Legal Ethics

Law Firm Shelling Out $300K In Yacht Kickback Case

Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.

By  
on

It’s not often that you see headlines about lawyers and yacht trips funded by kickback money, but apparently that’s because you’re not familiar with the wild, no-holds-barred legal scene in… Massachusetts?

In a case that feels like it should be in Grand Cayman or some other locale with a shady business reputation, Keches Law Group PC of Boston has settled with the state AG’s office over allegations that it was mixed up in a referral for perks scheme with Injured Workers Pharmacy, an entity that’s already paid the state $11 million in a settlement over lax safeguards “resulting in the shipment of thousands of potentially illegitimate controlled substance prescriptions across the country.” Oops.

Keches had agreements with Injured Workers Pharmacy that paid for a racing event, a holiday party, and — obviously — a yacht outing to the tune of roughly $90K in exchange for the firm referring clients to the pharmacy.

“Law firms shouldn’t break the law, and they certainly shouldn’t profit off their clients’ injuries through illegal kickbacks,” Attorney General Maura Healy said.

Yes, clients should know if they’re getting referred to a specific place because the attorney is getting a fee for that referral. But the existence of agreements like these aren’t as unsavory as Healy paints. After all, the fact that this pharmacy got mixed up in opioid roulette doesn’t necessarily reflect on the firm — from the firm’s perspective they have hurt clients and a pharmacy is giving them money for recommending services.

While you’d hope to say, “any pharmacy in a deal like that should raise red flags” the fact of the matter is the pharmaceutical racket is lucrative enough that places taking all the right precautions still have enough money to fund a yacht excursion here and there. There’s no reason why a firm would have to be suspicious of a high spending pharmacy. Perhaps that’s a more fundamental problem that someone should look into.

But with this $300K settlement behind them, the firm can get back to listening to smooth Loggins and Messina tracks cruising around Boston Harbor.

Sponsored

AG forces Boston law firm to pay $300,000 over yacht, holiday outings [Law360]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

Sponsored

Topics

,