February 13, 2008

Paging Prof. Brickman: An outside observer would in no way have described the law firm of Michael Kelley and James Ferraro in Cleveland, Ohio, as among the nation's higher-profile personal injury practices, though its principals did throw around a lot of political donations. In 2003, however, a local magazine referred to its "billion-dollar asbestos practice", and following Kelley's sudden death in 2006 of a heart attack, an ugly dispute has broken out between his widow and Ferraro over the distribution of firm assets whose value at its peak is estimated by Mrs. Kelley's lawyer at $3.5 billion. (Ferraro also has a thriving Florida practice.) That might help explain the three jets, the ownership of the arena football team, the Las Vegas Gladiators, slated to move to Cleveland, and the mansions, including Ferraro's "21,000-square-foot, 14-bedroom compound in Martha's Vineyard". (National Law Journal, ABA Journal, South Florida Lawyers).