disputed $1.25 billion fee, a healthy but confidential portion of which would go to Zimmerman Reed, was for the Castano group's work in California . .
But St. Paul law professor Joseph Daly said the New York judge was wrong to negate the value of the work done outside of the California case and was wrong to overturn an arbitrated award.
"When you're hiring a lawyer, the Rules of Professional Responsibility allow you to incorporate the experience, reputation and ability of the lawyer [when setting the fee]," said Daly, who has experience sitting on arbitration panels. "Taking on the tobacco companies was a herculean task. They [the Castano attorneys] had already gone through the other lawsuits and deserved to be paid more because they'd experienced the pain." . .
The Minneapolis law firm of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi, for example, collected about $550 million in legal fees for its work for the state of Minnesota . . . The state eventually recovered $6.1 billion.
Jump to full article » |