Court records documenting Elizabeth Warren’s negotiations with a law firm trying to hire her to serve as an expert witness for a settlement that favored credit bureaus show that, long before she entered politics, she was already acting on her conscience and her concern for for consumers. She’s always been the real deal, and she couldn’t be bought even back when she was not in the public eye and had no one to answer to besides her own conscience.
www.cnbc.com/...
Sherman attempted to hire her as an expert witness in a class-action case against TransUnion and Equifax over their alleged failure to properly update the reports of individuals who had their debts discharged via bankruptcy…..
Warren, then at Harvard, at first appeared interested in the job, saying the settlement Sherman sought was “promising,” and noting that she charged $850 per hour, or about $1,080 in 2018 dollars.
But she then pulled out of the potentially profitable arrangement after speaking with employees of the National Consumer Law Center, a consumer advocacy group that defends the poor and other disadvantaged people…..
“I had a call from friends working with the National Consumer Law Center,” Warren wrote to Sherman in one September 2006 email. “Their concerns about the settlement, along with the high regard I have for the NCLC, makes me too uneasy to commit to you as an expert.”….
Notably, the case would have likely been among the most well-paid work of Warren’s career, based on public information…..
Sherman responded that if she attempted to serve as an expert for the NCLC, that he would seek to disqualify her from participating in the case. He noted that “I do not make this statement as a threat.”
“Don’t threaten me,” Warren responded. “You called to ask if I would serve as your expert. Asking the question does not give you any claim on me. I will offer expert reports when I think they are appropriate. You cannot strong-arm me either into writing such a report for you or withholding one from someone else.”
….
The settlement proposal called for TransUnion and Equifax to update the way they handled the credit reports of individuals who had filed for bankruptcy, and would grant some affected individuals up to $450 in economic relief, in exchange for giving the ratings agencies a sweeping grant of immunity from further lawsuits. It suggested attorney’s fees of $5,485,000…..
A federal judge refused to approve the settlement in May 2007, finding that it would leave millions of alleged TransUnion and Equifax victims with no compensation while enriching the attorneys working on the case.