Law Firm May Claim Client Cheated It of Fees in Deal With Foe

Houston law firm Brown Sims will get another chance to prove that its client made a secret deal with its arbitration opponent to cheat the firm out of a contingency fee, a federal court ruled.

The ruling that Brown Sims couldn’t intervene to challenge the companies’ secret settlement was a mistake,the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit concluded.

The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards provided the district court with jurisdiction to address and resolve Brown Sims’s $188,167 claim against CNA Metals Limited, Judge E. Grady Jolly said.

Brown Sims successfully represented Adam Joseph ...