Huskinson & Brown v. Wolf

In Huskinson & Brown v. Wolf (2004) 32 Cal.4th 453, the court restated its holding in Chambers that where there has been no compliance with rule 2-200's requirement of a client's written consent to a division of attorney's fees, an attorney cannot recover under an agreement with another attorney to divide contingent fees that are generated by the successful prosecution of the client's case. (Huskinson, at p. 457.) Huskinson, however, also addressed the question of whether the plaintiff attorney could succeed under another theory of recovery. The court held that in a proper case recovery in quantum meruit is permitted because, while rule 2-200 addresses the division of fees that the client paid or agreed to pay, recovery in quantum meruit is based on the reasonable value of services. Therefore it is not a division of fees. The court emphasized that recovery in quantum meruit would not increase the amount of attorney's fees paid or owed by the client. (Huskinson, at pp. 456, 458-459.) The Huskinson court reasoned that recovery in quantum meruit is not based on contract but rather on the existence of circumstances where services were rendered and both parties understood or expected that compensation for the services would be made. (Huskinson, supra, 32 Cal.4th at p. 458.) The court observed that recovery in quantum meruit is permitted in other circumstances where an attorney's compensation agreement is unenforceable because, for example, it was a contingent fee agreement but was not signed by the client, or the legal expenses were reasonably expected to be more than $ 1,000 but there was no written agreement, or the client was represented in a dissolution of marriage case under a contingent fee agreement. (Id. at pp. 460-462.) An attorney who labors under an unenforceable agreement "nonetheless deserves reasonable compensation for his or her services." (Id. at p. 460.)