Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani Denver Partner Greg Hearing and Associate Mubarak Kadir recently secured a complete defense verdict on behalf of the firm’s clients, a lawyer and law firm following a multi-week jury trial.
The plaintiff was a former client of the law firm and sought damages after his client file was inadvertently provided to a third party who received both his file and a portion of the plaintiff’s client file. As a result of this incident, the plaintiff claimed that he was precluded from working in the defense contracting industry because he could no longer obtain certain security clearances. To bolster this claim, the plaintiff retained and endorsed a high-profile former CIA officer and media personality to offer expert testimony on the plaintiff’s employability. The plaintiff claimed nearly $4 million in lost wages and emotional distress.
Prior to trial, the court excluded portions of the former CIA officer’s opinions and conducted a Rule 702 hearing, during which the plaintiff voluntarily further limited the scope of his proposed testimony. The trial then proceeded over the course of two weeks and involved nearly a dozen witnesses. At the close of the plaintiff’s case, the court directed a verdict in favor of the individual lawyer.
The claims against the firm proceeded to verdict. After deliberating for less than an hour, the jury returned a complete verdict in favor of GRSM’s law firm client, finding no negligence, no damages, and no causation. GRSM’s clients are now seeking their recoverable costs.