"When Adelphia Communications and founding members from the Rigas family became mired in fraud charges and bankruptcy proceedings, a criminal trial and numerous civil cases were quick to follow.

It was a specific malpractice case for professional negligence brought by the cable company against auditing firm Deloitte & Touche that created a years-long battle between the companies and a list of attorneys that read more like the who’s who of Philadelphia legal circles.

Who knew Robert C. Heim, the late Alan J. Davis, Richard Bazelon, Philadelphia’s commerce court program, David Pittinsky, Arlin Adams, Larry McMichael and a couple of New York firms had so much in common?

Adelphia filed a motion Friday to discontinue Adelphia Communications v. Deloitte & Touche due to a $167.5 million settlement agreement reached this summer that attorneys said was one of the largest ever seen in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

With the settlement comes an end to a case that began in 2002 and still promises future litigation work for some of the attorneys involved.

Heim, chairman of Dechert’s litigation group, was contacted by Boies Schiller & Flexner in 2002, the firm representing Adelphia in its bankruptcy case, to see if Dechert would sign on as co-counsel in the malpractice case. "  From Law.Com