Adams, George, Lee, Schulte, & Ward, P. A., Cross v. Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Cross

TUTTLE, Circuit Judge:

This is one of those rare cases in which a law firm sues its client for attorneys’ fees. The case is complicated by the fact that the attorney plaintiffs retained possession, under what they call a “retaining lien,” of $300,000 in cash which they recovered for the client, against a claimed fee of $75,000. It is further complicated by the fact that they kept the client’s money in a non-interest-bearing “trust account” and now claim a right to interest on the fee awarded them from the time it was earned until the date of the district court’s judgment.

The plaintiffs, Adams,…