Font Size: 
Lawyer Who Objected to BAR/BRI Settlement Dies at 62
The American Lawyer
April 10, 2009
Eliot Disner
A former McGuireWoods partner who objected to a $49 million settlement with the parent company of BAR/BRI, the United States' largest provider of bar review courses, died on Saturday in Los Angeles at 62.
Eliot Disner filed the antitrust class action against West Publishing and New York-based test preparation provider Kaplan when he was a partner with 40-lawyer Los Angeles firm Van Etten Suzumoto & Becket, which merged with McGuireWoods in April 2006.
The case, which accused West and Kaplan of conspiring to divvy up the bar review and LSAT test prep market, settled in February 2007 for $49 million.
About $36 million from the total settlement value was to be distributed among 300,000 law school graduates -- about $125 per plaintiff -- who took BAR/BRI courses between 1997 and 2006. The balance of the settlement was to cover attorney fees and litigation expenses.
But on May 17, 2007, Disner filed a 13-page brief on behalf of three of the seven lead plaintiffs objecting to the settlement. Disner argued that McGuireWoods should have asked for at least $400 million to settle the case, and should have pushed for the breakup of BAR/BRI.
McGuireWoods didn't agree. The firm fired Disner less than a week later.
"I was terminated because [McGuireWoods] said that my work on the BAR/BRI case had hurt the [firm's] reputation," Disner told The American Lawyer at the time.
Disner then set up shop two blocks away from his old Beverly Hills office at McGuireWoods, founding the Disner Law Corp. with his son Perrin Disner, a long-time friend and colleague, Joel Bennett, and IP lawyer Robert Ashen.
That began a battle by Disner to be named co-counsel to the class along with his former firm. Already in line to receive 30 percent of the attorney fees, McGuireWoods objected to Disner's motion to serve as co-counsel. A federal judge agreed with the firm, temporarily holding up approval of the settlement.
Disner eventually split $12.25 million in fees with McGuireWoods. Subsequent suits filed by Disner against West were unsuccessful.
According to his obituary, Disner died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.
His three-lawyer firm plans to continue on without him.
This article first appeared on The Am Law Daily blog on AmericanLawyer.com.
