Legal News

Malpractice claim settled between Irell & Manella and Charter Communications

By Richard Binder

Irell & Manella has settled a $150 million legal malpractice lawsuit with one of its largest clients, Charter Communications Inc., according to a Feb. 10 filing in the case.

The settlement was reached following two months of mediation, according to court documents. No details of the settlement, including the dollar amount, were provided.

Irell, based in Los Angeles, had represented Charter and its chairman, Paul Allen, while both were looking to acquire cable systems to build a nationwide cable television company. In 2000, while working on an acquisition dubbed "the Bresnan Transaction," an unnamed Irell associate deleted two important paragraphs of the contract, giving Allen an unintended type of stock. No one noticed the mistake until 2002, after which Charter was forced to negotiate with Allen over millions of dollars to rectify the deal. Charter then sued Irell for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and other claims.

See details at NLJ.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).