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	Bar: Probe Attorneys' Conduct By Paul A. Long Cincinnati Post [Kentucky] May 10, 2007 http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070510/NEWS01/705100342 The Kentucky Bar Association wants to investigate the conduct of attorneys in the record-setting class-action lawsuit against the Diocese of Covington over child sexual abuse by priests, a judge said. During a hearing Wednesday over the splitting of attorney fees in the case, Special Judge Robert McGinnis - who previously has expressed his own distaste about the dispute - said the state bar association has asked to review the court file. "There're ethical problems all over this situation," McGinnis said, "including the fact that you're settling cases outside the class. ... It's fraught with pitfalls." At issue in the dispute is whether Covington lawyer Barbara Bonar should receive a share of attorneys fees from the $84 million settlement. She maintains she should because she was instrumental in gathering information about the case and signing up clients. A previous judge in the case awarded attorneys 22 percent - some $18 million - of the total settlement. McGinnis continued the hearing until Friday, when he said he will hear from an additional witness. After that, he said, he'll likely make a ruling from the bench. Attorneys Stan Chesley and Robert Steinberg - with whom Bonar said she had an agreement to get up to 50 percent of the fees - contend that she should get nothing. Steinberg testified Wednesday that Bonar did little work, brought in few clients, and dropped out of the case after she settled her cases individually. He said while people have the right to opt out of a class-action settlement, attorneys involved in the case should not represent them because it harms the overall case. "She did not refer one person, other than (the original two plaintiffs)," Steinberg said. "She didn't work on any brief. ... Other than newspaper clippings, I can't think of anything of significance that she provided." At one meeting, Bonar opened up her files to Steinberg, he said. "Nothing came out of the box that was very significant to the case," he said. Bonar is alleging fraud and saying she dropped out because she was horrified at the way the case was declared a class-action. She said at one meeting, Steinberg told clients that attorneys had spent $400,000 on a trial consultant to ensure the case was certified as a class action. "That's a crazy statement," Steinberg replied. "And I never said it." The lawsuit was the first in the nation involving priests' sexual misconduct to be designated as a class-action, and diocesan lawyers blasted the decision by then Boone Circuit Judge Jay Bamberger as tainted. The diocese asked Bamberger to reverse his decision and step aside because of his close relationship with Mark Modlin, a trial consultant who was advising Chesley and Steinberg. He's the one Steinberg was referring to as being paid the money, Bonar said. In an affidavit filed in the case in November 2003, diocesan lawyer Carrie Huff said she had a meeting in which Modlin bragged of his relationship with Bamberger. She said the two were in almost daily contact, putting Modlin "in a unique position to influence the judge's decision-making." Bamberger refused to step aside, and Huff took the issue to the state Supreme Court. But it died there when Bamberger retired from the Boone circuit bench. The Judicial Conduct Commission, however, cited that case in a report that forced Bamberger to resign from the senior judge program and forfeit about $45,000 in annual pension increases. Bonar said the issue led to her leaving the case. But Steinberg said that's a new claim Bonar is raising, and said she originally maintained she was stepping aside because of a conflict of interest - she represented Joe Meyer, then a member of Covington Latin School's board, in a separate case, and a hire by the Latin School became an issue in the diocese case. In such situations, he maintained, an attorney forfeits any claims to fees.
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