Ready for Splitsville? Divorce Attorneys Update the Book

0

For attorneys Scott Weston and Robert Nachshin, there’s no such thing as a last word on pre-nuptial agreements.


They made names for themselves in 2000, when they successfully defended baseball star Barry Bonds in a case involving a pre-nup agreement. The case was particularly contentious, in part because Bonds was making $106,000 when he married Sun Bonds and $8 million when they split six years later. Further complicating the issue: When the pair stopped at Bonds’ lawyer’s office to sign the pre-nup on the way to the airport for their Las Vegas wedding, the slugger had his financial adviser and two lawyers in attendance while Sun had only a friend from Sweden with her. The case went all the way to the California Supreme Court, where the justices set a precedent by ruling pre-nuptial pacts enforceable, whether both sides have legal representation or not.


Last week, Weston and Nachshin issued a second edition of their 2004 book, “I Do, You Do But Just Sign Here: A Quick and Easy Guide to Cohabitation, Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements.”


“My view is everybody should at least explore whether or not a prenuptial agreement would be right for them,” Weston said, noting that tangible assets aren’t the only thing at stake. Intellectual properties, like a screenplay or business idea, “can manifest themselves into future earnings,” he said.


Weston also said it’s not only married couples who need to protect themselves, particularly with the proliferation of same-sex unions and other live-in arrangements.


“Domestic partnerships are viewed similarly to marital partnerships. However, many people entering into them don’t realize the serious legal consequences if and when those partnerships dissolve,” he said.


The purpose of the book, according to Weston, “is to suggest a broader scope of people who now have to concerned about what it means when they say ‘I do,’ or ‘I register.'”


The attorneys also have augmented the book with anecdotes about some of their well-known clients. The duo has represented Calvin Brodeus (a.k.a. Snoop Dog), Robert Iger, David Cassidy, Oscar de la Hoya, screenwriter and author Terry McMillan, and the former wives of Rod Stewart and Will Smith.



Military Action


Attorneys at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP finalized a deal in which the Lockheed Martin Corp. acquired one of their clients, L.A.-based PAE Group, for an undisclosed sum.


Founded in 1955, PAE provides support to military units, peacekeeping missions and reconstruction, as well as recruitment, training, and disaster relief. PAE, which has 6,000 employees in 30 countries, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed.


“This is a great company that has obviously has been under the radarscope of most people in Southern California,” said attorney Larry Braun who led the Sheppard deal team.


PAE is a privately owned firm, headed by chief executive Allen Shay. As to why the Shay family would want to sell after so much success, Braun said, “I think they saw the opportunity to continue to grow the business and to be affiliated with a great company like Lockheed Martin.”


The deal is expected to close in next month.


Braun’s team in L.A. included Tammy Brandt, Alan Leggett, John Bonn, Glenn Nieves, Matthew Richardson, Justin Yslas, and Mathilde Kapuano.



Final Movement


A couple of local lawyers have helped Walt Disney Concert Hall Inc. and Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Co. finally achieve a degree of harmony in their long-standing discord stemming from the troubled construction of the site.


Disney Hall was completed in 2003 at a total cost of $274 million before the settlement roughly $174 million over budget.


Two partners at Gibbs Giden Locher & Turner LLP, Jose L. Padilla and Marion T. Hack, represented the contracting company, which sued and alleged that it and its subcontractors were owed more than $43 million by Disney Concert Hall in 2003, claiming direct costs and those related to delays, inefficiency, and design changes. The contractor, and several of its subcontractors, put liens on the architectural landmark. Disney countersued for $6 million a month later, charging inadequate pre-construction services.


The parties reached a settlement last August in which Disney was to pay nearly $18 million to Mortenson and its subs, but it took another year to obtain releases from non-named parties in the dispute, including architect Frank Gehry, in an effort to ensure that they would not be named in a later complaint.


The settlement additionally includes a non-disparagement clause that prohibits Mortenson and its subcontractors from criticizing Gehry’s work or from using Gehry’s name in written advertising or marketing materials regarding their work on the Concert Hall.


The payouts are due by Sept. 14.


“It was remarkable that we were able to settle this complex lawsuit without taking as much as a single substantive deposition and with minimal written discovery,” Padilla said. “With the litigation behind us, we can now focus our attention to the marvel of this landmark concert hall, which is a proud accomplishment for all involved.”



Movin’ On Over


Ronen Elad has joined DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Elad will be a partner in the corporate and securities practice at the firm’s Century City office. Keesal Young & Logan has added a new of counsel in its Long Beach office. Frances L. Keeler, former senior counsel with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, has joined the firm.


Staff reporter Emily Bryson York can be reached at

[email protected]

or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235.

No posts to display