Thirteen victims of the Jan. 26 Metrolink crash near Glendale that left 11 dead have retained one of the nation’s top plaintiff’s firms specializing in vehicle crashes: Baum Hedlund PC.
The families of three passengers killed in the recent crash and 10 passengers who were injured have hired the firm’s local office to file claims for an undisclosed amount against the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which operates Metrolink.
The crash occurred when a commuter train collided with a jeep that was parked on the tracks by Juan Manual Alvarez in an apparent suicide attempt. Alvarez is expected to stand trial for those deaths.
If the claims are not paid within the next few months, Baum Hedlund expects to file suits against the agency, according to Robin McCall, a spokeswoman for the firm’s local office.
That may come sooner rather than later, as public agencies virtually always litigate major claims. “We’ve never in our 25 years seen a claim actually paid,” she said.
Boom or Bust?
Maybe that technology resurgence hasn’t quite happened yet.
The founding partners of a technology-focused corporate boutique firm have joined Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP just six months after starting their own firm.
Lee Weinberg and Louis Dienes, who founded Weinberg Dienes LLP at the start of this year, have opted out of management to be partners in Alschuler’s 17-member corporate and securities department.
At four lawyers, Dienes claims they were “growing much faster than the market,” with clients that included Chanin Capital Partners and Axium International.
“It didn’t take long for people to call you and talk about acquiring your business,” he said.
Still, Dienes said he was attracted to Alschuler’s litigation department and its growing corporate practice. And he is in talks with the two remaining lawyers at Weinberg Dienes to join Alschuler.
Before forming his own firm, Dienes was a sole practitioner who had previously spent nine years at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Weinberg was a senior executive at AEi Systems and a member of Tech Coast Angels.
Pocket Change
California will be raising the Bar on its lawyers or at least their fees.
The State Bar of California, faced with a rising amount of claims by clients who were bilked by their attorneys, expects to hike annual lawyer fees for the first time in five years.
“During the last few years, our claims paid out have exceeded our income so our reserves have gone down,” said John Van de Kamp, president of the State Bar and a Los Angeles lawyer serving of counsel to Dewey Ballantine LLP.
If the State Bar did not raise fees, it would incur a $2.7 million operating deficit by the end of 2006, according to a recent audit detailed on the Bar’s Web site.
By the standards of some attorneys, it’s strictly nickel and dime stuff. Currently, practicing lawyers pay an annual fee of $390; the fee increase, contained in a state Senate bill, would raise that by $5 beginning Jan. 5, followed by $5 more in 2007.
Inactive lawyers who want to maintain their standing with the Bar would have something more to complaint about. They would see their fees rise to $115 per year from $50, with another $10 increase in 2007.
Second Careers
Another former federal judge has joined the Southern California office of JAMS, the private alternative dispute resolution service.
Gary Taylor, a retired judge of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, has handled a variety of high-profile cases, from the multimillion-dollar liability cases in the 1994 Orange County bankruptcy to intellectual property disputes involving the Milton Green Archives of Marilyn Monroe photos.
Before joining the federal bench in 1990, Taylor was an Orange County Superior Court judge for four years and an attorney in private practice.
Taylor, 66, said that while serving as a federal judge in the Santa Ana division “was an absolute blast,” he opted against taking semi-retirement status.
He said more retired federal judges are considering arbitration and mediation as a career route. “Federal judges are doing it more frequently than they used to,” he said. “Arbitration and mediation is becoming just a much more significant part of the law practice, more so than ever before. I want to experience that and be part of it.”
Taylor is the second federal judge to join JAMS this year. In April, retired U.S. District Court Judge Lourdes Baird joined the panel.
*Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at
[email protected]
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