Misconduct of a partner led to this verdict yesterday.  The jury found that partner Henry I. Rothman abandoned a three person partnership, staying with only one of the partners.

This case started as a legal fee matter in Civil Court!!   Parker Chapin then saw a counterclaim for legal malpractice. "The jury awarded $2 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Alvin Stein, a partner at Troutman Sanders who represented Parker Chapin, said the "verdict is wrong on the law and facts" and will be contested on appeal if necessary. The suit was originally brought in Civil Court by Parker Chapin to collect unpaid legal fees in 1996, but one of the partners who believed he had been abandoned by Mr. Rothman, now a finance and corporate partner at Troutman Sanders, filed a counterclaim asserting breaches of ethics rules against the firm"