News
When the Stakes are High, Trust the Attorneys at Gammage & Burnham
Rick Mahrle at Gammage & Burnham served as lead counsel in an arbitration governed by the AAA’s international arbitration rules. Rick represented a London-based consumer products company that had a dispute with an Arizona company that licensed its patented products to the London company to sell throughout the European Union. The dispute centered on the proper interpretation of the license agreement that had been drafted years earlier by non-lawyers. This was truly a “bet the company” type of litigation, as had the London-based company lost the arbitration, it would no longer have been allowed to sell its primary product line and undoubtedly would have closed down.
Huge Award for Wrongfully Denied Coverage
A former Arizona public official was being sued in federal court on claims arising out of his official duties. After a devastating jury verdict was rendered against the public official, the insurance company that should have been paying the judgment and providing him with representation on appeal denied coverage, leaving the public official to pay out of his own pocket the costs of the appeal and paying off the judgment. The trial team at Gammage & Burnham, led by Rick Mahrle, filed suit against the insurance company. Following a trial, the jury found that the insurer wrongfully denied coverage. The damages and attorneys’ fees awarded exceeded $4.5 million.
Successful Estate Planning is a Win Win
Clients want the best of all worlds: aggressive tax planning that yields optimum tax advantages but with assurance that their plan will not be the topic of discussion within the Internal Review Service or wind up on the docket of the United States Tax Court.
Estate planning clients are often torn between the desire to remove assets from their estates to avoid or minimize estate tax exposure, yet extremely reluctant to release control over assets. There is further reticence to place readily available funds in the hands of the younger generation who are perceived to be ill-equipped to handle substantial wealth, especially in the face of high divorce rates and a very litigious society.
A Winning Outcome In Spite of Years of Non Compliance
Lisa Hauser has substantial experience in assisting government clients comply with Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended, and its corresponding regulations. Section 5 requires that jurisdictions receive preclearance by the Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, before implementing any voting change. In 2010, the Pinal County Community College District discovered that its existing districts had never received preclearance. On further examination, the District learned that none of its district maps adopted since the early 1970s had ever been submitted to the Department of Justice. Lisa worked with the District and the Department of Justice to resolve more than three decades of unprecleared maps.
Laying the Ground Work for Success in Redistricting Litigation
From 2001 – 2009, Lisa Hauser was co-counsel for the inaugural Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission in defending multiple challenges to the new legislative and congressional districts. These cases were significant due to their statewide importance, complexity and the massive record created by the Commission (resulting in more than 5,000 trial exhibits). Most importantly, Arizona’s constitutional provisions governing redistricting were interpreted by the courts for the first time. Through pretrial motions, six weeks of trial, multiple trips to the Arizona Court of Appeals, the Arizona Supreme Court, and federal court, Lisa and her team led the Commission to victory against half a dozen opposing parties.
