Akin Gump hit with $72.6 million judgment

There’s never a good time to be hit with a $72.6 million negligence judgment, but that’s what lawyers at Dallas-based Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld are waking up to this morning after a San Antonio federal jury hit the firm with the massive damage award on Thursday. The case, Air Measurement Technologies Inc., et al. v. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, involved an alleged error in a patent application for a safety device used by firemen --- an application handled by a former Akin Gump lawyer who previously settled with the plaintiffs, according to John Raley, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. Lawyers for the plaintiffs alleged at trial the error complicated the prosecution of patent infringement claims, forcing them to settle for much less than they wanted, Raley says. The jury found that Akin Gump was 100 percent responsible for the negligence in its verdict. The case is unusual. Most legal malpractice claims are heard in state court rather than federal court. But in a 2007 case of first impression, the Federal U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Air Measurement that the case could be heard in federal court because establishing patent infringement (the exclusive province of federal courts) was a “necessary element” of the legal malpractice claim, therefore it could be heard in federal court. A spokeswoman for the firm, Aleisha Gravit, says a statement from the firm is forthcoming. I'm working on a more in-depth article about this case as we speak for the May 18 edition of Texas Lawyer.

UPDATE: Gravit notes that the judgment has not yet been entered in the case. “However, if a judgment is entered, Akin Gump will appeal because the evidence does not support the jury's verdict,” she says.

-- John Council

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