World Wide Rush, an outdoor signage company, filed a legal malpractice lawsuit against the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld on Friday for improperly advising the company that it could install signs that violated a Los Angeles ban.
The company hired Akin Gump as its counsel in April 2008 to aid the company in its lawsuit to overturn the city’s ban on supergraphic signs. Shortly after hiring the firm, federal district court judge Audrey Collins decided the Los Angeles ban on supergraphics signs was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment.
Following this decision, Akin Gump advised World Wide Rush that it could install its signs across the city. But the company was forced to take down all of its signs in May 2010 when the 9th Circuit reversed the district court’s decision to lift the ban.
As a result, World Wide Rush incurred more than $1 million in legal fees following lawsuits with California and Los Angeles government officials, which ran the company out of business, World Wide Rush alleged in its complaint.
World Wide Rush alleges two counts of negligence against Akin Gump and seeks more than $1 million in damages. Akin Gump told Inside Counsel that it is against the firm’s policy to comment on pending litigation.
