Two of Chicago's top personal injury law firms have ended a court fight over millions of dollars in legal fees, as the firms of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard and the firm formerly known as Wise Morrissey say they have reached a quick, quiet settlement over claims the Wise firm was wrongly attempting to claim half of fees from cases the Salvi firm said it fairly grabbed amid a public squabble between the Wise Morrissey principals.
The parties confirmed a confidential settlement in the action.
A Cook County judge signed off on the deal in an order issued April 3.
Patrick A. Salvi
| Salvi Schostok & Pritchard
The dispute erupted into court in November 2023, when the Salvi Schostok firm filed suit against Wise Morrissey LLC and its former principal attorneys, David Wise and Francis Morrissey.
In the lawsuit, the Salvi firm sought a court order declaring its rights to fees it says it earned for work performed on some of the 21 medical malpractice cases that followed attorney David Rashid, when he moved his practice to the Salvi firm from the Wise Morrissey firm, amid public legal conflict between Wise and Morrissey.
Morrissey and Wise ended that legal fight last October with a confidential settlement.
After many years in business together, the professional relationship between Morrissey and Wise publicly degraded when Morrissey filed suit against Wise, accusing his law partner of concealing a multi-million dollar settlement from him, allegedly costing Morrissey his share of a $5 million legal fee.
Wise responded by accusing Morrissey of filing the lawsuit maliciously to distract from Morrissey's alleged personal and professional failings, including several allegedly embarrassing personal incidents.
Under the settlement ending that dispute, the Wise Morrissey firm officially became the Wise Law Offices. Morrissey would practice law through the Morrissey Legal Group LLC.
Amid that dispute, Rashid moved to the Salvi firm in February 2023, taking nearly two dozen clients with him.
According to the lawsuit, the Salvi firm has tried one of those cases to verdict and settlement three more. The other 17 cases remained pending, as of the filing of the lawsuit last November.
According to the lawsuit, Wise Morrissey has since allegedly claimed it should receive at least one third to half of everything the Salvi firm earns from those cases, allegedly saying a "compensation memorandum" with Rashid established the Wise Morrissey firm held an "equity stake or ownership interest" in those cases.
The Salvi firm claimed those demands violated Illinois law and the state's rules governing legal practice.
In comments to The Cook County Record, attorney Patrick A. Salvi, founder of the Salvi firm, said the two sides entered into settlement talks relatively quickly to resolve the dispute.
He said negotiations didn't continue "too terribly long" and the matter was "settled amicably."
Salvi commended both Morrissey and Wise for being "very professional" in addressing the matter.
He declined to discuss specific terms of the settlement, saying under the agreement, those are to remain confidential. But Salvi said "both sides compromised off their initial positions."
A spokesperson for the Wise firm did not respond to request for comment from The Cook County Record.
The Salvi firm was represented in the action by attorneys John F. Kennedy, Elizabeth E. Babbitt and T. Hudson Cross IV, of the firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister, of Chicago.