Realyn Austria June 23, 2017

Book Review
Chapter 5: Orphans and Dogs

The Woburn case has sat on the file for most of a year and a half. Schlichtman
and Conway by this time are still with Reed & Mulligan until they landed a big case
involving a hotel fire where a businessman died. Schlichtmann handled this case and he
won. Schlichtmann was able to land a pretty good settlement through his newfound way
of doing the business. That is by making a settlement in an atmosphere that is congenial
instead of adversarial. The outcome of the case became publicized and Reed takes all the
credit. This led to Schlichtman to go separate ways with Reed & Mulligan firm and
started building his own. He was able to establish a good reputation and confidence by
winning this hotel fire case. Together with Conway and Crowley, they established a joint
law firm named Schlichtmann Conway Crowley. Initially, they planned to take cases that
promised big rewards and required big investment.

In light of their objective, the so called Orphans which were cases that looked as
if they might have some merit but that for one reason or another had circulated among
several law firms, rejected by one and passed on to another seems to fall under the
domain of their office of business. Literally orphans are those abandoned cases that most
lawyers dont put their stake because they dont like to take chances with their own
money. Conway served to be the law firms gatekeeper screening the cases to enter the
firm. They landed their first orphan involving a medical malpractice in the person of Paul
Carney as the victim. He got involved in a car accident and suffered a whiplash.
Everybody believed that it would only be a short stay in the hospital. However it took
him five months. He left the hospital in a wheelchair completely crippled because the
infection has gotten away to the bones. Through the investigation process where
Schlichtman invested most of his time and money, he found that it was a valid medical
malpractice. Carney was treated with high dose of steroids and destroyed the bone matrix
and the infection has entered through the catheter. The verdict came out and they were
awarded $4.7M. Again this case was sensationalized and this case gave them a pretty
good start. At this point, Schlichtmann felt that he was ready for Woburn.

Without the knowledge of Schlichtmann, there were two Harvard professors who
continued with the investigation of the Woburn. The result of the statistical obtained from
the study correlates with the water from Wells G & H linking to adverse health effects.
Arriving to the conclusion of the positive link between the exposure to the water and the
high rate of childhood leukemia. However, still they need to provide factual basis that
would require a lot of money and time. Schlichtmann subscribed to the process while
Roisman and the Trial Lawyers for Public Office enjoined themselves from the case but
still their 12% interest in the case remains.