Class Action Representation: Everyone Is on the Same Team

• Author: Erik A. Christiansen
• Pages: 4-5

© Photo illustrat ion by Elmarie C. Jar a / Getty Images

lawyer who led a class

action lawsuit on beha lf

of a class representa-

tive did not breach his

duciary duties to t hat

client by changing

law rms and l ing a second, identical

class action lawsuit w ith a new class rep-

resentative, accordi ng to a federal appel-

late court. Clas s counsel owes a duciary

duty to the class as a whole and not to

any individual clas s member, including

the class repr esentative.

One Unsettled L awsuit Leads to

Two Others

The case of Medical & Chiropractic

Clinic, In c. v. David M. Oppenhei m

(M&C v. Oppenhei m) began with the

law rm of Anderson & Wanca (A&W)

ling a putative clas s action against the

Buccaneers L imited Partnership, doing

business as the Tampa Bay Bucc aneers,

for alleged violations of t he Telephone

Consumer Protec tion Act (TCPA).

The plaintiff Medical & Chiropractic

Clinic, I nc. (M&C) served as one of

the class action repre sentatives in the

M&C v. Buccan eers suit. A mediation

was held, but the A&W rm refu sed to

settle the cla ss action for anyth ing less

than a $99 mill ion settlement fund and

$24.75 million in attorney fe es.

Afterwa rd, one of A&W’s lawyers,

David Oppenheim, l eft the rm a nd

joined a competitor, the Bo ck Law

Firm, LLC . Before leaving the A&W

rm, Oppen heim copied the hard drive

of his A&W rm computer. The ha rd

drive contained br iefs, pleadings, and

other documents h e had worked on at

A&W, along with a year’s worth of his

emails. The B ock Firm then led a new

class action on beha lf of Technology

Training Associates against the

Buccaneers (TTA v. Buccan eers), alleg-

ing the same TCPA clai ms. Attorney

Oppenheim was scr eened from any

involvement in the TTA v. Bu ccanee rs

lawsuit. Shortly th ereafter, the Bo ck

Firm reached a proposed s ettlement

with the Bucca neers and sought prelim-

inary approval of the clas s settlement.

The proposed set tlement of $19.5

By Erik A. Christiansen,

Litigation News Team Ed itor

4 | S ECTION OF LITIGATION

Published in Litigation News Volume 46, Number 3, Spring 20 21. © 2021 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repr oduced with permissi on. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

CLASS ACTION REPRESENTATION

Everyone Is on

the Same Team