Susan Stanford ex-divorce lawyers file their answer to malpractice case

A lawyer and a law firm who formerly represented Susan Stanford, wife of jailed Houston financier R. Allen Stanford, filed an answer yesterday to a malpractice suit pending against them in state district court. Stanford has alleged negligence and breach of fiduciary duty as causes of action against Nancy Rommelmann, a solo practitioner in Houston, and Houston firm Pavlas, Brown & York. Rommelmann and Pavlas, Brown & York deny the allegations in the petition, asking that Stanford “take nothing by reason of this lawsuit, that all costs be taxed against Stanford, and that Rommelmann have such other, further, or alternative relief to which she may be legally or equitably entitled.” Stanford alleges in her petition that 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 in the petition. The divorce is pending in Dempster’s court.
-- John Council