Lucrative Sideline

As PNN has reported, working as a paid consultant or expert witness has become a lucrative sideline for Kolodny and other anti-opioid activists. The lawyers that hire them are eager to have them testify in opioid litigation cases that will likely reward their law firms with billions of dollars in contingency fees.

Kolodny recently testified as the “star witness” for Oklahoma in its opioid negligence lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson. For that, he was paid $725 an hour by Nix Patterson & Roach, one of three law firms hired by Oklahoma to handle the case against J&J. Kolodny, who stands to make up to $500,000 for his testimony in the Oklahoma case, also acknowledged working as a consultant for Cohen Milstein at a rate of $725 an hour.

Cohen Milstein and Motley Rice are lead counsels in a national opioid litigation case in Cleveland that has consolidated about 2,600 lawsuits filed by states, cities and counties against opioid manufacturers and distributors. According to Legal NewsLine, the law firms could take home 40% of any settlements, which are projected to reach about $50 billion.

“The firm that stands to win the most will likely be Motley Rice, which pioneered the strategy of joining forces with government attorneys to sue the tobacco industry in the 1990s. Motley Rice name partner Joe Rice has never revealed his personal take from the $260 billion tobacco deal but private lawyers in total will receive $14 billion from the multi-year agreement,” Legal Newsline reported.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has complained that legal fees in the opioid litigation case are too high. The judge has also warned attorneys to fly coach and limit their hotel rooms to $450 a night.

Many of the lawyers involved in the case are major political donors. Motley Rice attorneys gave over $700,000 to political candidates in 2018, while the law firm of Simmons Hanly Conroy donated over $1 million, much of it going to Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) in her failed bid for reelection.

Coincidentally, McCaskill released a report last year that was sharply critical of physician and patient advocacy groups for accepting money from opioid manufacturers. Three organizations cited in the McCaskill report — the American Academy of Pain Medicine, American Geriatric Society, and the American Pain Society — were named as defendants in opioid lawsuits filed by Simmons Hanly.