Pepper Hamilton - Controversies

Controversies

In 2004–2005, Pepper was hit with lawsuits first in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and then the District Court in Delaware. The first lawsuit alleged that "Pepper Hamilton's simultaneous representation of SFC and its affiliates, as well as its insurer, Royal Indemnity, and the Gagne family members as investors, created a situation in which the law firm had 'unavoidable and inevitable divided loyalties.'" Thus the complaint alleged that Pepper "foreseeably contributed to the financial demise of SFC" and caused "hundreds of millions of dollars of harm."

In the second lawsuit, Royal Indemnity made malpractice claims against Pepper Hamilton and Gagne, as well as two accounting firms, Freed Maxick & Battaglia and McGladrey & Pullen, alleging that the lawyers and accountants garnered millions in fees from SFC and were effective "SFC insiders" who "had every incentive to ensure the success of SFC's fraud."

Pepper settled the lawsuits in late 2007.

In 2012, Google Inc. claimed Pepper Hamilton failed to notify them when they were representing a patent licensing business that sued Google's Android partners.