G____: S____ G____ was a 46-year-old mother of two. She received a pap smear telling her she was safe from cervical cancer. A year later, she was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. Clay, while with a previous law firm, learned the Dallas pathology lab that had read the pap smear, not only had misread this pap smear, but had been routinely violating federal law by reading an excessive number of pap smear slides a day - increasing the odds of negligence. Shortly before trial, the lab settled for $4,800,000.00**, one of the largest cancer settlements in the county at the time. After the settlement, a local Dallas television station ran a two-night story on the case, raising awareness of the issue.
** A contigent (%) fee charged on the successful recovery resulted in a fee of $1,920,000.00 and $61,000.00 in litigation expenses which were reimbursed by the client out of the gross settlement amount.
