Law firms representing Purdue Pharma LP in litigation and investigations around its OxyContin painkiller have agreed with the Justice Department to forgo a combined $1 million in fees over their failure to disclose a deal their attorneys signed between the drugmaker and its Sackler family owners, WSJ Pro reported. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, WilmerHale and Dechert LLP agreed to waive the fees and update their disclosure to include other connections, should any exist, to other parties linked to Purdue’s ongoing chapter 11 case, according to a settlement filed in bankruptcy court on Thursday between the firms and Justice Department officials. The settlement follows a Wall Street Journal report in February about Skadden and WilmerHale not disclosing a joint defense agreement between the company and members of the Sackler family when the firms applied to be retained by Purdue after its 2019 bankruptcy filing. “These disclosure violations are particularly concerning because a central question in these cases has been the independence of Purdue from the Sackler families,” said Cliff White, director of the U.S. Trustee Program. Skadden, WilmerHale and Dechert said in the court filing that they don’t believe they needed to disclose the defense agreement in their retention applications, but “have agreed to resolve the matter in the interest of expediency.” Click here to view the settlement.
