In the last post, I talked about pictures of O'Melveny's partners celebrating the fact that they denied compensation to victims of the opioid crisis. Let's get into that set.
It starts with a slide about how the Oklahoma Supreme Court threw out a $465 million judgment opioid victims had won. (O'Melveny was overwhelmed by evidence and so lost at trial. But its appeals brief and industry groups threatened economic boycotts if Oklahoma didn't limit its nuisance statute. Perhaps scared of these threats, the state's supreme court changed the law, holding that "nuisance law does not extend to the manufacturing, marketing, and selling of prescription opioids," and thus voided the lower court ruling. You can read my coverage of that trial in these links: one, two, three, four and five.) The set ends with a slide of O'Melveny's opioid lawyers and the headline, "You Deserve This!" In-between there are ten pictures of the presenters singing and dancing.
I wish I knew the lyrics, but perhaps we can infer part of the message from the slides. One slide shows seven months crossed out, presumably the time spent at one of the trials, and another shows a sad person dining at Outback and Chili's. Putting all that together, the song might be about "deserv[ing]" to win because one struggled for it, which is a classic story archetype.
One thing I never understood about law was the obsession with fancy restaurants. Most food is delicious and the only hardship is not over-eating. So I don't know why lawyers fetishize high-end food, which sometimes isn't as satisfying as McDonald's. I'll eat anywhere. Put it in front of me and I'll eat it, and enjoy it.
But no, lawyers at big firms aren't eating fast food. You know, I guess for them it's not really about the food, it's about affirming their status and place in society. They're better than you, so they don't eat where you eat; they eat at fancy places. And when recounting the challenges of a long trial, they would include a slide about having to slum it at casual dining chains.
Did opioids devastate your community, your family, you? Well, O'Melveny's lawyers had to eat at Outback, and Chili's. While their peers felt "fabulous," at "sceney" hot spots with an "American Psycho vibe," "seated next to Keanu Reeves" -- O'Melveny's lawyers had to spend months eating at a place with $16.99 three course meals, seated next to these people! The struggle is real. . . .
To complete the story, O'Melveny's client did eventually pay billions of dollars to resolve most of the litigation, as part of a series of settlements worth over $50 billion. Glad that worked out as well as it could. Below are the aforementioned pictures, along with additional pictures from the partner meetings about money.
O'Melveny profits per partner, OMM, compensation, salary, income, wages
