Inadmissible

Judge Martin Hoffman of Dallas’ 68th District Court is considering whether to abate proceedings in a legal malpractice case filed against Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell until the plaintiffs’ arbitration case against an accounting firm has been completed. At a May 16 hearing in PCMG Trading Partners XXIII, et al. v. Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, Hoffman announced he was taking the motion to abate under consideration. The plaintiffs — PCMG Trading Partners XXIII, Mark Okada and James Dondero — sued Locke Lord on March 4, alleging the firm provided them opinion letters that induced them to invest millions of dollars in tax shelters “prepared” by the accounting firm Ernst & Young. The plaintiffs allege Locke Lord did not simply evaluate the tax shelters but instead “was actually aiding E&Y in developing the sham tax shelters and committing fraud upon PCMG XXIII and plaintiffs.” On March 29, Locke Lord filed a general denial of the allegations and moved to abate the proceedings in the case, because the plaintiffs are in arbitration with Ernst & Young. Locke Lord alleges in its motion to abate that the claims against it and the accounting firm arise out of the same circumstance and must be abated pursuant to Federal Arbitration Act §3. The same plaintiffs filed Dondero, et al. v. Ernst & Young LLC in 2009 in the 44th District Court and moved for arbitration, which is set for January 2012. Locke Lord’s lawyer Paul Koning argued at the May 16 hearing that failing to abate the case would give the plaintiffs an advantage. “If the plaintiffs are allowed to take discovery that’s of use to them in arbitration, that prejudices them,” said Koning, a partner in Dallas’ Koning Rubarts . Deborah Deitsch-Perez , a partner in Lackey Hershman in Dallas who represents the plaintiffs in the legal-mal case, argued at the hearing that Locke Lord’s motion to abate misses the mark. “What Locke is missing is the litigation has to have a critical impact on the arbitration,” which she said Locke Lord had not proven. “No one has tried to stretch section three [of the FAA] as far as Locke has,” she said.

Bye-Bye Books

On May 31, Dallas County Commissioners will vote on a proposal to eliminate the law library in the Frank Crowley Courts Building, says Ryan Brown, a county budget officer. If the proposal passes, some of the law library books at Crowley, where the criminal district courts are located, will be sent to the nearby George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building, which houses the civil district courts, and Crowley’s remaining library books will be discarded. At the same time, the Dallas courts will start charging an additional $5 library fee, raising the total fees to $20 for each civil suit filed at the George L. Allen Sr. Courts Building. As of June 15, Brown says, Crowley will have wireless Internet access throughout the building. Brown says another proposal is being developed to transform Crowley’s law library space into a large lawyers’ lounge.

Local Rules Revised