Legal News

Silence Not Golden: Stanford?s Wife Sues Former Lawyer for $200M

By Ashby Jones

Off the top of our heads, we can’t readily think of any reason why a divorce lawyer would keep a $200 million settlement offer from his or her client.

But we suppose lawsuits have been filed — and won — over zanier allegations. So perhaps we should wait and see what surfaces out of the recent complaint filed by Susan Stanford, the estranged wife of accused Ponzi Schemer Allen Stanford.

The news: Susan Stanford is suing her former divorce lawyer for $200 million, alleging that the lawyer, Nancy Rommelmann, failed to tell her of a verbal offer to settle her divorce for $200 million last year. Click here for the story, from Bloomberg. Stanford filed a complaint (link not available) on Thursday in Houston state court.

"If the plaintiff had been made aware of the substantial sum offered as settlement in her divorce proceedings, she would have readily accepted,'' Susan Stanford's current attorney, Michael P. Mallia, said in the complaint. By the time his client learned of the offer, "the substantial community property assets at issue in her divorce proceedings" had been seized or frozen,'' he said.

Susan Stanford filed for divorce in November 2007. In January 2008, she was awarded $100,000 in monthly support. Allen Stanford was also ordered to pay the mortgage, insurance and housekeeping expenses for her $2.4 million, 7,000-square-foot Houston home, as well as the same expenses on the $1.3 million, 2,800-square-foot high-rise condominium that is the home of their daughter, Randi.

Rommelmann didn't immediately return a call seeking comment from Bloomberg.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 25, 2009 (boomark / email).