Saturday, May 30, 2009
Oklahoma's Tort Secrets - WSJ.com
Meet Oklahoma's Democratic Attorney General Drew Edmondson...
This is from a recent Wall Street Journal opinion column:
"Mr. Edmondson was one of the first AGs to jump into the 1990s tobacco litigation. He gave work to two non-Oklahoma giants of tobacco torts, Motley Rice and Scruggs Millette. Also receiving contracts were three Oklahoma firms, including Riggs Abney -- home to Mr. Edmondson's friend and political ally, another former AG named Mike Turpen. As their part of the tobacco settlement, the firms would ultimately reap $250 million in legal fees. Mr. Turpen's firm collected $30 million.
Then starting in 2002, Mr. Edmondson began threatening to sue big-name poultry companies, claiming their chicken litter pollutes the Illinois River watershed. This too was an election year, and employees of Riggs Abney chipped in $25,000 to keep Mr. Edmondson in office. He retained Riggs Abney to help launch a giant poultry lawsuit. Also retained were Motley Rice and the Miller & Keffer firm. Under the contingency agreement, the three firms could receive up to half of any damages."
