Leon Circuit Judge Karen Gievers spent one of her final days on the bench clashing with an attorney  facing disciplinary charges from the Florida Bar and involved in a dispute with former South Florida co-counsel.

During the April 25 hearing, Gievers denied Tallahassee attorney Phillip Timothy Howard’s motion for $750,000 in attorney fees and costs in Margaret Harris v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, an Engle progeny case that culminated in a $10 million verdict for the plaintiff. Although Howard served as counsel to Margaret Harris — who filed suit against R.J. Reynolds and alleged the company was liable for her late husband’s stomach cancer as well as his ensuing pain, suffering and death — the judge rejected his motion on several grounds, including his failure to advance the case and his subsequent firing by the plaintiff.