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Tag Archives: barclays
David and Goliath
A recent US case of a law firm suing a client contains a salutary lesson.
Debevoise & Plimpton had sued former client Candlewood for $6million in unpaid legal fees and found itself facing “an answer and counterclaim” seeking damages of $55million! [Ex-Debevoise Client Raises Nasty Counterclaims in Unpaid Bills Case, The American Lawyer, 14 January, 2010]
Apparently, some of Candlewood’s allegations against their former advisers were not too flattering which only goes to show that the publicity generated by this type of dispute is often publicity the law firm could well do without.
According to Candlewood’s counterclaim, D&P managed to bill for more than 15,000 hours or the equivalent of 10 lawyers working full time for the 10 month period in question, whereas Candlewood’s Delaware based lawyers successfully represented the company for two and a half years at a total cost of $450,000.
Could this happen in England?
Watch out! Costs About!
A Salutary Tale of Disclosure Obligations
Not everything in this blog is intended to be light hearted, as I found myself saying the other day. A kindly soul who had expressed approval of and interest in the blog had caused me to explain that there was intended to be a partly serious side to my musings as well as a bit of fun. So for those of you who only want to be mildly entertained, you should not read any further!
Actually, I rather hope you will read on, because litigation lawyers might have missed a recent decision which is relevant to everyone who conducts litigation in this jurisdiction.
I have to admit that I am a new convert to the webpages of the British and Irish Legal and Information Institute www.bailii.org. The website is a veritable mine of information about recent cases, and what I like is that, at a click of not very many buttons, you can find a table of recent cases with very fast hyperlinks to judgments in cases which may be of interest.
I had been looking for the judgment in a recent case with a very different subject matter (and nothing to do with e-disclosure!) which had been reported in the newspapers last week, when my eye alighted on a case several places up the list of latest cases. I had stumbled across a judgment of His Honour Judge Simon Brown QC dated 8th October 2009 in the case of Earles v Barclays Bank PLC .