Haviland Hughes, LLC

Profile

Leading by example in troubled times

In 2010, Haviland Hughes had its most accomplished year in its history, both professionally and financially. Privileged to serve as lead counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in a case involving widespread consumer fraud, the firm successfully prosecuted the claims of Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Program (mainly involving indigent children) and PACE Program (involving indigent elderly) against the pharmaceutical industry. By year’s end, the firm achieved the following record-setting settlements in the case:

$4 million (Dey Laboratories)

$4.7 million (Bayer Corporation)

$6.95 million (Abbott Laboratories)

$8 million (TAP Pharmaceuticals)

$10 million (AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals)

$10 million (Aventis Pharmaceuticals)

$18.25 million (Amgen, Baxter and Boehringer)

$20 million (Schering-Plough Corporation)

The bulk of these settlements came only after Haviland Hughes made a bold choice “to try a case against Bristol-Myers Squibb first because it was the most difficult case of all the cases pending against the pharmaceutical defendants,” says Donald Haviland, the firm’s managing partner. That daring decision led to a record setting verdict of $27.6 million against BMS—the eighth largest verdict in Pennsylvania in 2010—spurring headlines like “Judge: Pharma Company Overcharged State by $27.6 Million” (Sept. 22, 2010, law.com). This was followed by an even greater verdict of $51.85 million—the third largest verdict in Pennsylvania in 2010—against Johnson & Johnson. In early 2011, Haviland Hughes concluded the matter by achieving the largest single settlement ever paid by a brand drug company in such a case: $35 million (Pfizer Corporation).

After following the most difficult litigation path, Haviland Hughes chose an equally difficult path for itself when it chose to limit its fees from the settlements to less than the hourly fees earned. In doing so, Haviland Hughes assured the greatest benefit would be realized by its most precious clients, the poorest of the poor in Pennsylvania, whom Big Pharma wrongly took advantage of in the case.

“True leadership is the art of changing a group from what it is into what it ought to be.”

– Virginia Allan