For three years, former Nixon Peabody associate Noah Doolittle had his eyes on a bonus for bringing in and servicing a client for the firm. The bonus, according to Doolittle, would be worth 5 percent of the $5.32 million in fees the law firm collected from the client in 2008. By his own account, Doolittle would be in line for a $266,000 bonus.

The list of defendants in a malpractice claim filed against defunct law firm Wolf Block reads like a who’s who of former Wolf Block lawyers who have moved on to other firms, retired or died since the client hired the firm more than 25 years ago. Alan H

One side calls a case going before a California appeals court this week an “ordinary fee dispute,” while the other insists it raises issues about contingency agreements and arbitration no court has ever addressed.

A plaintiffs lawyer in what one of the defense lawyers called an “an A-plus damages case” was confident about his multiple-vehicle injury case. Then his client took the stand. Despite years of preparation and hours of going over testimony, the client wound up being rattled by defense attorneys and “just started agreeing to everything [the defense] said,” according to his lawyer.

As the U.S. Supreme Court collects briefs from parties interested in the work-product doctrine debate in Textron v. United States, Pennsylvania’s high court couldn’t come to an agreement on a similar issue involving attorney-client privilege.