So far, the German court ruling in the Lancelin case has not helped another prominent plaintiff in a painful child custody battle in Germany, Catherine Meyer.

"We get the same telephone calls from clients now as then about what is happening to them in city hospitals," said Philip M. Damashek, a prominent plaintiffs' lawyer.

His papers focus on what he says is similar conduct by Richard Scruggs, another prominent plaintiffs' lawyer in the state, though one with ties to the Republican Party.

Mr. Smith, who is black, is one of two prominent plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Morris B. Chapman (1919-February 18, 2007) was an American lawyer from Madison County, Illinois and a prominent plaintiffs' trial lawyer.

Mr. Gore was asked to call Walter Umphrey, a prominent plaintiff's lawyer in Beaumont, Tex., but his aides say he did not make the call.

The disciplinary case that gave rise to the judicial disagreement involved Geoffrey Fieger, a prominent plaintiffs' lawyer and politician who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1998.

Mark Alonso, a lawyer for Ten's Cabaret, one of the more prominent plaintiffs, said that the "decision makes sense."

The prominent plaintiffs' firms, their critics say, are in it for the money.

In 2010, Littlepage joined the Inner Circle of Advocates, a group of 100 of the most prominent plaintiff's lawyers in the United States.