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Shortly after that, I gambled and argued to the firm that we should take a case on contingency for a small client who had gotten screwed by Lockheed. The firm agreed. Two years later, a federal district judge granted summary judgment against us on all counts. Two years after that, largely based on my brief and my depositions, the 9th Circuit reversed and remanded for trial. Two of my partners and I tried the case; we won $64.5 million. Largely on the strength of that case, I made the second partnership cut, which was huge -- from $350K up to about $1MM/year.
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I had to read this three times, because I thought i was going to call you out on it. Since you are a respected poster (myself included in that respect) I'd like to hear just a little more detail about the small client that got screwed and the lawfirm that made >$20MM on it. In general I side with Shakespeare, but perhaps more facts can persuade me otherwise.
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Sure. A couple of points right off the bat: the law firm didn't make anywhere close to $20MM on it; we were on a variable contingency, and I think the final number was a bit over $7MM. The case is Cable & Computer Technology v. Lockheed; here's a link to one of the Ninth Circuit opinions that does a passable job of describing the factual setting:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bi...mp;no=9955004.
Basically, one Lockheed division (Sanders) agreed to team with CCT to submit a bid to Boeing to upgrade mission control computers on the B1-B with CCT as prime contractor. Although no written contract was signed, that division of Lockheed sent four guys out to CCT to work up the bid package. Unbeknownst to CCT, Lockheed met internally with another division (Owego) and disclosed CCT's bidding prices to Owego. Two days before the bid was due, Sanders called CCT and backed out of the agreement to submit a bid, giving no explanation. Owego won it. In discovery, we found an email from the meeting saying something semantically similar to this: "CCT's bid prices were disclosed. They are so confidential that I am not writing them down."
When we filed the case, CCT would have taken a much much lower number. Lockheed played hardball the entire way, deposing each of CCT's four principals for a total of 25 days and leaning hard on their own employees to buy off on their outside counsel's arguments. One of Lockheed's employees, as the opinion notes, sent in an affidavit that the court discusses. He was indeed let go.
I've spent about 90% of my career as a defense lawyer and so appreciate your sentiments. There's a good bit of stupidity in that particular business; I've been considering firing up an EDF post on the asbestosis/silicosis class action rackets that have been going on for years.