GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Legal Newsline) - A lawyer who sought to remove co-counsel who negotiated an as-yet confidential $600 million settlement of lawsuits over the Flint, Mich., water crisis dropped his motion after a stormy hearing in which the judge called his complaint “just ridiculous.”
Flint attorney Valdemar Washington filed the motion to remove Napoli Shkolnik and Levy Konigsberg from control of the litigation last week, accusing them of using their inside knowledge of the negotiation process to gain an advantage in obtaining clients for lawsuits that could generate $100 million in fees.
Washington complained about a half-hour infomercial the law firms ran that discussed a “pioneering” test for lead in the bones of children that could give them higher payouts under the settlement. Several other law firms filed concurring motions in support of Washington.
In a Zoom hearing Oct. 30 U.S. District Judge Judith Levy quickly rebuked Washington for making what she called an improper ex parte communication with the court to discuss his concerns about the infomercial and the lead testing. When that was rebuffed, Washington filed his motion, which Judge Levy said failed to make a plausible case Napoli Shkolnik and Levy Kongsberg had done anything wrong.
“What I see in your motion is you haven’t said one thing in your motion that says that they failed in their duty as co-counsel,” the judge said. “You’ve told me you’d like your clients to have a bone lead scan too.”
Washington complained that the lawyers had inserted a “hierarchy” into the settlement favoring their clients who had bone lead scans and giving them an advantage by advertising it for potential new clients. He acknowledged he doesn’t have the settlement documents “to confirm my gut” but said it was likely.
“If it’s there and they have the only local technology, and we were kept in the dark during the negotiation, that’s a problem,” he said.
“I don’t know if that’s in the case here because I don’t have the documents and there’s a good reason for that, because it’s still being worked on,” said Judge Levy, who described it as “one of our country’s most complex and nuanced settlements.” Later in the hearing, she said of the effort to disqualify the two leading firms, “this is just ridiculous.”
Michigan has agreed to pay $600 million to settle claims it failed to notify Flint residents of high lead levels in their water after the city, which was operating under state oversight, shifted from the Detroit water system to an aged plant on the Flint River. The river water wasn’t treated with chemicals needed to prevent it from corroding old lead pipes and releasing the metal into drinking water.
The exact terms of the settlement are still secret, including the fees private lawyers will earn from the state funds. The judge said the settlement should be released within a week.
The Flint water litigation has sparked contention among plaintiff lawyers seeking a piece of those fees. Soon after it began, the law firm Cohen Milstein and Napoli Shkolnik each asked the judge to remove the other from leadership positions in a fight over contingency fees.
This time, the judge told Washington and other lawyers seeking to remove the lead counsel to wait until the settlement is complete and then object or opt out of the deal.
“You have plenty of time to say `Look, I don’t want to be a part of that. I’m going to trial,” the judge said.
“Maybe you’ll blow the whole thing up.”
“I don’t want to do that, Your Honor,” Washington said.
“You may succeed and it may be merited,” she replied.