Motley Rice
| Headquarters | 28 Bridgeside Blvd, Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 |
|---|---|
| No. of offices | 9 offices |
| No. of attorneys | 80+ |
| Major practice areas | Anti-Terrorism & Human Rights, Asbestos and Mesothelioma, Aviation Disasters, Catastrophic Injury, Consumer Fraud, Defective Medical Devices & Drugs, Environmental Contamination, BP Oil Spill, Occupational Disease, Products Liability, Securities Fraud, Workers Rights, Wrongful Death, Whistleblower/Qui Tam |
| Key people | Ronald Motley, Co-founding member; Joseph Rice, Co-founding member; Mary Schiavo, Former Inspector General, US Department of Transportation; William Narwold, Member Attorney |
| Date founded | 2003 |
| Founder | Ron Motley and Joe Rice |
| Company type | Limited liability company |
Motley Rice LLC is one of the largest American plaintiffs' litigation firms. Founded in 2003, Motley Rice seeks justice and accountability on behalf of people and institutions harmed by wrongdoing and negligence. The firm is currently involved in litigation seeking to hold accountable those who allegedly financed the September 11, 2001, attacks. Motley Rice is headquartered in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and has offices in eight cities across the United States.
Motley Rice was formed in 2003 by co- founding members Ron Motley and Joe Rice after the breakup of the law firm Ness, Motley, Loadholdt, Richardson & Poole P.A. Ron Motley played a vital role in building a case against the asbestos industry in the 70s and also served as lead attorney in the Tobacco litigation of the mid 90s, which resulted in the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
Motley Rice represented about 96,000 asbestos plaintiffs up to 2004. The firm later transitioned into offering asbestos defendants pre-packaged bankruptcies. Companies that file with the assistance of Motley Rice generally emerge from bankruptcy after just a few months and in some cases just 30 to 45 days. Insurance companies are generally stuck with the liability for asbestos claims discharged in such bankruptcy proceedings. Investors are often allowed to keep their equity and often become wealthy when stock prices rise after a firm is cleansed of asbestos liability. Claimants that are extremely ill generally receive far less compensation than they would otherwise qualify for. Standard bankruptcies last an average of six years and can cost millions of dollars per month.
Fees for pre-packaged bankruptcies vary greatly. The Swiss power company ABB suffering from asbestos liability through its Combustion Engineering subsidiary in the United States was charged $20 million for Motley RIce's services. Motley Rice earned additional fees from the contingency payments received by its other clients under the terms of the bankruptcy. Shook & Fletcher, a small Alabama construction company, was charged just $3 million.
Critics say that Motley Rice has a conflict of interest in promoting pre-packaged bankruptcies. For example, in the ABB/Combustion Engineering case Motley Rice represented both asbestos plaintiffs and the firm they were suing. In response to this criticism Joseph Rice said, "I had ethical consultants all along. I get paid a fee for a business transaction, and the claimants get paid because I was able to put together that transaction. My interests are 100% aligned with my clients." In this case, patients with exactly the same disease received settlements that varied by a factor of 20 because compensation was calculated by the average historical settlement value of the law firm representing them.
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