Young associates shouldn`t be dogged by rumor and innuendo when caught in the middle of unfortunate circumstances early in their careers. No one should know that better than the three partners at Goggin Cutler & Hull, whose summary dismissal of 8 of their 11 associates four weeks ago has fed a tangle of rumors. Here`s our best effort to clear the air.
Crum & Forster Inc., a major reinsurer, on July 19 yanked all its work-about 15 cases-from the 14-attorney insurance defense firm after a routine audit. The Xerox Corp. subsidiary refused to divulge the audit`s findings. In a press release, Terrence J. Goggin cited ”a change in management philosophy” at their major client and ordered the near-dismantling of his firm.
The rumor mill immediately began to churn, since partners Goggin, David P. Cutler and Edwin J. Hull III were associates under former attorney Charles Besser, now a sports agent. Besser pleaded guilty and was disbarred in 1985 for taking kickbacks while doing insurance defense work for Crum & Forster. As one wag put it: ”It looks like they caught Besser disease.”
But close observers of the firm`s affairs and a look at one of their major cases suggests a more mundane reason for why a routine audit could have led to the firm`s dismissal: runaway legal costs.
On attorney advice, Crum & Forster had sued Fireman`s Fund Insurance Co. in 1987 alleging Fireman`s Fund engaged in fraud when it purchased reinsurance policies for its Dow Chemical Co. exposure from Crum & Forster in 1972 and 1974. The policies were among a half dozen Fireman`s Fund bought to spread the risk of its primary product liability coverage of Dow.
After Dow and other chemical companies-with Fireman`s assent-agreed in 1984 to pay $170 million to GI victims of Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide used as a defoliant in Vietnam, Fireman`s attempted to collect ”several millions of dollars” from Crum & Forster. Goggins Cutler & Hull responded with the suit, even though their complaint never mentioned Agent Orange, and none of the other reinsurers made similar claims.
Things haven`t gone well before U.S. District Court Judge Charles P. Kocoras. The attorney for Fireman`s, Philip C. Stahl of Grippo & Elden, immediately filed notice that he would seek to have Crum & Forster pay Fireman`s legal fees-”which are already in the hundreds of thousands of dollars”-since he considered the case groundless. Kocoras` magistrate later slapped a $600 sanction on the Goggins firm when it attempted to subpoena Fireman`s Fund officials after that part of the discovery process had been closed.
It`s not as if the Goggins firm wasn`t working to earn its own hefty legal fees. After it was dismissed, the Dow/Fireman`s files were delivered to Purcell & Wardrope, which has handled Crum & Forster work for two decades.
”We have 225 cartons of paper to go through,” said Edward C. Purcell.
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”It`s massive litigation.”
Another close observer of the case chose to categorize it differently:
”The amount of activity they put in was way out of proportion to the dollar value of the case and way, way, way out of proportion to the results they`ve obtained so far.”
COURTLY DEFENDERS
Now that the Dirksen Federal Building court buffs have named Terence Gillespie Chicago`s ”No. 1 criminal defense lawyer” for his remarkable string of acquittals in three government cases, what sayeth Patrick Tuite, on whom the buffs bestowed the title in 1984, in his own defense?
No problem. ”He is a fine, young lawyer,” replied Tuite, whose partner, Cindy Giacchetti, agreed. ”Terence Gillespie is a great lawyer,” she said.
”We recommend him.”
Like Tuite, Gillespie honed his trial skills as as assistant Cook County state`s attorney. His success formula: Hold to a single theory of defense and show intensity. That aside, ”It helps,” he added, ”to have great facts and innocent people.”
– No reasonable offer refused. With that in mind, 70 members of the plaintiff and defense bar will convene as part of a joint Chicago Bar Association-Circuit Court move to settle as many personal injury cases as possible in three days of bargaining Aug. 30-Sept. 1.
The same dates apply for this year`s Illinois Judicial Conference, at the Chicago Marriott Hotel, with an opening night report on the ”State of the State`s Judiciary” by Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Moran.
In the bar association mediation effort, volunteer litigators include Richard Austin, John Cashion, Patricia Bobb, Thomas Bridgman, Robert Clifford, Philip Corboy, Brian Crowe, Thomas Demetrio, Terrence Hegarty, Peter John, Eileen Letts, Peter Mone, Nat Ozmon, Manuel Sanchez and Burton Weinstein. Cases from the clogged law division have been targeted.
– Senior Judge Hubert L. Will of U.S. District Court says he`s considering whether to ask the appeals court to reconsider its recent decision undoing much of a controversial agreement Will approved in 1985 to distribute money left over from a $200 million settlement of an antitrust suit against carton manufacturers.
A clarification on last week`s item on the appeals court decision: Under provisions of the 1985 agreement, half the leftover money was to be available for grants to area law schools and half was distributed as an additional payment to the approximately 2,700 companies that claimed to have been victimized by the alleged price-fixing conspiracy. Also, the U.S. Justice Department sought to intervene two years, not two months, after the 1985 settlement was approved by Judge Will.
– Robert B. Schaefer, 52, leaves his $74,900 post as regional counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to become environmental counsel for Hillside-based John Sexton & Co., a landfill operator.
– After 10 years, Mark Davis is leaving the real estate litigation unit of the Cook County state`s attorney`s office, where he served as supervisor, to join O`Keefe, Ashenden, Lyons & Ward.
– The personal-injury law firm of Robert J. Cooney & Associates becomes Cooney & Conway as Kevin Conway adds his name.