No party in courtroom

Deepa Bharath

Anthony Duffy is a Republican. He is also an attorney.

The 55-year-old Newport Beach lawyer says his duty to his client

comes before his allegiance to his party.

Duffy figured that out in the process of winning a $97-million

jury award for client Paul Hindelang in July against William E. Simon

& Sons, a company owned by failed gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon.

That jury award is believed to be the eighth largest in the nation

for the year 2002.

The jury found that Simon’s company and its investors defrauded

Pacific Coin, a pay phone company owned by Hindelang, by concealing a

plan to take the company public after acquiring it. Hindelang

maintained that Pacific Coin was seized by lenders in 2000 and went

out of business because of that plan.

The jury’s decision, however, was overturned by a trial court

judge. Duffy says he is in the process of filing an appeal on behalf

of Hindelang.

Simon’s attorney, William Lancaster, said the jury failed to

consider that Hindelang had a prior conviction for drug smuggling.

“He had failed to disclose his past,” Lancaster said.

Simon’s company would not have gone into business or made

investments for Hindelang if he had revealed that bit of information,

he said.

“The judge did a good job when he overturned the jury’s decision,”

Lancaster said.

But Duffy argues that his client’s drug conviction had nothing to

do with the issue in question.

“The jury clearly saw that these were two separate issues,” he

said. “The jury did not focus on the prior conviction. They focused

on why we were there.”

The biggest challenge he and his team of attorneys faced was

“taking on a very well-funded adversary,” Duffy said.

“This is probably the most high profile case I’ve ever handled,”

said Duffy, who specializes in real estate and business litigation.

He said Simon did not testify in the case, but that he did give a

deposition.

Duffy has practiced in Newport Beach for 22 years and has lived

there for about 16.

He said he did not expect Simon would be the gubernatorial

candidate for the Republican Party.

“I was surprised he came up as a candidate,” Duffy said.

But this case was not about politics, he said.

“I was not about to abandon my client because of my party,” Duffy

said. “We didn’t bring this case up as politics. We didn’t try it as

politics. We dealt with Mr. Simon professionally.”

He said Hindelang will most certainly appeal the trial court’s

decision and is optimistic that the appellate court will uphold the

jury’s decision.

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.