Seattle lawyers to argue case for Enron workers
By JIM KENNETT
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
The Seattle law firms of Keller Rohrback and Hagens Berman will be the lead attorneys representing Enron Corp. employees who say they lost up to $1 billion in pension funds when the energy company's stock price plummeted.
U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon said during a hearing yesterday that she will sign an order proposed by the lawyers pressing the pension-fund cases. Lynn Sarko, of Keller, and Steve Berman, of Hagens, will be lead counsel.
The decision places two veteran class-action lawyers at the head of the pension-fund case. Sarko and Berman teamed up on legal action related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
"I'm thrilled. It's the most important assignment I've ever had," Berman said.
Although the pension litigation promises to be long and complex, Keller Rohrback expects its current staff can handle the workload, Sarko said yesterday.
The plaintiffs' group consists of the two lead-counsel firms and seven other law firms that have formed a steering committee, said Eli Gottesdiener, an attorney on the committee.
The plaintiffs claim the value of Enron stock they had in their 401(k) and other pension funds plummeted when the company restated earnings for more than four years after the disclosure that it had used off-book partnerships to hide debt and losses.
The employees accuse the company of encouraging them to buy Enron shares while executives sold millions of dollars in stock. They also say another defendant, the Arthur Andersen LLP accounting firm, misrepresented Enron's financial condition.
Enron filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 2, in the largest-ever Chapter 11 filing.
On Feb. 15, Harmon appointed Milberg Weiss Hynes & Lerach LLP to be lead counsel for shareholder lawsuits filed against Enron claiming securities fraud.
The lead counsel in a lawsuit determines strategy and the size of any settlements, and collects the bulk of the legal fees.
Harmon also heard arguments from attorneys for both sides on a schedule for taking the cases to trial.
She did not make a decision. |
