More than three years after a federal jury found Paul Napoli and his New York law firm liable for more than $1 million in fees related to asbestos litigation agreements with a Baltimore firm, a federal judge in Maryland has ordered the defendants to pay an additional $1 million in fees and costs for their bad faith litigation.
Following a nine-day trial in 2019, a jury reached a $1.5 million verdict in favor of Keyes Law Firm against the now-defunct personal injury firm Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik. The Napoli firm had entered into 2,174 “association agreements” with the Keyes Law Firm, which memorialized a fee-sharing arrangement for portions of settlements obtained in asbestos litigation. However, the defendant firm allegedly stopped paying referral fees after they split their practice. former firm leader Marc Bern settled before trial and was dismissed.
