Legal News

Akin Gump Hit With Texas-Sized Malpractice Verdict

By Nathan Koppel

Akin Gump was on the losing end yesterday of $72.6 million malpractice verdict in San Antonio federal court.

A Texas company, Air Measurement Technologies Inc., claimed that Akin Gump bungled the company's patent applications for a safety device designed to alert fire fighters about the amount of time they can safely remain in a fire.

According to the complaint (embedded in this document), Akin Gump failed to adequately prepare and prosecute the plaintiffs' patents, impeding Air Measurement's ability to recover damages when competitors allegedly infringed the patents. The suit was brought against four defendants, but the verdict pinned all of the blame on Akin Gump. Click here for an article from the San Antonio Express-News.

The verdict, rendered after a four-week trial, strikes us as one of the larger malpractice awards against a law firm in recent memory. Malpractice claims against firms often settle before trial.

"The royalty that should have been awarded to these plaintiffs was far less than if Akin Gump had done their job properly in handling the patent applications," John Raley, one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers, told the Express-News.

UPDATE: Akin Gump just issued a statement: “A judgment has not yet been entered on the verdict against Akin Gump. However, if a judgment is entered, Akin Gump will appeal because the evidence does not support the jury’s verdict.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).