Last Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush reprimanded a former partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd for inflating fee statements in a $7.5 million class action settlement. The concerned partner, Joy Ann Bull, submitted joyous expenses of $223,095, but after being questioned by the court, revised them to under $100,000. On Tuesday, following the judge's order, she was compelled to resign from Robbins Geller.
sign off on all future fees filed in court by a settlement partner.
The judge observed in court papers, “While a law firm is legally responsible for the actions of its members, the steps taken by the Robbins firm in response to failures of a now former partner have satisfied the court that there is no or little likelihood for similar failures by members of that firm in the future.”
The partner of Robbins Geller named Dewey (a popular name right now) said, “I believe we have a process in place that's much better than what the court expected … The judge seems satisfied with the response from the firm.”
John Grant, the lead litigation partner in the settled 2011 case was also not sanctioned as everybody agreed that Bull alone was in charge of drafting the expense report. The judge left off the lead litigation partner after criticizing him for not checking the expense report once the court raised the issue.
So, is this a case of the proverbial ‘fall guy (gal)?” The law firm gets scott-free, the lead litigation partner gets off with being mildly criticized, and the woman on the team who prepares the expense reports gets sanctioned and kicked out of the firm? Anybody else prepares expense reports in big cases for their law firms? Do you submit them without the knowledge of seniors, lead partners, or executives? Anybody ever heard of a legal principle called ‘contributory negligence?' Obviously, it is foreign to some federal courts.
