- A 40 percent contingency fee?
An appeals court says that the $42 million being asked by law firm Graubard Miller is defensible - or as the judges put it, not "unconscionable on its face" (two negatives equals a positive, right?). The judges said there should be a trial to determine whether the fee was fair. It was an estate case - albeit a complicated one - involving Alice Lawrence, the 83-year-old widow of the real estate developer Sylvan Lawrence. Mark Zauderer, a lawyer for the firm, said the fee had been justified by the firm winning about $115 million for Mrs. Lawrence against Seymour Cohn, her husband’s brother, business partner and executor. One of the five appellate judges, James M. Catterson, called the fee “exorbitant” (he also said the firm’s bill should be thrown out and the lawyers involved reported to state disciplinary authorities). As you might expect, the decision is generating a fair amount of blog chatter, with one Law Bog reader noting: "They won the lottery. Good for them. If I was a partner at that firm I would retire tomorrow. I earned $55,000 on a contingency yesterday and I thought that was pleasant surprise. But $42 million? I want that kind of contingency work."
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| 11:05 AM Nov 29, 2007 | Email the Daily Dragon | Email this Article | Post Comments |
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