Business, Torts, Contracts, & Securities

Representative Cases

Insurance; Refusal to Pay Deductibles; Arbitration

The corporate counsel for the owner of an interstate chain of nursing homes retained the Firm to resolve a lawsuit filed against it by the company’s liability insurer.  The insurer had paid a number of personal injury claims filed by residents against several of the insured nursing homes, and the insurer then sued the Client for several hundred thousand dollars for the deductibles required by the insurance contract.  The Firm convinced the insurance company’s attorneys that binding arbitration would be much less expensive for all the parties, and they dismissed the lawsuit.  At arbitration, the Firm proved that the insurer had improperly settled the residents’ claims and was not entitled to recover any of the deductibles from the Client’s company.

Contract; Fees on Account; Business Goodwill

A brokerage firm which had arranged financing for a company to acquire a subsidiary was unable to collect the fees which were called for in its fee contract with the acquiring company, and was referred to the Firm by its corporate counsel.  The broker was reluctant to file suit against its customer and was anzious to preserve its reputation and goodwill with its customer base.  The Firm initiated direct negotiations with the in-house counsel for the broker’s customer, and obtained the full fee due for the Client brokerage firm without having to file suit.

Hi-Tech Start-up; Defections; Trade Secrets; Illegal Competition

Several senior executives defected from their national software employer and set up their own competing hi-tech company.  The former employer sued the executives, alleging illegal competition, and theft of trade secrets. The Firm was brought in by the new company’s general counsel to defend the executives. After depositions of all parties, and extensive document discovery, the Firm took the dispute to mediation and successfully resolved all the pending issues to the Clients’ satisfaction; the start-up was highly successful.

First Amendment; Publishing; Injunctions; Appeals (New York)

The Firm successfully defended a national publishing company in a New York lawsuit filed by a “big six” accounting firm which was trying to prevent the publisher from publishing certain confidential information regarding the accounting firm’s internal financial matters, including each individual partner’s profits.  After a New York trial judge had issued an ex-parte injunction prohibiting the Client’s publication of the information, attorneys for the Firm flew to New York and obtained an immediate reversal of the judge’s injunction by the New York Court of Appeals.  The Firm also succeeded in forcing the accounting firm to pay all its attorneys fees so that the Client incurred no costs in winning the case.  (The case was reported locally and nationally, by The New York Times and others, and of course, by the Client’s own publication.)

Corporations; Garnishments; Release of Accounts

The Firm was retained on an emergency basis to represent several out-of-state corporations which were related to and named similarly to a Georgia corporation against which a substantial judgment had been obtained in Federal Court in an adjoining state.  Also, a garnishment action had been filed by the adverse party in Federal Court in Atlanta, but it had failed to properly identify in which state the judgment-debtor corporation was incorporated.  The Firm successfully convinced the Federal Court judge to dismiss the action, thereby releasing the corporate bank accounts of all the related and similarly-named corporations, allowing our Clients immediate access to funds in those accounts.

Insider Trading; Officers' & Directors' Liability

When a west-coast-based communications company with business operations throughout the U.S. and the Far East was suspected of possible insider trading by certain officers and directors of the company, the company’s Corporate Counsel hired the Firm to conduct an impartial investigation into the allegations against the company.  The Firm interviewed all the corporate directors and officers and reviewed all their stock trades and brokers’ records, and prepared a detailed report of its findings and conclusions, resulting in the dismissal of the accusation and avoiding an investigation by the SEC.

Insurance Fraud; Rico Violations; Negotiated Settlement

A property and casualty insurance company, which sold major amounts of casualty insurance to a number of other companies in reliance on fraudulent reinsurance commitments issued by a foreign reinsurance company, was sued in Federal Court in California for fraud and violation of the RICO statutes.  The claim against our Client, an independent insurance broker (referred by his corporate counsel), was settled without any payment by the Client and a complete release from any liability on his part.

Limited Partnership; Illegal Distributions; Temporary Retaining Order

The Firm represented a group of limited partners in a business venture in which the general partner was distributing income to himself as the general partner and to its individual owners without providing appropriate documentation as required by the Limited Partnership Agreement and the Management Agreement.  After a contested court hearing, the Firm obtained an emergency injunction from the Court, requiring the general partner to provide all necessary documentation to determine if the distributions were appropriate and preventing the general partner from making any distributions until they were determined to be in accordance with the specific terms of the Agreements.

Professional Corporations; Takeover Attempt; Injunction

The Firm represented a doctor who owned a successful medical practice 50/50 with his partner.  However, when “Dr. A’s” professional license was suspended by the State of Georgia, he was notified by the other 50% shareholder that “you are no longer a valid shareholder in the corporation, the corporation will be dissolved, and the corporate assets will be distributed as I see fit.”  Dr. ‘A’ was referred to the Firm by his corporate attorney.  The Firm immediately filed suit and obtained an injunction preventing the other shareholder from taking any such action concerning the corporation and from liquidating any of its assets or paying out any funds without written consent of the Client.  Later, after getting the Client’s license to practice medicine reinstated, the Firm was then able to obtain 100% ownership of the corporation for the Client.

Ethics; Conflict of Interest; Arbitration; Injunctions

A large brokerage firm filed an action seeking to enjoin a prominent law firm from representing an investor in a million-dollar arbitration action against the brokerage firm.  The suit claimed that the investor’s law firm had a conflict of interest, since one of its partners had previously represented the brokerage firm when the lawyer was employed by another firm.  The Firm was retained by the defendant law firm and, at an emergency hearing the next day, the judge was persuaded that disqualification was not justified. The Client was allowed to proceed with its representation of the investor in his claim against the brokerage firm.

Stockbrokers; Churning Accounts; Licensing

The Firm successfully defended an unlicensed “stockbroker” who was sued in Federal Court by a friend who had given the broker $350,000 to invest, all of which was lost in trading.  The broker was accused of churning the account, making inappropriate investments, and failing to obtain approval for various trades.  A complete dismissal of liability was obtained on behalf of the Client.

Business Dissolution; Bankruptcy; Engineering Malpractice; Soil Testing

A large retailer with its own free-standing building was being liquidated, and filed for bankruptcy protection to reorganize.  When the property was to be sold, the sales contract required that the soil be tested for contaminants, and the engineering report revealed the presence of toxic chemicals, which significantly reduced the sales price at the court-ordered auction.  The retailer’s bankruptcy counsel retained the Firm, and suit was filed against the engineering company for failing to conduct the soil tests in keeping with industry standards, and subsequent tests revealed that there were no toxic chemicals.  A settlement was achieved which allowed the retailer’s creditors to receive 100% recovery on their claims, and the retailer recovered the profit which had been lost on the sale.

Securities; Oil & Gas; Fraud; Class Action

A local securities attorney and an out-of-state law firm associated the Firm as trial counsel in the prosecution of a securities class action case against several brokerage houses for selling to the public an investment program that had failed, and for which appropriate due  diligence had not been conducted.  After taking numerous depositions and reviewing thousands of documents, all claims were settled shortly before the case went to trial.  The Federal Court approved the settlement resulting in a recovery of $17 Million.  The facts of the case and the final result were widely reported in the national press including The Wall Street Journal.

Securities; Fraud; Negotiated Settlement; Brokers

A registered securities representative, who had inadvertently directed almost $100,000 of her client’s money into a fraudulent securities venture, hired the Firm to defend her in this case involving 16 different parties.  After extensive litigation and negotiation, the Firm succeeded in getting her dismissed from the action and she was not required to contribute to the settlement fund, all of which was paid by other defendants.

Breach of Contract; Telecommunications

A lawsuit was brought against both a Fortune 1000 telecommunications company and a prospective purchaser of equipment, alleging that the telcom company-Client had breached a contract with the plaintiff for the purchase of the equipment, and that the prospective purchaser-Client had tortiously interfered with the alleged contract between the telcom company and the plaintiff.  The Firm was hired to represent both the company and the purchaser, and a favorable settlement was negotiated with the plaintiff allowing the company to sell the equipment to the purchaser as planned.  (The purchaser-Client was then able to begin operations as the first national minority-owned telecommunications company.)

Contracts; Arbitration; Bad Faith; Attorneys' Fees

The senior litigation partner of a major national law firm hired the Firm to represent him in a fraud claim against a Texas corporation for causing him mental anguish by breaching a contract for timely delivery of merchandise.  The Firm filed suit in Federal Court, the Texas company demanded arbitration, and the Court ordered the case to arbitration, where, after a 5-day trial, the Arbitrator found the Texas company was guilty of bad faith and awarded full damages to the Client plus 100% of all fees and costs incurred (over $250,000+).

- additional sample cases available upon request