Kentucky

Expert witness says fen-phen defendant relied on colleague

William J. Gallion and two other lawyers relied heavily on the advice of famed trial lawyer Stan Chesley in the handling of a $200 million civil settlement with a diet drug manufacturer, according to an expert witness retained by Gallion.

Chesley discouraged Gallion and two lawyers from providing notice to potential plaintiffs that a lawsuit against the maker of the diet drug fen-phen had become a state class action, according to a report filed in U.S. District Court by Richard L. Robbins, a Harvard-educated lawyer retained by Gallion as an expert on class-action litigation.

Chesley said the notice in the state case would interfere with a national class action he was leading against the manufacturer, according to Robbins, who reviewed documents in the criminal case against suspended lawyers Gallion, Shirley Cunningham Jr. and Melbourne Mills.

Robbins' report, filed Monday, offered a glimpse into Gallion's defense strategy heading into the May criminal trial. Gallion, Cunningham and Mills, who represented 440 fen-phen users in a lawsuit against American Home Products, are accused of bilking their clients out of $65 million.

They are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.