Excerpt from "Risky Business" The American Lawyer January 2005 By Alison Frankel In another well-litigated contingency-fee win, Susman Godfrey partners Mark Wawro and Joseph Grinstein represented James Hunter III in a Texas state securities claim against Service Corporation International. Hunter had sold his company to Service Corporation in an all-stock merger. Days after the deal closed, Service Corporation announced that it had missed earnings targets, and its stock dropped about 40 percent, costing Hunter millions. Class action securities lawyers immediately filed complaints in federal court, but Susman Godfrey's strategy wad to proceed in state court, where Hunter's suit would not be tied up in the rules governing securities class actions. Wawro suffered a setback when, on a defense motion, the federal judge overseeing the class action enjoined Hunter from pursuing his state case. Even after Wawro persuaded the Fifth Circuit to vacate the injunction, the federal judge stayed Susman Godfrey from conducting any discovery in the state court case (under provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act). Wawro responded boldly, asking the state court judge for a quick trial date without any discovery. In the end, despite Wawro's efforts to send the case to trial, Hunter's claims went to arbitration-still without pretrial discovery. Wawro took testimony from three Service Corporation executives, as well as Hunter and damages experts. The arbitrators granted Hunter $27.8 million. "The jurisdictional issues were quite significant, but we got 100 percent of what we were seeking," says Hunter. I couldn't be more pleased." Read Full Article Here. Go back to Mark Wawro's resume. *Internet mail is not fully secure or private. Therefore, please do not transmit confidential information via Internet mail. Transmission of information is not intended to and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not assume that your communications sent using Internet mail are privileged or confidential. Please do not send Susman Godfrey any confidential information via the Internet without previously consulting one of our attorneys. **Nothing on this web page is intended to represent that Susman Godfrey currently represents any particular clients mentioned because matters and client relationships naturally terminate from time to time.