The Breakdown Of A Thirty Year Law Firm – Client Relationship
The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed and reversed in part the trial court in litigation brought by the Northern Arapaho Tribe against its longtime lawyers.
The plaintiff
The Tribe is a federally recognized Indian Tribe located on the Wind River Reservation. The Wind River Hotel & Casino is an economic arm of the Tribe, and it is wholly owned by the Tribe. The Tribe has approximately 10,650 enrolled members. The Tribe has two main governing bodies: the Northern Arapaho Business Council (NABC) and the Northern Arapaho General Council (General Council). The NABC is the executive branch of the Tribe, and it handles the Tribe’s day-to-day affairs.
Defendants
BCR and its partners, Andrew Baldwin, Berthenia Crocker, and Kelly Rudd, acted as counsel for the Tribe in various capacities from 1988–2019. The Tribe asked BCR to perform a wide variety of work. BCR became involved in housing matters, gaming issues, water projects, revision or creation of tribal law, custody cases, an eagle permit case, and many other legal matters. The Tribe has 60–70 different programs that provide services to tribal members. With the permission of the NABC, many of these program directors reached out to BCR for legal assistance. Eventually, ninety percent (90%) of BCR’s practice consisted of work for the Tribe.
BCR achieved many successes on behalf of the Tribe. BCR helped the Tribe achieve its dream of making the Wind River Casino a Class III casino, which generates millions of dollars in revenue every year for the Tribe. BCR also achieved a $6.75 million settlement with Marathon Oil and a $1.2 million settlement with Verizon on behalf of the Tribe.
The court recounts the changing billing arrangements and eventual breakdown of the relationship when the Tribe consulted with a D.C. law firm
The Tribe filed this suit on July 29, 2019, seeking the return of tribal funds and documents. On July 30, 2019, the Tribe posted the agenda for the August 10, 2019, General Council meeting, which included resolutions to ban either BCR or [the District of Columbia law firm Kilpatrick, Townsend and Stockton, LLP (KTS)] from representing the Tribe. Five days before the scheduled vote, a public meeting was held where people accused BCR of stealing money from the Tribe. At least some of these allegations were made by KTS lawyer, Keith Harper. This meeting was publicly broadcasted on YouTube. At the General Council meeting five days later, a majority of the General Council voted in favor of banning BCR from working for the Tribe in perpetuity. After the General Council vote, BCR returned numerous boxes of paper files and a portable hard drive containing tribal documents to the Tribe.
After BCR secured summary judgment on several claims, trial was held on alleged billing misconduct
After five days of testimony, the jury ultimately determined BCR did not convert any tribal funds, and it returned a verdict in favor of BCR. This appeal timely followed.
Rule 11 sanctions reversed
The district court should not have imposed sanctions because BCR failed to comply with the procedural requirements of Rule 11. The district court’s order granting BCR’s Rule 11 motion and its award of sanctions must be reversed.
But the defense verdict was sustained notwithstanding assertions that race prejudice was inserted into the case by the defense
We agree with BCR that the Tribe failed to meet its burden. Although certain NABC members expressed dissatisfaction with the format of BCR’s bills, none of these witnesses offered any evidence BCR was paid for work it did not perform. While the Tribe’s expert took issue with the format of BCR’s bills, he refused to opine about whether the work had actually been performed. Councilman Spoonhunter testified the Tribe needed two full-time in-house lawyers and outside counsel who provided services of up to $50,000 a month to cover all of the work BCR had been performing.
Race references included
The first reference to race occurred during BCR’s opening statement when counsel stated:
The KTS lawyers from Washington, D.C., one of their big calling cards was, hey, we’re Native American. We’re from different tribes around the country, and you should only trust Native American lawyers. So there was a subtle hint that you can’t trust BCR lawyers because they’re not Native Americans, which is a tragedy given . . . what my clients did.
The Tribe did not object to this statement.
In closing
The final reference to race occurred in BCR’s closing argument where counsel reminded the jury about Mr. Clark’s concerns that KTS was disparaging BCR, had ulterior motives, and was “just getting rid of all the white guys[.]” Counsel went on to argue the trust BCR established over 30 years was quickly undone by KTS’s disparaging and untrue allegations of theft and its claims tribal members could not trust white lawyers. The Tribe did not object to this argument.
(Mike Frisch)