a1106: Lawyer's widow battles Dream Team over fees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JRAuguste1@aol.com

Lawyer's widow battles Dream Team over fees

By Mike Clef
Daily News Staff Writer

Daily News Exclusive

New York Daily News
3/6/02

The lawyers who represented Abner Louima in his civil rights suit against the
city are still squabbling over their share of his $8.75 million payout, the
Daily News has learned.

almost $3 million is at  stake in a bitter battle that pits O.J. Simpson
Dream Team attorneys Johnnie Cochran, Peter Newfeld and Barry Scheck against
Elizabeth Thomas, a widow with four children whose late husband, Carl Thomas,
was Louima's first lawyer.

For months, the fee dispute was kept under wraps by a gag order despite the
well-publicized resolution in July of Louima's civil claim stemming from the
brutal assault on him by police in 1997.

But after the order was lifted, Elizabeth Thomas went public, telling The
News that Cochran and company had "ruthlessly" pushed her late husband aside.

"Cochran stole the case away on a visit to Mr. Louima in the hospital,"
Thomas said. She contends that Cochran asked her husband to arrange a
"courtesy call" on Louima, but then the famed attorney showed up with a
retainer agreement for the brutality victim to sign. Cochran, Neufeld and
Scheck, who first teamed up in their successful defense of Simpson in his
criminal trial before getting involved in the Louima civil case, did not
return calls for comment.

Thomas' attorney, Bradley Simon, a former federal prosecutor, said the fee
dispute would be the subject of a fact finding hearing next month by Brooklyn
Federal Magistrate Cheryl Pollak.  He declined to comment further.

In the latest attempt to resolve the dispute, at a meeting last week in
Pollak's chambers, Thomas said Cochran offered her $200,000.

She said she dismissed it, contending she is entitled to $483,000. That is
half of the fee owed to her husband and his partner on the case, Brian
Figeroux.

"I think they made a ridiculous offer because they thought they were dealing
with a weak widow," said Thomas. "I want a fair settlement for my husband and
my kids. I'm not asking for anything more or less than what we deserve."

Thomas said her husband, a criminal defense lawyer and community activist,
and his partner earned a one-third share of the fee for their six months of
work on the case. Carl Thomas died in August 2001 of a heart attack. He was
41.