Winning a jury verdict for $78 million in back-pay for 186,000 current and former Pennsylvania employees of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Sam's Club for off-the-clock work and missed breaks has put Philadelphia lawyer Michael Donovan, of Donovan Searles L.L.C., in the running to be named 2007 Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Public Justice Foundation, a Washington group which promotes public interest law. Last year, the group's nominees included Merrill G. Davidoff, Peter Nordberg and David F. Sorensen of Philadelphia’s Berger & Montague P.C. And in 2004, the group honored a team of lawyers for going after DuPont over its chemicals in plastic containers. This year's award ceremony is on July 17 in Chicago. Donovan's Wal-Mart case is one of eight in the finals. Wal-mart vowed to appeal the October 2006 jury verdict.
- Jane M. Von Bergen
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Lawyer of the year
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Comments (3)
To Mr. Donovan: My "speculation" that the lawyers might get more than the employees will be proven right or wrong when the court rules on the lawyer fees. If Phillyinc really wants to report what is behind the headlines it will report the court's decision.
Posted by Bob Christian | June 29, 2007 4:01 PM
Posted on June 29, 2007 16:01
The attorneys fees in a wage and hour case are awarded by the court on top of the verdict awarded to the workers and will be paid by Wal-Mart. The court has not yet entered that award, or decided whether Wal-Mart also has to pay $500 per class member under the wage payment and collection law. So, Mr. Christian's speculation (insinuation) that the lawyers will take more than the workers individually receive is baseless, biased and wrong.
Posted by Michael Donovan | June 28, 2007 12:04 PM
Posted on June 28, 2007 12:04
That $78 million for 186,000 employees works out to be $419.35 per employee. That is if Mr. Donovan's "take" is zero. Your headline at the top of the "phillyinc" column says "...look beyond the headlines". If you really want to "look beyond the headlines" why not find out how much Mr. Donovan got for his work. I suspect it might be a shade higher than $419.35 and may deserve to be reported in "phillyinc".
Posted by Bob Christian | June 28, 2007 8:53 AM
Posted on June 28, 2007 08:53