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Lawyer Loses Round in Fee Dispute Over Anna Nicole Smith Paternity Case
The National Law Journal
April 13, 2009
The lawyer who represented Larry Birkhead in his paternity suit to gain custody of Anna Nicole's Smith's child has lost a bid to compel arbitration in a lawsuit to recover legal fees from him.
A state appeals court in California ruled on Wednesday that attorney Debra Opri will have to take her claim against Birkhead to court. Opri of Opri & Associates in Beverly Hills, Calif., is claiming more than $620,000 in fees against Birkhead, who won the paternity suit to gain custody of Dannielynn in 2007.
Opri's petition to compel arbitration is related to a lawsuit filed by Birkhead against Opri in June 2007 alleging breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, fraud and legal malpractice.
The decision in Opri v. Birkhead, No. B203506 (Calif. 2d Ct. App.), means that details about Opri's representation of Birkhead likely will be aired in open court. Reached by phone Thursday, Opri said that she had sought arbitration and appealed a lower court's decision denying it because she wanted to keep from the public the details about Birkhead that could surface in open court. "He's not the fair-haired boy I painted him to be," Opri said, referring to her representation of Birkhead in the custody battle.
Representing Birkhead in the malpractice case against Opri is Michael L. Trope of Trope & DeCarolis in Los Angeles. He said that Opri's own interests in keeping her representation of Birkhead confidential motivated her to pursue arbitration.
"I think she preferred a private rather than a public forum for her own purposes," Trope said.
Anna Nicole Smith, a former Playboy Playmate of the Year and television personality, died of a drug overdose in February 2007. Following her death, a dispute arose over the paternity of her child between Birkhead and Howard K. Stern, her attorney. Test results later showed that Birkhead was the child's father.
