This Minneapolis Star-Tribune article explains that, after 15 years of litigation, attorneys’ fees totaling $1.3 billion have been approved for the Minneapolis firm of Faegre & Benson and several dozen other law firms that represented 32,000 Alaskan fishermen and business owners who were harmed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Faegre & Benson was one of the lead law firms in involved in the lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. which resulted in a 1994 award of $5 billion in punitive damages.
Although some practices of plaintiffs’ lawyers in large tort cases are open to valid criticism, plaintiffs’ lawyers are more often the unjust target of the demagouges of tort reform. The risk-taking and dedication of the type that the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Exxon Valdez case exhibited are not often noted in the debate over tort reform. At considerable risk, these lawyers provided a valuable service to thousands of clients who otherwise would have had limited or no means to any legal recourse. These lawyers should be congratulated for a job well done.

A partnership controlled by Atlanta, Ga.-based real estate development firm Cousins Properties has submitted a $33 million cash offer to buy the 1,352 acre Heep Ranch property on I-35 between Austin and Buda, which is one of the most desirable commercial properties available in the fast growing Central Texas area. The offer is subject to Bankruptcy Court approval in the pending chapter 11 case of Hatsy Heep and husband David Shaffer.

This NY Times article and this Wall Street Journal ($) article describe the problems that The Walt Disney Co. board faces in dealing with the shareholder revolt against Chairman and CEO Michael D. Eisner. Although replacing Mr. Eisner would normally be an option after such a prolonged stretch of mediocre business performance, the recent lowball Comcast takeover bid for Disney is apparently helping Mr. Eisner among Disney board members, who are relunctant to make a change at the top in the face of such a bid. The board’s failure to have Disney management develop a succession strategy for replacing Mr. Eisner is highlighted by the awkward situation in which Disney currently finds itself.

This NY Times article describes the progress that Iraqi and American engineers and business executives have made in stabilizing and reviving Iraq’s cash-strapped and chronically underperforming oil and gas production. Iraqi officials and American advisers are attempting to revive this key Iraqi industry from one that Saddam Hussein’s government allowed to deteriorate from lack of investment and the looting of billions of dollars of oil sales while under United Nations sanctions after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Iraq owns the third-largest oil reserves in the world (following Saudi Arabia and Canada), and its economy is almost solely reliant on revenue from oil exports. Accordingly, that revenue is a key component in financing Iraq’s economic revival.