Man Down! Man Down!

Class action attorneys Steve Berman and Tom Sobol, and their law firm, Hagens Berman, are not unknown to South Florida litigators. Some of us have litigated against them. We have seen them file cases in South Florida courts, and team up on occasion with South Florida attorneys to prosecute class actions that are national in scope. For example, Steve Berman teamed up in 2001 with generally-good-in-all respects lawyer Sam Dubbin to prosecute the Nazi Gold Train case before Judge Seitz. That matter was settled on favorable terms back in September 2005.

That's why this filing today by Philadelphia lawyer Don Haviland is such a shocker. The background is that there is apparently a dispute regarding leadership in the massive and closely-watched AWP litigation in Boston. The federal judge in Boston had appointed a few firms as co-interim class counsel, including Hagens Berman and Don Haviland's former firm, Klein & Specter. Apparently, Haviland and his former firm had a parting of the ways, giving rise somehow to a motion by Hagens to remove Don Haviland as co-interim class counsel.

I can't give you all the bloody details, you have to open the Pacer link and read it yourself. Personally, I think Haviland's filing is a disgrace. I don't believe a word of it and it does a discredit both to him and his profession.