We wanted to give people an opportunity to reminisce about John O’Quinn, the legendary personal injury attorney, who apparently died this morning in a car accident. The Houston Chronicle reports:

Prominent Houston attorney John O’Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their SUV slammed into a large tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said. …

It wasn’t immediately clear whether O’Quinn or the other, still-unidentified victim was driving.

O’Quinn is a huge name in Texas and around the country. He made his mark in PI work:

O’Quinn, who made his fortune largely in personal injury cases, most notably in successful breast implant cases in the early 1990s, was a local philantrhopist. He gave money to the Harris County Children’s Assessment Center, the Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs and various Texas Medical Center institutions including St. Luke’s Hospital, which has a tower bearing his name.

R.I.P., John O’Quinn.

Attorney O’Quinn killed in car wreck [Houston Chronicle]

Earlier: Lawyer of the Day: John O’Quinn

Today we resume our series of open threads about small law firms focused on different areas of practice. For background on the series, see this post.

We’ve received lots of positive feedback on the series. Here are some representatives comments from the last thread, on insurance law:

54 - This is a GREAT GREAT GREAT thread - please do more. I’d be interested in seeing threads on immigration practice, real estate practice, prosecution and public defense (state/municipal, not federal - reality check here - the DOJ is not an option for 99% of attorneys).

86 - [K]eep open threads on small law like this coming! They’re informative for everyone, whether or not they are interested or not in working in such an area.

94 - This is a good thread. (I can’t believe it.) Thanks to the veterans who are providing substantive info and advice.

Our latest practice area for focus: PERSONAL INJURY LAW.

If this subject interests you, read more after the jump.

UPDATE / CORRECTION: After we noticed comments 34 and 41, we reached out to Loyola Law School for clarification. A Loyola spokesperson confirmed that the Chicago Tribune made an error: Loyola has renamed its main building for Philip Corboy, but NOT the school itself. For a correct account of what has taken place, see the law school’s press release.

We regret our replication of the Chicago Tribune’s error. Thanks to our commenters for bringing the mistake to our attention.

FURTHER UPDATE: The Tribune has corrected its story, but without noting the fact that it was corrected. Most publications, such as the New York Times and Slate, will note substantial corrections after they are made. Here at Above the Law, we will also explicitly note corrections that go to matters of substance (as opposed to, say, typographical errors).

We mentioned this already in Morning Docket, but the decision by Loyola - Chicago bears further discussion. We know that the overall economy has made things difficult on law schools. Tuition keeps going up, despite nearly record numbers of new applicants. So one should applaud a law school for getting a major boost to its endowment.

Loyola - Chicago received a huge gift, so massive that the school has decided to change its name its main building name in honor of the donor. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Loyola University Chicago’s School of Law will be renamed the Philip H. Corboy Law Center after the noted alumnus and prominent personal injury attorney who donated the largest single gift in the law school’s history, it will be announce Monday.

Some might argue that a decrease in the confusing proliferation of law schools named after St. Ignatius Loyola — we already have Loyola of Chicago, Loyola of Los Angeles, and Loyola of New Orleans — is a good thing. But was going with Philip Corboy the right move? Wasn’t Henry Walpole available?

More details after the jump.

Some class action settlements are highly questionable. Think of a case where, say, the victimized consumers get a stupid coupon, so they can purchase even more goods or services from the company that victimized them — while the lawyers representing the plaintiffs walk away with a big payday.

One man is out to change all that. Ted Frank — lawyer and blogger extraordinaire, from Overlawyered and Point of Law (and also Above the Law) — has left his perch as a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He’s starting a new public interest law firm that specializes in pro bono representation of consumers unhappy with class action settlements. Ted is already handling two class actions in California.

We caught up with Ted to discuss his new gig. Read more, after the jump.

Our colleagues over at sister site Fashionista aren’t alone. Lawyers also get worked up over shoes.

Some, like former Enron prosecutor Kathryn Ruemmler, show up to court in four-inch pink stiletto spikes. Others hate on commuter shoes and Crocs. Attorneys have strong opinions about attire, and that extends to footwear.

So we can’t say we’re completely surprised by a motion recently filed by plaintiffs’ counsel in the case of Lenkersdorf v. Sorrentino, now pending in Florida state court.

Motion to Compel Defense Counsel to Wear Appropriate Shoes at Trial — we kid you not — after the jump.

When the economic meltdown started picking up steam last year, we were having brunch in the West Village with friends from the legal and financial worlds. One of the lawyers upset the financial folks at the table by rejoicing over the fall of Wall Street.

“Your massive salaries inflated the real estate market here. With financial folks being fired, Manhattan property prices will fall, and lawyers will be able to afford nicer places,” said the J.D. holder, who might not be as smug these days after the waves of law firm layoffs. Still, those words may well have been prophetic.

The Sunday New York Times just had a piece on Manhattan’s sinking housing prices, focusing on the real estate search of personal injury attorney Matthew Glassman and his wife. With their children out of the nest, they’re moving from a house in Long Island — which they sold for $1.61 million, a nice chunk of change — to a condo in Manhattan. They scored a place in Chelsea for less than a million dollars. From the Times:

It was sunny when they visited the Cheyney on West 23rd Street. A two-bedroom condo of around 1,150 square feet, it had two exposures, to the street and to a garden courtyard, but needed a complete renovation…. [T]hey focused on the good layout, with a hallway separating the bedrooms from the living room. There was a real second bedroom, not just a windowless office….

And the price, which started at $1.45 million in September, was steadily falling. The Glassmans paid $998,000 and closed in February. The common charge and taxes are $1,667 a month.

Only six figures! But the condo is a little bit of a fixer-upper, requiring $100,000 more in renovations.

Perhaps Glassman hoped to help pay that bill with the business drummed up by the NYT article. As the tipster who sent it along to us noted:

Gotta love the PI attorney who wore a shirt with his website on it while being photographed by the NY Times.

Will it work? Due to the wife’s blocking the shirt, we were misled and went first to Glassmanlaw.com. We were initially surprised that a personal injury attorney would specialize in immigration law and fiancee visas. But then we found the right site, Mglassmanlaw.com. We like that “Animal Bites” has its own category.

The Suburban Transplants [New York Times]

There is a great profile in the Boston Magazine about attorney James Sokolove, a guy that advertises his legal services on T.V. so often I just assumed he didn’t actually exist.

Apparently, he does exist, but his legal services don’t, at least not in the traditional sense:

Despite his prodigious success and his omnipresent image as a bulldog attorney, Sokolove hasn’t seen the inside of a courtroom in nearly three decades. Truth be told, he’s argued only one case before a jury; it was back in the early 1970s, and he lost. It wasn’t tenacious lawyering that allowed Sokolove to build a legal empire, but rather his prowess as a businessman and an innovator. He and his staff of 80 don’t try cases; instead they connect prospective clients to other lawyers, who pay Sokolove a cut of their fees for ginning up business.

Sweet. The only thing better then an unabashed “ambulance chaser” is an unabashed ambulance chaser who doesn’t know where the courthouse is located.

But after the jump, what’s really fascinating is that this guy really does have a system.

[UPDATE on 04.03.09: Case dismissed.]

Paralegal-ing is a rough gig. Paralegals tend to get the legal drudgery similar to that done by first year associates, without the six-figure paycheck. And if you’re a paralegal for Richard Laminack, a titan of the Texas plaintiffs’ bar, you may also be asked to receive unwanted advances, fellate expert witnesses, and help defraud clients.

The American Lawyer reports on paralegal Angela Robinson’s complaint (PDF), filed against Laminack and the two firms at which she worked for him. (We have to wonder why she followed him to the second firm despite the workplace horrors. Cf. Anita Hill.)

Here’s a choice excerpt, available in full after the jump:

That is certainly above and beyond the paralegal call of duty.

The website of Laminack, Pirtle & Martines says that it’s their “honor and priveledge [sic]” to represent clients. And defraud them? According to Robinson’s complaint, Laminack “ordered checks on non-existent medical records for Fen-Phen clients and then docked the cost of the records checks from the clients’ settlement shares.”

(What is it with Fen-Phen lawyers and cheating clients? The WSJ Law Blog had extensive coverage of the Kentucky attorneys accused of bilking their Fen-Phen clients out of millions.)

Robinson put up with the sexual harassment for years; she alleges she was terminated when she confronted Laminack about the Fen-Phen scheme. She wants $55,000 for wrongful termination and back pay. A longer version of the salacious bits of her complaint, after the jump.

The legal profession is populated by some colorful characters — like our latest Lawyer of the Day, Jack Tuckner. From the New York Post:

A leading lower Manhattan women’s-rights lawyer watched porn at his desk, discussed his “pierced genitalia” and wears a “slave” collar at work as part of a sadomasochistic relationship with his girlfriend, a shocking sex- harassment suit alleges.

Jack Tuckner, 50, whose law firm says it’s “dedicated to the empowerment of women in the workplace,” is a “self-described ‘testosterone-poisoned’ attorney with a penchant for bondage … who demeaned all of the women who worked for him,” says the suit.

It was filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court by former office manager Lisa Brockington.

But if the slave-collar-wearing Tuckner is the “sub” in the S&M setup, doesn’t that make it okay? Isn’t he the one being demeaned, rather than the one doing the demeaning?

More after the jump.

We already named Adam Kutner our Lawyer of the Day, so Richard Dienst will have to settle for a less lofty title: Alleged Groper of the Day.

We commend the fast-acting webmaster of Queller, Fisher, Dienst, Serrins, Washor & Kool. The firm website, which occupies the valuable cyber real estate of accidents.com, no longer features Dienst’s bio on the Our Lawyers page.

But Dienst, one of the firm’s founders, is also a name partner. Fixing that may take a little longer.

Update: Via a commenter, here is Richard Dienst’s bio.

Lawyer Arrested in Groping Case [AP]

For a society that has embraced litigation and the digital age, there will soon be a new website to love, SueEasy.com. It’s like Match.com for lawyers and litigants.

The site promises to revolutionize legal service. There are three easy steps:

1. Register your case.
2. View attorney responses.
3. Choose an attorney.
4. Instant legal bliss.

We are not making step four up. “Instant legal bliss” sounds pretty sweet to us. These guys know how to market their stuff.

Tort reform advocates are not fans of the idea. From UPI:

Darren McKinney, spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, said the site is the “latest distillation” of an attitude promoted by trial lawyers.

“It’s an attitude that runs against personal responsibility and seems to promote the notion that whatever negative happens in your life somebody else can be blamed and thus sued,” McKinney told Legal Newsline.

There are some interesting class action suits up on the site now. They include Hot Dog and Bun Mismatch filed by oscarmayer and Circumcised without Anybody’s Consent filed by Frank OHara on behalf of one million infant boys.

Oscarmayer’s complaint: “Currently buns are sold in packages of 10 but hotdogs come in packages of 8.” While certainly annoying, does it really warrant a lawsuit?

Web site makes suing easy [United Press International]
SueEasy — Hey Tort Reform, This One’s For You [WSJ Law Blog]
SueEasy.com [Overlawyered]

In today’s Morning Docket, we wondered about what Milberg Weiss’s new name would be, now that Mel Weiss is on his way to becoming a convicted felon. The answer came more quickly than expected. From the WSJ Law Blog:

The firm formerly known as Milberg Weiss Bershad & Shulman LLP, then Milberg Weiss Bershad LLP, then Milberg Weiss LLP, will now be known just as Milberg LLP. According to a Milberg insider, the name change was announced at a staff meeting this morning, at which Mel Weiss gave a speech talking about the accomplishments of the firm. The audience reportedly applauded…..

“Hey everyone, I’m going to prison for 18 to 33 months. Give me a big hand!”

The WSJ reported this morning that Mel Weiss has struck a deal to agree to plead guilty in a case alleging improper kickbacks. Other former name partners David Bershad and Steven Schulman had previously pleaded guilty in the case.

The beauty of naming the firm after Larry Milberg? He dead.

More Milberg Weiss coverage, including a statement from Mel Weiss, at the WSJ Law Blog.

Introducing … Milberg LLP [WSJ Law Blog]

As recently mentioned in these pages, the internal slogan of the post-merger Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell is “One Firm, One Future.”

Some firms, however, take the opposite view. We’ve just discovered a Southern California boutique whose motto might as well be “Two Firms for the Price of One.” Or maybe “Corporate Work and Plaintiffs’ Work: Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together.” A tipster tells us:

My friend just interviewed at a place called Zuber & Taillieu in Los Angeles. You know, Olivier Taillieu — the guy who filed suit on behalf of the frat boys from Borat….

Ah yes, we do recall. Look back at this post. Engaging in Gallion & Spielvogel-esque self-promotion, Olivier Taillieu described himself as follows: “[Olivier clerked] for the Honorable A. Wallace Tashima on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, one of the most prestigious and sought-after clerkships in the country. Following his clerkships, he entered private practice as a litigator in the Intellectual Property and Technology Department in the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP, one of the top 15 law firms in the country as ranked by revenue by The American Lawyer.”

Back to our source:

Well, get this. What that firm doesn’t announce on their “corporate” website is that they have an evil twin: a plaintiffs’ side alter ego, called ZT Personal Injury Law Group. Exact same attorneys, but this time, you can call them at 1-866-SUE-2-WIN. Pay particular attention to the language about penises and vaginas on the firm’s Child Molestation page.

It looks like this “O’Melveny spinoff” isn’t doing QUITE the same caliber work as they’d have you believe…

Indeed. We checked out that “Child Molestation Law” page, which features such lovely words as “vagina,” “rectum,” and “penile penetration” — not your standard law firm website fare. Here’s an excerpt:

If someone you know is a victim of sexual abuse, contact one of our child molestation attorneys today to find out what ZT Personal Injury Law Group can do for you. We offer a FREE consultation, and we don’t get paid unless you win!

Well, look on the bright side: at least these ex-OMM lawyers are doing well for themselves. They’re hiring more lawyers and expanding their firm — which is more than can be said for the O’Melveny mother ship, with its rumored layoffs.

Update: As some commenters remind us, Olivier Taillieu was a contestant on that short-lived reality TV show, The Law Firm.

Zuber & Taillieu LLP [official website]
ZT Personal Injury Law Group [official website]
The Law Firm [Wikipedia]

Earlier: Still More About Borat

Last week, our friends over at the WSJ Law Blog asked: “Why do ‘trial lawyers’ have such a bad name?”

One possible answer: Because they abandon their brides at the altar. From the Miami Herald:

Walk-away groom: Jim Ferraro, multimillionaire trial lawyer.

Ferraro, set to marry prominent real estate broker Patricia Delinois on Friday in a formal ceremony at Fisher Island’s Vanderbilt Mansion, jilted her — at the altar — as they were about to exchange vows before 75 to 80 guests….

After five years of dating, the couple were to finally tie the knot. But, says Ferraro: ‘When it was time to say `I do,’ I just said, ‘I love her but I just can’t do this.’ ” He walked away, flanked by sons James, 21, Andrew, 18, and daughter Alexis, 14.

The audience gasped. Delinois’ sister, Ingrid Long, told off Ferraro — loudly. Some say she yelled, ”You dog!” Not so, Long says. “I called him a snake. I think I even called him a few other things. I was trying very hard not to curse, but I think a few curse words came out.”

Says Ferraro: “It was dramatic.”

Trial lawyers can be such drama queens. Maybe they get addicted to making audiences gasp — you know, that whole “Perry Mason” thing. It appears that finances weren’t behind the cancellation:

The issue, [Ferraro] says, was not money. ”We did have a prenup.” She is CEO of Century 21 Premier Elite Realty. He has law offices in Miami and Cleveland, owns the Cleveland Gladiators arena football team, has a private jet, and built a 21,000-square-foot compound in Martha’s Vineyard — with 14 bedrooms, tennis court, basketball court, nine-hole putting green, movie theater, and weight and cardio gyms.

This time, Ferraro figures, their romance is done for good. “She probably doesn’t ever want to talk to me again.”

Update: All’s well that ends well. In February 2008, Ferraro and Delinois got married, in a secret seaside ceremony in St. Bart’s.

Power couple’s wedding ends with `I don’t’ [Miami Herald]
Why Do “Trial Lawyers” Have Such a Bad Name? [WSJ Law Blog]

The ethical rules governing advertising by lawyers are designed in large part to protect the public from misleading pitches. But maybe it’s the lawyers who need protecting — from themselves.

If these lawyers scratch themselves inappropriately during meetings, or hog the cold cuts at lunch, don’t say they didn’t warn you.

Magilla Gorilla, Esq. [copyranter]

Earlier: Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My — Is It a Law Firm Ad Campaign?

That’s the conclusion suggested by this Houston Chronicle article, about the most fabulous law firm holiday parties thrown in that city.

In New York, the biggest and best law firm parties tend to be thrown by the biggest and best law firms. But they do things differently down in Texas, Land of the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers. From Mary Flood’s quite interesting article:

A random survey of about 100 Houston lawyers showed these to be the six hottest legal party tickets this holiday season:

• litigation firm Susman Godfrey’s art-studded office reception;
• plaintiffs lawyer Richard Mithoff’s traditional classy soiree;
• plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier’s family-friendly extravaganza;
• plaintiffs lawyer John O’Quinn’s sparkling gala;
• Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels & Friend’s crowded office open house;
• defense lawyer David Beck’s high-quality in-home affair.

More excerpts and discussion, after the jump.

Yesterday the FBI executed a search warrant on the Scruggs Law Firm in Oxford, Mississippi — the shop of high-flying plaintiffs’ lawyer Dickie Scruggs. It wasn’t immediately clear what investigation the search was related to. Here’s some commentary on the situation that we enjoyed, from David Rossmiller (in brackets, following excerpt from news article):

“This is a surprise to everybody connected to the Scruggs Firm,” [lawyer Joey] Langston said, “but I’ve got to tell you people who are very high profile and very successful have to contend with unpleasantries and this is unpleasant, but we’ll contend with it.”

[I like the touch of noblesse oblige here — as if the FBI descending on one’s place of business is the same as, say, getting heckled by drunken lumpenproletariat while showing up in top hat and tails to receive an award for charitable giving.]

Now we have a better idea of what the office search was probably about. From the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger:

Multimillionaire trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs has been indicted on charges of conspiring to bribe a judge in the case involving $26.5-million in attorney fees involving Katrina claims….

According to the indictment, Lafayette County Circuit Judge Henry Lackey cooperated with the FBI in the investigation after reporting a bribery overture to authorities.

According to the indictment, Scruggs and others tried to influence Lackey by giving him $40,000 in cash to resolve the attorney fees’ dispute in favor of Scruggs’ law firm. Some of the conversations between Balducci and Lackey were captured on tape.

An interesting observation, from the WSJ Law Blog:

Down in Mississippi, there has been speculation of a connection between the FBI search warrant and this week’s surprise resignation of Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), Scruggs’s brother-in-law. Lott’s office told the Sun Herald the two events were but a mere coincidence.

Because, you know, it’s so much better to have people think you stepped down because of a gay sex scandal, as opposed to your brother-in-law’s indictment.

(For the record, the rumors about Sen. Lott and the gay sex scandal appear to be unfounded. See HuffPo and Wonkette — two sites that would, of course, love for the rumors to be true.)

Scruggs arrested on bribery charges [Clarion-Ledger]
More on FBI search of Scruggs’ law offices [Insurance Coverage Law Blog]
Dickie Scruggs Indicted On Federal Bribery Charges [WSJ Law Blog]

* How much will various law-related search terms cost you on Google? Adam Liptak has collected some interesting examples: “Asbestos attorney” = $51.68, “Pro bono lawyer” = $2.89. [NYT via WSJ Law Blog]

* Another day, another Republican politician in a gay sex scandal. [Green Bay Press-Gazette]

* Not law-related, but interesting to those who follow the blogosphere: Vanessa Grigoriadis’s detailed profile of Gawker Media. [New York Magazine]

* Blawg Review #130, presented on two attorney/mediator law blogs — a Southern Hemisphere edition from New Zealand, and a Northern Hemisphere edition from the USA — recognizes Blog Action Day and International Conflict Resolution Day. [mediator blah… blah… and Online Guide to Mediation, via Blawg Review]

Even when they’re not getting indicted or pleading guilty, high-profile plaintiffs’ lawyers can still entertain us with their antics. From Walter Olson, over at Overlawyered:

Looks as if the legal tactics of one politically ambitious Texas plaintiff’s lawyer may have blown up in his face:

“Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mikal Watts of San Antonio once tried to pressure a legal opponent into a $60 million personal injury lawsuit settlement by claiming he would have an advantage on appeal because of his firm’s ‘heavy’ campaign financial support to an appellate court’s justices, ‘all of whom are good Democrats.’

Guess Brad Schlozman isn’t the only arbiter of “good”-ness. Anyway, back to Watts:

A “nine-page letter Watts wrote to opposing counsel in 2001 apparently was intended to make an out-of-state corporation think the donations could sway” the 13th Court of Appeals in Corpus Christi. The letter was sent to a defense lawyer representing American Electric Power in an auto-accident case. “Politely put, south Texas venue by itself makes this a very dangerous lawsuit,” Watts wrote.

We commend Mikal Watts for his candor. Why should walking into a south Texas courtroom be a trap for the unwary?

Furor over Mikal Watts “judges owe us” letter [Overlawyered]

* Didn’t they just execute somebody with an electric chair? And this is what gets them in trouble with the Constitution? [Jurist]

* Mel Weiss to be indicted. [New York Times]

* Oh, Al Sharpton, you’re incorrigible. [CNN]

* Judge withdraws jury instruction in Spector case; has he set up an easy appeal if there’s a conviction? [CNN]