Susan Stanford, wife of jailed Houston financier R. Allen Stanford, filed a malpractice suit on Sept. 24 alleging she was never told about a $200 million divorce settlement offer. Susan Stanford, who lives in Houston, brings negligence and breach of fiduciary duty causes of action against Nancy Rommelmann, a solo practitioner in Houston, and Houston firm Pavlas, Brown & York. In the original petition in Susan Stanford v. Nancy Rommelmann, et al., Stanford, who sued for divorce in 2007, seeks actual damages of $200 million from the defendants along with fee forfeiture. She alleges she hired Rommelmann in 2007 to file her divorce petition against R. Allen Stanford; the divorce is pending in 308th District Judge Georgia Dempster’s court in Harris County. Susan Stanford alleges Rommelmann engaged John Pavlas, of Pavlas, Brown, to assist her. Pavlas is not named individually as a defendant in Stanford's suit. As alleged, in January 2008, R. Allen Stanford’s divorce attorney, Bucky Allshouse of Houston, made a verbal offer of settlement to Rommelmann and Pavlas that would pay Susan Stanford $200 million for her share of the community property. “Plaintiff was not only unaware that such offer was made, but she was never apprised of the offer by either of her attorneys,” Susan Stanford alleges. She alleges that when she found out about the offer, after Allshouse notified Rommelmann in February 2009 that his client had withdrawn it, she “terminated defendants as her counsel." Stanford alleges that by the time she became aware of the offer, the “substantial” community property assets were seized and/or frozen by the Securities and Exchange Commission. She also alleges that if she had been informed of the settlement offer, she would have accepted it. Rommelmann and Pavlas each did not return a message left at their offices. While Rommelmann is listed on Harris County computer court records as Susan Stanford’s counsel in the divorce, Stanford is now represented by Donn Fullenweider, a partner in Fullenweider Wilhite in Houston. Allshouse confirms that a $200 million settlement offer was on the table, but he says his client, not he, communicated the offer to the other side. Allshouse says he does not know if R. Allen Stanford spoke to his wife or her attorneys when making the offer. Michael Mallia, a partner in Vickery, Waldner & Mallia of Houston, who represents Susan Stanford in the malpractice suit, also could not be reached for immediate comment. R. Allen Stanford has been in custody since June, after he pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges related to an alleged conspiracy to defraud investors who bought about $7 billion in certificates of deposit sold through Stanford International Bank Ltd. He has pleaded not guilty.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
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