DEAL & SUITS
For plaintiff James W. Giddens as Trustee of
the SIPA Liquidation
Hughes Hubbard & Reed:
James Giddens, James Kobak, Jr., William
Maguire, Seth Rothman, and associates
Christopher Kiplok and Neil Oxford. ( They are
in New York.)
For defendant Barclays Capital (London)
Boies, Schiller & Flexner:
Tricia Bloomer, William Dzurilla, Christopher
Green, Hamish Hume, Amy Neuhardt,
Jonathan Schiller, Jonathan Shaw, Jack Stern,
and W. Todd Thomas. (Bloomer is in Albany;
Dzurilla and Thomas are in Fort Lauderdale;
Green is in Armonk, New York; Schiller and
Stern are in New York; and the rest are in
Washington, D.C.) —TOSiN SulAiMAN
*
TEXAS V.
MERCK
Call it Vioxx litigation whack-a-mole.
On November 23 a judge tossed a $1
billion–plus suit brought by the state
of Texas against Merck & Co., Inc., that
sought to recover money the state’s
Medicaid program spent on Merck’s
withdrawn painkiller.
The Texas claim, filed in state court
in Austin in 2005, is the first of a dozen
similar suits to reach final judgment at
the trial court level.
Texas’s claim was one of legions
spawned by Merck’s withdrawal of
Vioxx in September 2004 after clinical
research determined that the blockbuster painkiller heightened the risk of
heart attack and stroke. Merck settled
roughly 27,000 product liability claims
in 2007; in 2008 the company paid $58
million to 29 states and the District of
Columbia to resolve investigations into
its marketing of the drug.
The Texas attorney general’s office
alleged that Merck violated the state’s
Medicaid Fraud Prevention Act by
falsely representing the safety of Vioxx.
In its summary judgment motion,
Merck denied making misrepresentations to the state and argued that the
act was not applicable.
For plaintiff the state of Texas
In-House:
For the attorney general’s office: assistant
attorneys general linda Halpern, Kristina
Kennedy, and Raymond Winter.
For defendant Merck & Co., Inc.
( Whitehouse Station, New Jersey)
Baker Botts:
Richard Josephson, Joseph Knight, William
Kroger, Travis Sales, and associates Anna
Archer, Michael Cancienne, Zachary Hughes,
Elizabeth lewis, and Brandi Sablatura.
(Knight is in Austin; the rest are in Houston.)
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom:
John Beisner, Jessica Miller, and associate
Geoffrey Wyatt. (All are in Washington, D.C.)
O’Melveny & Myers:
Brian Anderson and counsel Elysia Solomon.
(Both are in Washington, D.C.)
Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada:
Alyson Jones and Christy Jones. (Both are in
Ridgeland, Mississippi.) —T.S.
*
IN RE MARSH & MCLENNAN
With a trial looming, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., one of the world’s
largest insurance brokers, agreed
November 13 to pay $435 million to
investors and pension plan beneficiaries to end a securities claim and an
ERISA class action filed in connection
with a notorious bid-rigging scandal.
Both claims grew out of criminal
and civil allegations lodged by the
New York attorney general’s office
against the company in 2004. The AG’s
office alleged that Marsh had illegally
steered insurance contracts to favored
companies in exchange for kickbacks.
The news triggered a precipitous drop
in Marsh’s stock price; suits alleging
securities fraud were filed soon after.
Marsh agreed to an $850 million settlement with New York State in early
2005.
The securities and ERISA claims
were consolidated into two class
actions in federal district court in Manhattan; former CEO Jeffrey Greenberg
and former COO Roger Egan were also
named in the securities class action.
The ERISA claim was settled for $35
million.
On December 7 the judge granted preliminary approval to both settlements.
For co–lead plaintiffs the Ohio Public
Employees Retirement System et al.
In-House:
At the Ohio attorney general’s office:
general counsel Albert lin and assistant
attorney general Dennis Smith, Jr.
Grant & Eisenhofer:
Jay Eisenhofer, Keith Fleischman, Stephen
Grygiel, Geoffrey Jarvis, John Kairis, counsel
Mary Thomas and lesley Weaver, and
associates James McEvilly iii, Domenico
Minerva, and Ralph Sianni. (Eisenhofer,
Fleischman, and Minerva are in New York; the
rest are in Wilmington.) The firm was appointed
co–lead plaintiffs counsel.
For co–lead plaintiff New Jersey
Department of the Treasury, Division of
Investment
In-House:
At the New Jersey attorney general’s office:
assistant attorney general Carol Jacobson.
Bernstein Liebhard:
Stanley Bernstein, u. Seth Ottensoser,
Felicia Stern, and associates Stephanie Beige,
Michael Bigin, and Brian Cohen. (All are in
New York.)
For lead ERISA plaintiffs Donald Hundley
et al.
Keller Rohrback:
Ron Kilgard, David Preminger, lynn Sarko,
and associate Cari laufenberg. (Kilgard is in
Phoenix; Preminger is in New York; and the rest
are in Seattle.)
For defendant Marsh & MCLennan
Companies, Inc. (New York)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher:
Jennifer Conn, Mark Holton, and Wesley
Howell, Jr. (All are in New York.)
O’Melveny & Myers:
Bob Eccles, Gary Tell, and counsel Elysia
Solomon. (All are in the Washington, D.C., office.)
For defendant Jeffrey Greenberg
Allen & Overy:
Pamela Chepiga, Andrew Davies, and
Michael Feldberg. (All are in New York.)
For defendant Roger Egan
Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello
& Bohrer:
lawrence Bader, Judith Mogul, Cyrus Vance, Jr.,
and associates David Austin and Robert Smith.
(All are in New York.) —MAT T STRAquADiNE
