Billions for California Consumers
The meeting, the nefarious start of a multi-billion dollar conspiracy, took place at a remote inconspicuous hotel room in the heat of Arizona. A room with a bed was just a few feet away from where the thirteen of them huddled. Powerful top executives from three major pipeline companies that controlled the flow of natural gas to Southern California met secretly that day in September 1996 without attorneys… without staffers. No one kept any of their notes from that meeting except one meticulous, some say compulsive, vice-president.
Three years later in a totally unrelated case in Texas, boxes and boxes of worthless documents had been dumped by one of those energy companies trying to bury its adversary. Instead of burying them, they planted the seed that grew to be one of the largest cases in California history. That seed was two sheets of paper among millions which revealed the agenda, draft agenda, and notes of the secret meeting which laid the plans to limit pipelines into California thus creating the natural gas energy crisis of 2000-2001.
With this evidence in hand, Baker, Burton & Lundy took on the monumental task of bringing justice to Californians. Baker, Burton & Lundy took the lead in prosecuting a case which required a team of top attorneys and experts. That lawsuit which was filed in September of 2000 against El Paso, SoCalGas and SDG&E would lead to billions of dollars of benefits for California businesses and consumers. Our team of law firms did not quit despite overwhelming odds and opposition in the pipeline conspiracy case, a conspiracy which caused the California energy crisis of 2000-2001.
It was not unusual for an attorney at Baker, Burton & Lundy to spend over 100 hours a week working round the clock to meet the demands of the workload. The defendants had at times 35 attorneys working against us from some of the largest and most prestigious corporate law firms in the world.
Millions of pages of documents were reviewed, categorized, analyzed, and incorporated into a data base for future reference and easy recall. Depositions from around the nation, dozens and dozens of them, were hotly contested for days on end as the energy companies fought tooth and nail to avoid the company-threatening trial, which everyone understood would be "betting the company."
Ten weeks of pretrial motions seeking to exclude any harmful evidence against the energy companies were thwarted by our Team. Five months of living out of a suitcase in a hotel finally paid off as a settlement was reached in the middle of trial which not only returned ill-gotten gains to the consumers, but forced the utilities to reverse and restructure the natural gas delivery system to give everyone a level playing field for the first time in over a decade.
Money alone would not solve the problems created in the natural gas delivery system. Baker, Burton & Lundy held out for true relief, not just cosmetic relief, and the consumers of California are currently reaping the benefits of the lowest natural gas prices in decades. These benefits will continue to grow and flow on to more consumers through the future years. The journey lasted for eight and a half years and benefits will continue to flow for possibly decades.
Baker, Burton & Lundy has the sophistication, experience and financial capabilities to prosecute any and all matters. There is no case too large, nor too small that we won't consider to seek justice. We do not take our good fortune for granted. We continually work hard to maintain our good fortune. We would like to work hard for you (and with you if you are a referring attorney or one in need of a successful joint venture).
