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Former Pa. Justice Departs Cozen O'Connor
The Legal Intelligencer
December 03, 2008
After nearly two years at the firm, former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Schultz Newman will leave Cozen O'Connor over what she said were significant conflicts that made it difficult to grow her book of business.
Newman denied rumors that her departure had anything to do with the size of her book or a recent public outcry over an inflammatory political e-mail she signed during the presidential campaign.
She said it would take her until the end of January to finish up existing cases, and she would look for a new firm in the meantime. She said she likes the people at Cozen and hopes she can work with the firm or refer cases after she leaves.
"I've made some wonderful friends, but I have a terrible problem with conflicts, and I want to bring in business," she said.
Newman was a high-end family law attorney in her previous private practice life but learned to love appellate law after 11 years on the Supreme Court. She has led Cozen O'Connor's national appellate practice since joining the firm in January 2007 and said she built up a significant book of business in that time.
It could have been a lot more, Newman said, if conflicts weren't an issue. She made the decision to leave Cozen O'Connor last week and has spoken to Thomas A. "Tad" Decker, president of the firm, about her choice.
In the last few months, she said, there was a string of big money cases she had to turn down because of conflicts with firm clients. A multimillion-dollar case against a pharmaceutical company was referred to her in late summer, but Cozen O'Connor represented the company. Newman said she was also conflicted out of several cases against insurance companies.
One of the last straws was when a trial lawyer's association recently asked her to write an amicus brief that she was unable to do even though she believed in the issue.
"When you have to turn down a $20 million case, that hurts," Newman said about one conflict. "I think that was the final thing."
Decker said Newman was doing a good job at building a book of business, although he said it's difficult for anyone coming back into private practice after a few years away, including himself, to immediately grow a hefty book. He said she was handling mediations, arbitrations, appellate consultations and originating work that other attorneys handled.
He said Newman just had bad luck with a lot of conflicts on good matters. He said the two of them had talked about it for months, and Newman finally decided last week that she would be better on her own or at a smaller firm.
Newman said she's not sure where she will end up and hasn't started looking yet. She said big firms present too many conflicts and small firms don't always generate enough appellate work. She said she will stay in the Philadelphia area.
Newman had been doing a lot of appellate consultation at Cozen O'Connor, including brief review and mock arguments and said she plans to continue that wherever she goes. Decker said a lot of local firms that would have hired her on that work might not have while she was at Cozen O'Connor because of competition issues.
When Decker and Newman started talking of ways to solve the conflict problems, one of the potential solutions was to create a mediation and arbitration business within the firm, but he said that wasn't something the firm was able to do.
He said he was happy to have Newman on board but understood why she needed to either go out on her own or join a smaller firm.
Frank D'Amore of Attorney Career Catalysts said former judges could certainly develop a book of business over time but ethically can almost never come off the bench with one. Instead, he said, firms hire former judges and justices to serve a long-term goal of filling a gap in an appellate practice, pitching in on trials, adding expertise to a litigation practice and just adding star power to the firm’s roster.
E-MAIL A NON-ISSUE
Newman's departure comes on the heels of a very public flap over an e-mail her name was signed to that warned Jewish voters of a potential "second Holocaust" if Barack Obama were elected president. Newman later apologized for the e-mail that was co-signed by Sen. John McCain supporters I. Michael Coslov and Mitchell Morgan, saying the version sent out was not authorized.
Cozen O'Connor Chairman Stephen A. Cozen at the time called the e-mail "despicable," saying he was speaking for himself and not the firm.
"I am extraordinarily disappointed that any such e-mail would have gone out under anyone's signature," Cozen told The Legal’s sister publication Pennsylvania Law Weekly at the time. "Everyone has a right to their opinions and a right to be passionate about their views. But what we don't have a right to do in this country is disseminate false and hateful information ... If you’re a responsible person, if you have a high school diploma, this should be so apparent it should smack you in the face." Both Newman and Decker said the e-mail had nothing to do with her departure and denied she was asked to leave over it. Decker said he had talked to Newman about her conflict concerns a month to six weeks before the e-mail came out in late October.
"That's not it," Decker said when asked if the e-mail had anything to do with Newman's exit. "That was an awkward sort of embarrassing time for her personally. She sent out apologies to a gazillion people. It's already been explained."
Newman said she will never know whether the e-mail was a problem and said she never heard from Cozen personally about it.
She said, in fairness, Cozen's response was sent out before she got a chance to apologize for the e-mail.
Decker said the firm hasn't decided who would lead the appellate practice after Newman's departure. He said there are several candidates, including former Commonwealth Court President Judge James Gardner Colins and others. No one at the firm handles appellate matters full-time, he said.
