The trial bar on trial in Pennsylvania.
29th July 2009
The lawsuit—which we first wrote about in April—concerns Bailey Perrin & Bailey, a Houston law firm tapped by the Rendell administration to prosecute Janssen Phamaceuticals over the marketing of its antipsychotic drug Risperdal. When states lack the resources or expertise to bring certain suits, it’s not uncommon for them to seek help from private lawyers. But in this case, it appears as if pay-to-sue politics was involved in the choice of Bailey Perrin.
While F. Kenneth Bailey, the law firm’s founding partner, was negotiating a potentially lucrative no-bid contingency fee contract with the Governor’s office, he was also making political donations totaling more than $90,000 to Mr. Rendell’s 2006 re-election campaign. Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, filed a motion in January with the state Supreme Court that cited these campaign contributions and questioned the appropriateness of the state hiring for-profit lawyers to sue on its behalf.
I’m shocked, I tell you, shocked.