In the wake of a three-way apportionment of damages and fees in a malpractice verdict against Alston & Bird, the parties are—as they were at trial—offering widely divergent narratives.

The plaintiffs assert that Alston & Bird should pay more than $2 million according to the Wednesday verdict, while the firm says its portion comes to less than $700,000.

In closing arguments, the plaintiffs counsel had asked for more than $3.5 million in damages, interest and legal fees.

Finding that Alston & Bird had committed professional malpractice and breached its fiduciary duty to former client Hatcher Management Holdings LLC, the jury awarded compensatory damages of $697,614 and interest of $341,831 for a total damage award of $1,039,445.

The jury then found that the plaintiff was “to some degree” responsible for its own damages. In the “assessment of fault” portion, the jury found that a former manager of the family-owned LLC—oldest sibling Maury Hatcher, who was not a party and did not appear at trial—was responsible for 60 percent of the damages, while Alston & Bird bore 32 percent of the blame.

The plaintiff LLC was deemed responsible for 8 percent, and two of Maury's brothers—current co-managers of the company, also nonparties—were cleared of fault.

The jury then ruled that it did not find Alston & Bird's conduct to rise to the level of “willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression or an entire want of care” such that punitive damages were warranted.

But the panel said Alston & Bird had engaged in bad faith and awarded $1,096,561 in attorney fees.

The plaintiff's legal team is Harmon Caldwell Jr., Harry MacDougald, Jeremy Moeser and Christine Dial of Caldwell, Propst & DeLoach.

Alston & Bird is represented by a team of Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield lawyers including Richard Robbins, Jason Alloy and Jeremy Littlefield.

After the verdict was read and the jury dismissed, Caldwell and Moeser told Judge Craig Schwall of Fulton County Superior Court that, under the apportionment law, Alston & Bird is responsible for all but 8 percent of the damage award. That would mean the firm should pay $956,289 in damages plus the entire fee award, for a total of $2,052,850 dollars.  

Robbins told Schwall the law only required Alston & Bird to pay 32 percent of the damages; he clarified later that he felt the fee award should be similarly reduced.

Schwall gave both sides until March 15 to brief the issue.

On Thursday, Robbins reiterated his position that both the damages and fees were apportionable, meaning the total amount Alston & Bird owes under the verdict is 32 percent of the total, $683,521

Robbins said he will ask Schwall to take 68 percent “off the top of everything.”

“That's the law,” said Robbins via email. “That's why we were smiling, and they were pleading with [the] judge. No punitives. Disaster for them.”

Caldwell said Thursday, “If I were Richard Robbins, I'd be arguing the same thing.”

In an interview, Caldwell and Moeser said the fees awarded under the bad faith statute are not apportionable.

They also said the Georgia Court of Appeals, ruling in the same case, decreed that, while fault could be apportioned to a nonparty in a one-defendant case, any award can be reduced only by the fault allocated to the plaintiff. (Alston& Bird v. Hatcher Management Holdings LLC, 785 SE 2d 541.)    

“Under our reading of the statute, the court can only reduce the damages by the fault apportioned to the plaintiff: 8 percent,” Moeser said.