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In exchange for the reduced hourly rate, petitioner agreed to pay
a graduated contingency fee that would apply to any recoveries
from petitioner’s various litigation matters in excess of a
specified minimum amount. For a recovery of less than $1
million, Lurie & Zepeda would be entitled to a contingency fee of
25 percent of the amount recovered in excess of $400,000.
Petitioner also granted Lurie & Zepeda a lien against his
recoveries to secure his obligations under the fee agreement.
Shortly after the fee agreement was executed, a fee dispute
arose between petitioner and Lurie & Zepeda. In 1990, to secure
payment of $750,000 in disputed fees then owed to Lurie & Zepeda,
petitioner granted Lurie & Zepeda a lien against some rental real
property he owned.
On the basis of its claims for unpaid legal fees and costs
in connection with the various matters on which it represented
petitioner, Lurie & Zepeda refused to release any of the United
Ready Mixed settlement proceeds to petitioner during 1992. Lurie
& Zepeda released the following amounts from the trust account in
1993 and 1994: (1) $5,500 paid on behalf of petitioner to Max
Binswenger in 1993; (2) $200,000 paid to Lurie & Zepeda for legal
fees in 1993; and (3) $250,000 and $5,391.94 paid to petitioner
directly in 1993 and 1994, respectively. Lurie & Zepeda released
other amounts in later years not at issue in these cases.
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Last modified: May 25, 2011