Affidavit-Other
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10-PR-16-46 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota 8/11/2021 3:24 PM STATE OF MINNESOTA DISTRICT COURT COUNTY OF CARVER FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT PROBATE DIVISION In the Matter of: Court File No. lO-PR-16-46 Judge Kevin W. Eide Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson, DECLARATION OF STEVEN MARK Decedent. TREGEAR I, Steven Mark Tregear, declare and state as follows: 1. I am a partner at Russells, a law firm located in London, United Kingdom I am the head of the litigation department at Russells and have been practicing law for more than 30 years. I specialize in representing clients in the entertainment industry, including major record and music publishing companies, artists, and athletes. Russells serves as counsel for Comerica Bank & Trust, N.A. (“Comerica”), the Personal Representative of the Estate of Prince Rogers Nelson (the “Estate”) in the United Kingdom, including in connection with the Estate’s dispute with Warner Chappell Music Italiana S.r.1. (“Warner Chappell”) and related parties. I am the lead attorney representing the Estate in the U.K. 2. Attached hereto as Exhibit A are true and correct copies of the detailed ledgers underlying the invoices that were submitted to the Court by Comerica as Exhibit H to the June 30, 2021 Declaration of Mark Greiner. The initials of each time keeper billing time to the Estate is in the third column, under fee earner. “ST” is me, “RV” is my c01porate transactions partner Ryan 10-PR-16-46 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota 8/11/2021 3:24 PM Vince, “AR” is Alice Rudge, a more junior litigation solicitor in our office, and “WC” is William Cameron, a trainee solicitor in our office. 3. Attached hereto as Exhibit B are true and correct copies of the invoices we received from two barristers being James Segan, Queen’s Counsel, practicing from Blackstone Chambers and junior counsel, Charlotte Thomas, practicing from Brick Court Chambers. These were the Barristers my firm retained to represent the Estate at trial against Warner Chappell. The entry for Mr Segan QC on 19 February 2021 (£28,500) and the entry for Ms Thomas dated 22 February 2021 (£21,460) are the entries that relate to the discounted fees for trial and about which I have been asked to comment so that the Court can understand how and why these fees were incurred and why I believe them to be properly chargeable. 4. These two fee entries refer to the Barristers’ costs for appearing at the scheduled trial of the matter between the Estate and Warner Chappell (schedule for March 2021). It is my understanding that lawyers’ trial fees are billed differently in this country than in the United States. In this countiy, lawyers are divided into solicitors (like myself), who provide legal advice to clients and represent them pre-trial. Balristers specialise in representing clients at trial and in complex matters frequently draft the pleadings filed at court. S. The barrister has no direct relationship with the client in the sense that almost fixed always the barrister looks to the solicitor for payment of his/ her fees. When the trial date is the barrister books off the trial period in his/ her diary together with a period leading up to trial which is sufficient to enable him/ her to properly prepare so they are ready to present the case. A 10-PR-16-46 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota 8/11/2021 3:24 PM so—called brief fee is agreed to cover the work to be done by the barrister in the period leading up to trial and then, usually, the barrister gets an additional fee per day of the trial. 6. The brief fee is payable in installments on specific dates before the first day of trial or just in one lump surn. If the payment is in installments and if the case settles but a tranche deadline or an installment deadline has passed the installments is payable in any event. If there is just one lump sum then even if the case settles the fee becomes payable. The logic of brief fees is that the barrister has had to book out a period both before and during the trial and potentially will tum down work during that period. Unlike solicitors who are usually able to replace work with other client work if a case settles, the barrister will vely likely have a gap in his/ her dialy so subject to anything that can be agreed post early settlement with the barrister, either the full brief fee or the accrued tranche(s) becomes payable. 7. The Estate, with my assistance as well as that of counsel in the United States, worked hard to settle the case during the latter part of 2020 and the early part of 2021. However, as the Warner Chappell trial approached in March 2021 we needed to agree terms with the Barristers to represent the Estate at trial. For James Segan QC I negotiated a brief fee with his clerk of £3 8,500. For Charlotte Thomas, I agreed a fee with her clerk to include days spent in trial at £29,000. 8. When we reached an agreement in principle with Wamer Chappell and related fees for parties although my fu'm (and hence the Estate) was contractually obligated to pay these each Barrister, I spoke to their clerks (with the knowledge and approval of Comerica) and was able to reduce the amount for which ultimately the Estate has been liable. 10-PR-16-46 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota 8/11/2021 3:24 PM 9. Neither Barrister had any obligation to reduce their fee but I was able to persuade their clerks to accept more financially advantageous terms for the Estate and in particular, I negotiated a £10,000 reduction on James Segan QC’s fee (26.3%) and £7,540 from Charlotte Thomas’s fee (26.06%). In my experience, such reductions are not commonplace: the same being based I believe, on my own and my firm’s relationship with the Barristers and their chambers where they work (Barristers are self-employed in this country but usually work in groups together so as to reduce the administrative overheads and the like). I think the reduction also had something to do with the significant amount of work that my firm has provided these chambers with in the past and the expectation there will be future work too. 10. Overall, as the invoices from the Barristers evidence, in addition to their reduced brief fees, the Barristers separately charged for certain preparatory work leading up to trial including the drafting of skeleton arguments (the UK version of a pre—trial brief), preparing evidence for trial and in particular in relation to witness statement evidence which was filed in relation to Italian legal matters (the case stemmed from an historic Italian litigation) and notes on specific legal issues that were going to be relevant t0 the case at trial. These fees were outside the scope of the agreed brief fees and were, I believe, properly incurred. I DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THE FOREGOING IS TRUE AND CORRECT. P“ Ii. pl/ ,.__ Dated: August 1:, 2021 «‘3 i [“852“- Steven Tregear ,f 10-PR-16-46 Filed in District Court State of Minnesota Date Fee Earner Activity TypeNarrative / Bill Ref LSC Cat Rate Value Billed Balance8/11/2021 3:24 PM 14/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST P Perusals Preparation for conference call. 1 0:12 495.00 99.00 14/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST T Telephone Conference call with Comerica, Jason Boyarski and Lora Friedemann re next steps on settlement. 1 0:30 495.00 247.50 21/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Dorsey re PRS application. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 21/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Lora F re PRS third party debt application. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 21/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST P Perusals Review Dorsey and Whitney documents enclosed with 21 December email. 1 0:12 495.00 99.00 23/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Dorsey and Whitney re service of documents. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 23/12/2020 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter client. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 04/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Dorsey and Whitney re 14 January 2021 hearing. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 07/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Dorsey and Whitney. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 07/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Lora F re court order. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 07/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST L Dictation (Letter) Letter Dorsey re court order. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 12/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST P Perusals Review Dorsey letter to court. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 13/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST T Telephone Telephone Dorsey re court order. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 13/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST T Telephone Telephone Dorsey re court order. 1 0:06 495.00 49.50 13/01/2021 12:00:00 AM ST P Perusals Review Dorsey emails to court.