Legal Malpractice

Prudential, Leeds Morelli & Brown Legal Malpractice back in the News

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

We reported on this situation more than a year ago. Leeds Morelli & Brown apparently cut its own deal not to sue Prudential again, in exchange for a hefty legal fee paid to it.  One of its clients, Linda Guyden, is trying to set aside an arbitration award on the basis that her attorney was conflicted.  Here is the latest fromOverlawyered:

"The law firm of Leeds Morelli & Brown has recently been embroiled in controversy over episodes in which it has settled batches of employment discrimination claims while contemporaneously entering agreements in which the defendants agree to hire it (the Leeds Morelli firm) for substantial sums. Now an African-American woman who was once a vice president at Prudential Insurance and then sued the company for racial bias as a Leeds Morelli client "is asking a federal judge to set aside an arbitration award, alleging her lawyers were given improper financial inducement to keep her claim and hundreds of others out of court. According to Linda Guyden, the company paid $5 million to the law firm representing her and 358 other employees, in return for which Prudential's total exposure was capped at $10 million and the claims were kept secret."

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).