April 9, 2007, 9:20 am

Charter Communications Sues Irell & Manella for $150 Million

Posted by Peter Lattman

Charter Communications filed a lawsuit Friday against Irell & Manella, accusing the prominent Los Angeles firm of “critical errors” in completing a 1999 cable TV acquisition. The lawsuit alleges, among other claims, legal malpractice and requests damages of $150 million. Here’s the 31-page complaint and a story from Saturday’s L.A. Times.

Charter’s suit, filed in federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., also claims that Irell concealed its mistakes for as many as nine months in 2002 after learning about them. Irell has long represented Charter, a St. Louis-based cable company controlled by Microsoft poohbah Paul Allen. During the entirety of their relationship, Charter has paid Irell $55 million in fees, according to the complaint.

Stephen Higgins of Thompson Coburn in St. Louis filed the lawsuit on behalf of Charter. Also signing on to the complaint: David Freishtat of Freishtat, Mullen & Dubnow in Hunt Valley, Md., and the Enterprise Counsel Group in Irvine, Calif.

“If Charter suffered any loss at all, our firm was not the cause,” Irell partner David Gindler told the LAT. “We are confident that we will prevail as the whole story emerges in court.”

Permalink