HONEY, I GOT "DE-EQUITIZED"

Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, one of those huge, silk stocking law firms that only hires the best and brightest[which is presumably why I never got an interview] "de-equitized" 45 partners in earlyMarch. In English, they fired them. The firm released a press release saying the victims were "fine lawyers who have made significant contributions to the firm". The release went on to note that even with strong revenues in 2006[profits per partner over $1 million dollars] the firm had to restructure.

Times, they are a- changin. When I got out of law school 20 years ago, landing at a place like Mayer Brown meant you were set. Do your work, keep your head down, make partner, join a country club, become a Republican, retire with a fat portfolio and summer home. Not any more. More and more of the bigger firms are cutting partners loose without a second thought. So, it appears I was right in not making Law Review after all.

STATE FARM AND ALLSTATE GETTING RICHER

In a follow-up to a recent post, I saw some interesting news about State Farm and Allstate. Despite all the rhetoric and Chamber of Commerce driven nonsense about lawsuit abuse, seems that State Farm and Allstate are doing just fine. State Farm reported that its profits jumped 65% in 2006. Profits were down the previous year because of large payouts resulting from Katrina claims. That certainly makes sense. The part of the article that did catch my eye were the details, as reported by Crain's Chicago Business, about the auto insurance profits. State Farm paid out $1.25 billion in dividends to auto-policy holders. Some of those profits are an result of the DELAY, DENY AND DEFEND tact State Farm has taken when it comes to defending auto claims. [See the February 27, 2007 post]. The formula is pretty easy to follow: 1) use a scorched earth policy in defending ALL auto claims; 2) exhaust legitimate claimants so they eventually just give up and; 3) reduce payouts and increase profits.

Allstate, another practicioner of DELAY, DEFEND AND DENY also reported that 2006 profits nearly tripled, to $5 billion dollars.

CATHOLIC CHURCH HIDES BEHIND BANKRUPTCY LAWS

According to a February 28, 2007 story in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego planned to file for bankruptcy in order to delay going to trial in more than 140 cases involving allegations of sexual abuse. According to Bishop Robert Bron, the decision was made to go forward with a bankruptcy because any damages awarded might "...deplete Diocesan and insurance resources leaving nothing for other victims." According to attorneys for the Diocese, the plan was to file for Bankruptcy in the late evening hours, just before the very first trial got underway. That filing would then halt any legal proceedings.

Attorneys for the abuse victims, however, interpreted the move differently. They feel the bankruptcy filing was simply a tactic to keep potentiallly embarassing information from seeing the light of day in a courtroom

I have to side with counsel for the plaintiffs here. The church has known the number and types of claims it faced for years. Why didn't they file for Bankruptcy protection long ago if they were so worried about other victims? The more likely scenario is much simpler - the Church figured that it could resolve the cases and keep the scandalous allegations from becoming public. When the settlements didn't go through, the Church had to file Bankruptcy. The very last thing the Church wants is to have a jury hearing evidence about how priests repeatedly abused children, and the Church simply looked the other way. The Catholic Church has always been good at passing judgment on society. It appears however, the Church will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid society passing judgment upon it.