Brief, Stern v. Marshall, No. 10-179 (U.S. 2010)

In the long-running litigation over the claims of Anna Nicole Smith to her former husband’s estate, G. Eric Brunstad, Jr. leads Dechert’s representation of the Marshall family in opposing Ms. Smith’s estate before the Supreme Court. The matter has been to the Supreme Court before, when Mr. Brunstad represented the Marshall family in Marshall v. Marshall, No. 04-1544 (2006). On remand, Dechert won a complete victory in favor of the Marshall family on March 19, 2010, when the Ninth Circuit held that Ms. Smith’s counterclaim against Pierce Marshall for tortious interference with an inter vivos gift was not a “core proceeding,” and that the district court erred when it did not afford preclusive effect to the Texas probate court’s determination of relevant legal and factual issues. Ms. Smith’s estate appealed that decision to the Supreme Court. In addition to G. Eric Brunstad, Jr. (counsel of record), Collin O’Connor Udell and Matthew J. Delude were on the briefs.

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