Three lawyers, Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion and Melbourne Mills Jr., who represented plaintiffs in the diet drug fen-phen cases, concealed the settlement amounts due to their clients and overpaid themselves.
The drug's manufacturer had settled with the victims for $ 200 million in 2001, but the lawyers never told plaintiffs what was the amount they were allotted each. They paid each client lower than the amount due, and pocketed the difference. Special Judge William Wehr said the lawyers passed out money from the settlement "like it was theirs to do with as they wish."
A number of legal experts, bar associations and professors of law have reacted to this case, saying that it is both embezzlement and unethical on the part of the three lawyers.
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