Qwest Communication International Inc.
Richard Baer clearly remembers the day he walked into the center of a perfect legal storm. Like the eye of every hurricane, the nondescript San Francisco conference room was deceptively calm that fall 2004 day. But the eye soon passed. Baer, Qwest Communications International Inc.’s general counsel stood before two dozen of what he calls a “murderers’ row” of plaintiffs attorneys from firms such as Entwistle & Cappucci, Berger & Montague, and Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. They were out for blood. Their clients were angry investors suing to recoup more than $40 billion after a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal wracked the Denver-based telephone company in 2001. Its stock value had plummeted, and in June 2002, then-CEO Joseph Nacchio resigned amid rumors of fraud and insider trading.
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