The initial settlement offer was $300,000. To Mark Quigley, it was never a serious offer.
Quigley had filed a high-profile whistleblower suit against the University of California regents, the UCLA medical school, senior officials and doctors. To his client, Dr. Robert Pedowitz, who had been demoted from his post as chairman of UCLA medical school’s orthopedic surgery department after reporting questionable financial arrangements between doctors and industry, the offer represented less than one year’s salary. Quigley’s damages expert put a $20 million price tag on the case. So Quigley and two associates took the expensive contingency case to trial. The three were up against eight to 10 attorneys from Gordon & Rees in San Francisco and Paul, Plevin, Sullivan & Connaughton in San Diego, plus the university system’s in-house counsel. And they were dealing with some uncertainties with the California Whistleblower Protection Act, which was the subject of recent appellate rulings and a 2011 amendment.
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