Question

Bruce Ballard was a new lawyer fresh out of law school. He put an ad in a law journal seeking an opportunity with an experienced attorney so he could gain some trial court experience. Dawn Nagy responded to Bruce’s ad. Bruce referred three cases to Nagy’s office, drafted some documents, and conducted some depositions in Nagy’s cases. Ballard received some payments from Nagy but 5 years later, after the payments stopped, Ballard sued Nagy, alleging Nagy had proposed they work as partners in a law practice and share equally in the profits from the cases they worked on together. Ballard claimed they had an oral partnership agreement. Nagy alleged that since there was no evidence they shared earnings equally, that Ballard shared in law firm losses or expenses or that Ballard contributed capital, there was no evidence of a partnership. What should the court hold?

300 word minimum.

Answer 1

The above case indicates that there was an oral agreement between Bruce Ballard and Dawn Nagy based on the ad posted by Bruce Ballard in a law journel. However, this was a contract-based oral agreement. "Bruce referred three cases to Nagy’s office, drafted some documents, and conducted some depositions in Nagy’s cases." In return Bruce received payments from Nagy for five years, after which it stopped. Bruce claimed that Nagy has to share the profits from the cases, they worked on together. However, we see that there is no written document certifying this.

Firstly, the ad put by Bruce Ballard in the law journal mentions that he is seeking an opportunity to work with an experienced attorney to gain experience. Also, there was an oral agreement between the two. This ought to have been followed by a written contract which would have removed all the ambiguity. Nagy claims that there was no evidence they shared earnings equally, but there is one - he had been giving Bruce payments for the last five years. Also, Bruce drafted some documents and conducted some depositions in the cases. This indicated they had contractual agreement. The court must consider the same and rule in favor of Bruce Ballard. Nagy must pay Bruce the equal pay from the earnings earned from the cases they worked together.