40 newyork| september14–27, 2020
andrehabilitationbillsthat awaitedhim.Rappoldwasunimpressed
withthefirst lawyerhemet with,buta neighbormentionedtheguy
fromtheads,a niceguyhehadgonetoschoolwith:RossCellino.
RappolddrovetoseeCellino,unannounced,ona Sundayafter-
noon.Cellinowaspaintinghishouse.Hiswifewasgardening.“He
says,‘CanI helpyou?’” recallsRappold.“I go,‘Yes,I’mlookingfor
a lawyerbecausemy sonwasina tragiccaraccident.’ Well,he
droppedeverythinghewasdoingtotalktome.I mean,hedidn’t
eventhinktwice.”
Therapportwasinstant.“Youdon’t evenknowhe’s a lawyer,”says
Rappold.“Y oudon’t evenknowit.He talkslike just—aperson.”
WhenRappoldmetSteveBarnesa few dayslater,heseemed
likeCellino’s perfectfoil.“He wastheoppositeofRoss.I could
tellhewaspowerdriven,”Rappoldsays.Butit worked.“They
complementedeachotherprettygood,I’ll tellyouthat right
now.Steve,boy...hecouldreallytearsomebodyapart onthe
witnessstand.” AndCellinodeliveredthekindofclosingstate-
mentthatmadethejury melt.“Nobodycouldtalktothejurors
likeRossCellino,” Rappoldremembers.“Theway hetalkedto
them,thewayhelookedat them,theway heappealedtothem.
‘Don’tMr. andMrs.Rappolddeservea chancetohavea lifeof
theirown?Buttheycan’t havea lifeoftheirownwithoutthe
resourcestohelpthem.’”
CellinoandBarnesdidn’t tellRappoldthey wereplanningtoask
for$55million,notuntiljustbeforeit wastime.Rappoldthought
thatmuchmoney wasludicrous,greedyeven.Thetrialwouldyield
oneofthelargest personal-injury verdicts NewYorkhadeverseen:
$47million.As theBuffalopersonal-injury lawyer—nofanofthe
firm,whichhesays“reallydestroyedwhat wasa close-knitcom-
munity hereamongplaintiffs’lawyers”—putit,“That[verdict] was
thebellwether. Afterthat, it wasnoholdsbarred.”
Inthehallway aftertheverdict, CellinoandBarnescelebrated
withthefirm’s lawyersandparalegals.Rappoldhadnopart ofit.“I
wouldgiveevery penny of that judgmentbacktohavemy sonback,”
he says. Cellino eventually noticed Rappold’s pain, Rappold says.
“I know this is a hollow victory for you,” he said. Steve partied on.
An appeals courtwouldknockthejudgmentdownto$16mil-
lion. The moneystillprovidesforDavidRappold’s care,butit
didn’t make themrich.Thefirmendedupwith$5.5million—
and valuable publicity.
Afterthe judgment,thefirmgrew quickly. In 2002,it openeda
satelliteoffice inBuffalo—acrossthestreetfromthearea’s largest
traumahospital.Thebranchhastwohuge redsignsthat lightupat
night.By2005,it had 40 lawyers.“It waslike a hospitalwaiting
roominthere,” says Beebe, the former BuffaloNewsreporter, ofthe
mainoffice in Buffalo. “People would comeinoncrutchesand
wheelchairs, and everybody is going to get their piece of money.”
Thefirmhadexpandedintomasstorts,signinguplarge numbers
of people who had suffered heart attacks and strokes after taking
the prescription drug Vioxx.
Business was good, and not just for the names on thedoor. In
2004, a top earner at the firm, Joseph Dietrich III, madenearly
a million dollars—a figure we know because when Dietrichleft
the firm the following year, and took his clients withhim,the
firm sued, saying all those accident victims had becomeclients
because of its advertising campaign. That lawsuit alsohigh-
lighted the sometimes aggressive tactics the firm wouldemploy
to maximize revenues. When clients left to seek other represen-
tation, Cellino & Barnes would often sue, demanding acutofthe
settlement—even though the firm itself had developedwhat a
judge in one lawsuit called “a reputation for stealing clients.”
But it was the firm’s efforts to maximize paydays foritsclients
that would get it into more serious trouble. After the Rappoldjudg-
ment, Cellino & Barnes hired outside lawyers to help keepthever-
dict amount from getting reduced—and billed the Rappolds
$300,000 for their services. The Rappolds, who just wantedto
settle and move on, were pissed off when they found outtheirlaw-
yers were billing them to extend the fight. Rappold filed a complaint
with the state’s Attorney Grievance Committee.
Vincent Scarsella headed the investigation for the committee.
When he first looked into the case, he did not see muchwrong
with the billing. But as investigators rummaged throughfiles,they
found something else: The firm had been lending moneytoclients
at interest rates of 19 to 24 percent, first through a mortgagecom-
pany it bought in 1994 and later through an arrangementwitha
company owned by Cellino’s cousin.
Lawyers regularly advance clients the costs of litigation,such
as filing fees and paying for experts, in the expectationthat they
will be paid back if the suit is successful. But they aren’t supposed
to lend clients money against the potential settlement,an
arrangement that might end up indebting them to thevery law-
yers who are supposed to be working on their behalf.Thereis
actually an entire industry of other companies that lendmoney
to plaintiffs in exchange for a piece of an eventual settlement,
often at interest rates of as high as 50 percent. Thoseloansare PHOTOGRAPHS: SHARON CANTILLON/BUFFALO NEWS (CELLINO AND BARNES), PAUL DODD (BILLBOARD AT NIGHT), MAX RIVLIN-NADLER (RAINBOW), JESSE WARD/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (FIRETRUCK), NIKOLE SIMMONS (BARNES BILLBOARD)➽
TWO DECADES
OF BILLBOARDS
“ We were making money that
the highest-paid partners ofSkadden Arps would beextremely jealous of. Why youwould choose, intentionallychoose, to blow that apart?”