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	Covington Lawyer Loses Fee Dispute Case By Andrew Wolfson The Courier-Journal [Kentucky] May 12, 2007 http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070512/NEWS01/705120456/1008/NEWS01 A Kentucky lawyer who sued prominent Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley in a fee dispute has lost her case. Senior Judge Robert McGinnis ruled yesterday for Chesley, awarding no damages to Barbara Bonar of Covington, who claimed she was owed $1 million or more in the Diocese of Covington priest-abuse litigation. "She didn't get one penny," said Alex Rose, co-counsel for Chesley. Ruling from the bench after a 2½-day trial in Boone Circuit Court, McGinnis also said Bonar and others in the case may have committed ethics violations. He said she broke ethical rules by settling individual classes when she was co-counsel in the class-action suit against the diocese, which was settled last year for $84.5 million. During the trial, she said she did nothing wrong. She could not be reached for comment yesterday. Bonar's attorney, William Rambicure, said she was disappointed and is considering an appeal. Responding to the judge's remarks about her ethics, Rambicure said Bonar was given authority to settle cases by Chesley and other class counsel. "She tried to do everything the right way," he said. Rambicure said she reported the judge's allegations herself to the Kentucky Bar Association immediately after the verdict so they could be investigated. McGinnis said earlier in the trial that he had been asked by the KBA, which investigates ethics complaints against lawyers, to turn over the file when the case was over. Bonar is vice president of the KBA and will take over as its president in July 2008. Rambicure said he didn't know if it would affect her plans to continue in the KBA's leadership. "You don't want to reflect poorly on the profession," he said. "But when you believed you didn't do anything wrong, you don't want to have a knee-jerk reaction and leave." In his ruling, McGinnis branded as a "smokescreen" Bonar's claim that she dropped out as class counsel in January 2004 because she thought Chesley improperly used a trial consultant close to the judge in the diocese case to win an important ruling establishing the class action. Testifying Tuesday, Bonar said that in January 2003, the month before the case was filed, Chesley winked at her and said he wanted to pursue it in Boone because "we have a real friendly judge there." She also testified that Chesley's partner, Robert Steinberg, said in another meeting that the class lawyers couldn't accept a $3 million settlement offer from the diocese because they had already paid $400,000 to a trial consultant who was friends with Judge Joseph Bamberger. A plaintiff in the case confirmed that assertion in testimony yesterday morning. Chesley and Steinberg denied either conversation took place, and a lawyer for the diocese said no such settlement was offered. The trial consultant, Mark Modlin, denied any wrongdoing. Bamberger retired in December 2003 after the diocese questioned his relationship with Modlin, and the judge eventually resigned rather than face removal from the bench because of his misconduct in Kentucky's fen-phen case. The principal players in the case — Chesley, Modlin and Bamberger — also figured in the $200 million settlement of Kentucky's fen-phen diet-drug case. A judge has found that three other lawyers — but not Chesley — defrauded their clients. Bamberger resigned rather than face possible removal for his conduct in the case. Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com.
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