Counsel Concerns: Bid to Remove Daughters' Lawyer from Petty Estate Litigation

Remember the nasty fight between Tom Petty's widow and daughters over control of his estate? Now the mud is splattering the lawyers, too.

In a 335-page filing in Los Angeles Superior Court, the late singer's widow, Dana York Petty, and her lawyers from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton accused the firm Venable, which represents Petty's daughters from his first marriage, of having a conflict of interest. In addition, Dana York Petty asserted the right to fire Venable and demanded that the firm hand over its files.

One thing is clear: There's no lost love between Sheppard Mullin's Adam Streisand, who represents the widow, and Venable's Alex Weingarten, who represents the daughters. They've tangled before. Streisand, for example, represented Alan Thicke's widow Tanya Callau when she was sued by the late actor's two sons, who were represented by Weingarten. In 2017, a Los Angeles judge tossed the suit — a win for Streisand.

Tom Petty died on October 2, 2017, at age 66 of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs including Fentanyl, oxycodone and generic Xanax. He left behind his wife Dana of 16 years, his adult daughters from his first marriage, Adria and Annakim — and an unfortunately ambiguous estate plan.

A key point of contention: a provision in the trust stipulating that Petty's widow and daughters have “equal participation in management” of a business entity that was to be created by Dana to hold the singer's artistic property.

But does Dana, who was designated sole successor trustee of the trust, get 50% control and the daughters the other 50%? Or will they each have one vote, which means the daughters would run the show with a two-thirds majority? Or perhaps they could delegate day-to-day operations to a manager and make major decisions by consensus, which seems unlikely?

But first, Streisand angled to knock Weingarten and Venable out of the case. Weingarten was hired by Petty's daughters in May 2019 to replace their prior counsel. According to Streisand's subsequent court filing, “Weingarten introduced himself to the matter by acknowledging that Dana's attorney, Adam Streisand, on Dana's behalf, had consulted with Venable partner Michele Mulrooney.”

Mulrooney, the chair of Venable's West Coast tax and wealth planning practice, is an expert in post-death administration of estates and trusts. Streisand contacted her months earlier, thinking she might come on board as co-counsel after the Petty estate tax return was filed.

“Weingarten claimed that consultation had nothing to do with this dispute. Streisand responded that this dispute was the precise matter on which Streisand consulted Mulrooney and for which Dana intended to retain Mulrooney,” Streisand wrote.

Under the circumstances, Streisand balked at going forward with a scheduled mediation, claiming that Venable “was in possession of confidential information from Dana imparted by Streisand to Mulrooney.”

“Dana would not mediate with lawyers who had induced her to reveal her theories, opinions and confidential factual information to be used against her,” Streisand insists.

Certainly, you can't disqualify potential opponents just by cold-calling one of their partners under the pretense of teaming up as co-counsel. If so, an enterprising lawyer could use the strategy to knock out dozens of top-tier adversaries. But there's a point where a line gets crossed. The key questions here are likely to be whether confidential information was disclosed and whether there was any agreement — written or verbal — to work together.

Another interesting wrinkle: Weingarten doesn't just represent the daughters in probate matters. He also represents Petty Unlimited, the initial business entity created by Dana to hold Tom's artistic property — the one she and her step-daughters are fighting over, in the civil suit. But it's been a shell company — Dana hasn't yet transferred any assets to it, a major point of contention with Adria and Annakim.

According to Streisand, Dana as trustee technically remains the sole member (or owner) of Petty Unlimited. “Petty Unlimited was aspirational. It has no legal entitlement to anything,” Streisand wrote. So Dana, “as the sole trustee of the Trust, and in that capacity, the sole owner of Petty Unlimited, executed documents to remove Adria and Annakim as managers, and fired Venable,” Streisand wrote.

Indeed, exhibit three of the filing is a letter dated May 28 from Dana to Weingarten that gives “formal termination of the services of Venable LLP ('Venable') as purported counsel for Petty Unlimited. You are hereby instructed to turn over to my counsel, Adam Streisand, at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, all of Venable's files” related to the case.

But in an interview, Weingarten said: “Dana and her lawyer are basing their case on smoke and mirrors. Every claim they make is demonstrably false. Adria and Annakim are laser focused on one thing — honoring and protecting their father's legacy and enforcing the terms of his trust, as written.”

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Jenna Greene is Editor of The Litigation Daily, an ALM sibling publication of Entertainment Law & Finance, and author of the “Daily Dicta” column. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and can be reached at [email protected].