Decade passes while contingency fee fight drags on.

TALK about your new math.

Greene Broillet Panish & Wheeler LLP, working for a contingency fee, landed a $30 million judgment for a client who sued the Church of Scientology of California.

Its initial deal with the client, Lawrence Wollersheim, was for a 40 percent share of the recovery, though that was later revised to 15 percent.

The recovery was later lowered, but the firm was left questioning why it was being paid just $600,000. It argued it was due more than $1 million, but a three-judge panel in 2nd Appellate District last month disagreed.

"While GBPW regrettably was not paid for its legal services for many years, through no fault of Wollersheim, that alone is not grounds to rewrite the agreement," wrote Associate Justice Judith Ashmann-Gerst in the decision.

It's not known whether Greene Broillet will appeal the ruling. Calls to Timothy Wheeler, a Greene Broillet partner representing the firm, and its outside counsel, Andrew Chang, were not returned.

The fight over the bill stems from the award the firm won on behalf of Wollersheim, who sued the Church of Scientology in 1980 on claims it drove him to the brink of suicide, brought on bipolar disorder and caused his business to file for bankruptcy.

The initial judgment, entered in 1986, was whittled down to $2.5 million on appeal three years later. The judgment was finalized in 1994, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a Scientology petition to hear the case. In 2002, following post-judgment legal squabbles, the Church of Scientology paid Wollersheim $8.7 million.

At the time of the amended agreement, the Church of Scientology owed Wollersheim an estimated $3.5 million to $4.5 million, including interest. The interest had increased again by the time the Church of Scientology paid up in 2002.

Greene Broillet, which represented Wollersheim until 1989, has not yet been paid, according to the Feb. 19 appellate decision's summary of the case. The firm has claimed it is entitled to more than $1 million. Craig Stein, a partner at Gelfand Stein & Wasson LLP representing Wollersheim, said Greene Broillet was offered $600,000 when the award from church stood at $3.5 million.

"The Greene Broillet firm came back and said, 'No, that's not enough. We should get interest from 1994 to 2002 that equals $470,000,'" totaling more than $1 million.

Political Player

Former Gov. Pete Wilson will join Bingham McCutchen LLP's consulting group as counsel to the L.A. office.

Bingham McCutchen, based in Boston, acquired L.A.'s Riordan & McKinzie LLP last year. The Bingham Consulting Group assists companies in state-regulated industries such as energy, financial services, health care, information technology, manufacturing and telecom.

The consulting group's founder, Peter Berlandi, was a former adviser to Wilson, who was governor from 1991 to 1999. He has been serving as managing director of Pacific Capital Group, a merchant bank in L.A.

Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at [phone] ext. 225, or at [e-mail].