Minnesota Lawyer Blog

As some commenters point out on an earlier post, a Hennepin County jury yesterday awarded $1.6 million to a lawyer, Brian Williams, who sued his old firm, Heins Mills & Olson in Minneapolis, over how it divided a massive fee.

The firm collected a $103 million fee in a securities fraud case, of which firm partners Sam Heins and Stacey Mills (who are also husband and wife) pocketed collectively $80 million. Williams, who already received $4.5 million, sought more from both his ex-firm and former partners Heins and Mills. The jury sided with Williams.

Both sides tried to spin the result their way. The lawyer for the firm pointed out that Williams sought much more than $1.5 million he got. However, any case where an individual walks away with more than $1 million is hard not to score as a win for the plaintiff.

We have not covered this case much -- primarily because the Strib has been on top of it like white on rice. (So much so that that the judge actually postponed the trial at one point due to the "unflattering" publicity.) Here's a link to the Strib story on the verdict.