A husband-wife lawyer team is suing one of Denver’s premier litigation firms alleging that they were laid off last year in order to prevent them from sharing in a $391 million jury verdict they helped land.
Attorneys Wendy and Eric Fisher say in a lawsuit that they — and others — were laid off from law firm Reilly Pozner
in June 2015, just three months after they helped secure the federal jury verdict in Missouri against PNC Bank.
Reilly Pozner jettisoned 17 people, including four senior partners and one junior partner. The firm explained that it had not been obtaining enough work to cover salaries and other expenses, according to the lawsuit filed in Denver District Court.
The Fishers allege partners Larry Pozner and Dan Reilly were instead looting company profits to fund their own “lavish lifestyles,” including homes in Hawaii and Jamaica, and gearing up for their own retirements.
A number of family members were kept on the Reilly Pozner payroll, even though none had legal training, the lawsuit claims.
Though the pair were nonequity partners at the firm, they said they had operated for years under the promise they would reap the “life-changing” rewards of their work.
“There are equity partners who take risks, who put their money on the line to fund litigation, and those who are not, and they have salaries and bonuses,” said attorney Christina Habas, who is representing Reilly Pozner.
Equity partners such as Reilly and Pozner divide the profits. Nonequity partners do not share profits, but can receive higher salaries and bonuses.
Habas would not comment about the Fishers’ allegations. The downsizing happened, she said, “because if the phone doesn’t ring and you don’t get large clients, you need to make difficult decisions.”
Reilly Pozner has asked that the case be handled through arbitration because employees agree to the process when they are hired.
The Fishers joined the firm in 2000 and handled a number of high-profile cases, including some involving the Denver Broncos.
The PNC case involved the raiding of trust accounts by employees of a company that sold prepaid funeral plans. Reilly Pozner represented several state life and health guaranty associations that covered losses incurred by consumers who bought the plans.
The owner of National Prearranged Services and six others pleaded guilty in 2013 to the scam that defrauded more than 97,000 people in 16 states.
PNC and other banks were sued for not protecting the trust accounts. Several other plaintiffs settled before the case went to trial.
The verdict is on appeal. The lawsuit does not say what share of the verdict would go to Reilly Pozner.
David Migoya: 303-954-1506, dmigoya@denverpost.com or @davidmigoya
