Fight over fees drags on three years after lawyer’s death
Estate asks judge to say how much it’s owed from verdict
Attorney Ira Bordow killed himself three years ago but the bickering over fees in one of his cases continues.
“This is a round two,” said Ronald Bornstein, attorney for Bordow’s estate, and David Bordow, the brother and law partner of the deceased attorney.
The well-publicized first round was played out in 2014 when attorney Edward Styles of the Styles & Pumpian law firm in Mequon initially refused to pay the Bordow estate its share of a contingency fee earned for Ira Bordow’s role in negotiating a settlement for survivors of a New Berlin couple killed by a drunken driver on New Year’s Day 2012.
In an argument that left legal experts rolling their eyes in disbelief, Styles initially said Bordow’s suicide caused a “breach of contract” so his firm did not have to share its winnings from the case with the deceased lawyer’s estate.
“Ira terminated his relationship with us regarding this action without notice and without cause.” Styles wrote in a 2014 letter to David Bordow.
In July 2013, Ira Bordow was found dead in the basement of his River Hills home where he hanged himself. That day, David Bordow found a $250,000 check on the seat of Ira Bordow’s Lexus coupe. The check from West Bend Mutual Insurance was written to Ira Bordow and Styles & Pumpian to settle the claim in the drunken driving case. David Bordow said he sent the check to the Styles’ firm for safekeeping.
About a week after the Journal Sentinel reported on Styles’ initial refusal to pay, the firm reversed its position and paid the Bordow estate $41,666.66 for his role in negotiating the settlement on behalf of the survivors of Jean and Edwin Thaves.
The agreement between the Bordow and Styles firms called for them split the contingency fee, which was one-third of any settlement received by the Thaves estate, on a 50-50 basis.
The case continued after that settlement as attorneys for the Thaves estate argued additional payment was warranted because of the Thaveses’ fear of imminent death when they saw a car flying toward their vehicle.
The Thaveses were killed while sitting in their stopped car at a traffic light near Potawatomi Bingo Casino when Kelly Duke — who was drunk and driving an estimated 60 mph in a stolen car — lost control, went airborne and crashed through the roof of the New Berlin couple’s car. Duke is serving a 30-year sentence at the New Lisbon Correctional Institution.
A Milwaukee County jury this year awarded the Thaves estate $500,000 damages resulting from the imminent fear of death. This time, the Styles firm teamed up with Paul Hoefle of Dewitt Ross & Stevens to handle the case.
Dispute on new front
Now, the attorneys are asking Milwaukee County Circuit Judge John DiMotto to determine how much of a contingency fee the Bordow estate should receive from the $500,000 verdict.
Though that second case was argued well after Ira Bordow’s suicide, David Bordow is arguing the estate is owed half of the contingency paid to the Styles firm for the work Ira Bordow performed before his death. Also, David Bordow argues the contingency fee agreement between the Bordow and Styles firm remains in force.
“There still is the agreement,” said Bornstein, the Bordow estate’s lawyer. “The work
(Ira Bordow) did contributed to the overall award.”
Among other things, David Bordow provided Hoefle’s firm with about 300 pages of documents about the case that his brother had produced or gathered, Bornstein said in a brief filed this week.
Bornstein said Bordow is not seeking any portion of the contingency fee that went to Hoefle’s firm. Rather, he said, the Bordow estate is entitled to half of the amount that went to the Styles firm.
In a July brief filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Hoefle argued Styles owed nothing to Bordow or the estate. He and Styles even downplayed the work that Ira Bordow had done in the
initial case.
“The recovery of $350,000 was not a product of Ira Bordow’s efforts and services, but was a reflection of the horrific nature of the underlying crash,” Hoefle wrote last month in a brief referring to the $250,000 settlement and an earlier $100,000 payment from another insurance company. “At the time of his suicide, Ira Bordow had drafted a few letters to the insurance companies involved in the matter and obtained an initial report from” an economist.
Bornstein’s response: “If Ira Bordow did only ‘minimal work’ to justify his fees, what work did Attorneys Styles and Pumpian do to justify the $58,333 they received in attorney fees as a result of work performed by Ira Bordow.”
Neither Styles nor Hoefle returned calls for comment.