Joseph W. Anthony, Anthony Ostlund Louwagie Dressen Boylan P.A.

Lying, cheating and stealing is no way to practice law and Joseph Anthony doesn’t. But he finds it everywhere.

 He started a seminar entitled “Lying, Cheating and Stealing” in 1984; This year marks the 40thanniversary of the seminar. Along the way, his practice at Anthony Ostlund Louwagie Dressen Boylan P.A. has been devoted primarily to representing people, partnerships and corporations who are either prosecuting or defending against civil lawsuits in which there are almost always allegations of lying, cheating or stealing. 

“Not much, other than technology, has changed in the legal landscape for lawsuits involving deceptive conduct. The schemes have ranged from one extreme to another and from the least sophisticated to the most extremely sophisticated use of deception and misrepresentation” he said. 

In one case it was the lure of gold mining certificates that were sold as “safe” investments to senior citizens. In another case it was a financial services firm that was touting the sale of stock in the over-the-counter markets in a company that was developing a heart pump. The heart pump was being tested in a dog, and to pump up and prop the price of the stock the investment banking firm issued daily reports on the survival of the dog, Anthony said. 

“We represented a host of doctor groups who were lured into partnerships with public companies only to learn that public companies don’t necessarily have the same interest in patient care as the doctors. One of those cases resulted in an award of over $135 million in compensatory and punitive damages against the publicly traded company. Partnerships and closely held companies, especially those that involve warring family members, have always been an intriguing and fertile ground for cases involving allegations of deceptive behavior,” Anthony added. 

Digital storage of information has made it harder and more expensive to find the evidence of such fraud schemes, making them lucrative to defend, Anthony said. Some of the obfuscation in such cases is done by lawyers, he added. Many trial judges don’t have experience with complex financial schemes, and the time and cost of such cases has tipped the scales toward settlement, Anthony said.

“People are just not following the rules. The dishonesty in society trickles down,” he said.