Former lawyer Lowell Thomas Lakin died last week and left behind a lesson in the price of having too much.
His skill as an injury lawyer earned him success and his lust for power and pleasure earned him six years in prison.
U. S. District Judge Phil Gilbert sentenced Lakin on cocaine distribution charges at a hearing in 2008.
Gilbert said he didn’t know what words were available to convey his utter disgust and contempt for Lakin’s conduct.
“For some reason you evolved into a demented, disturbed, and pathetic individual,” Gilbert said.
“You had the world by the tail," he said, "and are a prime example of how power and influence can destroy an individual.”
“You were raised up from humble beginnings and through hard work, dedication, and perseverance, became a very successful attorney with political influence who lived a Hollywood life style that most people can only dream about,” Gilbert added.
“Maybe it was the seedier side of Hollywood life style with drugs and sex and maybe the fear of getting old that was your downfall as it has been others that have tried to lead that kind of life,” he said.
“You corrupted yourself,” Gilbert concluded.
The Illinois Supreme Court admitted Lakin to practice in 1970.
He ventured into politics in 1980 along with other lawyers who set up a committee to oppose the retention of two judges.
Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission investigators filed a complaint charging that the lawyers made false statements about judges.
The commission dismissed it, finding investigators failed to connect any false statements to any lawyer.
As Lakin’s injury practice grew he opposed the region’s biggest companies.
District court dockets from 1987 to 1999 show his clients sued Mobil Oil, Shell Oil, Marathon Refining, and Clark Oil.
They sued Monsanto, National Steel, Burlington Northern Railroad, General Motors, Granite City Steel, and Olin Corporation.
They sued Shoney’s, Shop N Save, Campbell Soup, Bonanza, and Hardees.
They sued Wal-Mart, Best Buy, AutoZone, and Venture Stores.
They sued American Commercial Barge Lines, Luhr Brothers, Kiesel Marine Services, International Barge, Bluegrass Marine, Inland River Towing, Western Kentucky Navigation, CGB Waterfront, and Waterfront Services.
As Lakin prospered he operated inside Madison County as a Democrat decision maker and outside as perfect host for pleasure seekers of similar wealth.
While he concentrated on personal injuries, other lawyers turned Madison County into a magnet for class actions.
Those lawyers alleged economic injuries and obtained court orders authorizing them to represent thousands or millions of plaintiffs across the nation.
Complaints involving tiny amounts in common transactions created the biggest classes and generated the biggest settlements.
Lakin couldn’t resist the urge to ride the class action wave.
He needed plaintiffs to represent classes and his firm attracted them with the prospect of $10,000 or more in incentive payments from settlements.
When he sued Ford for the flaking of paint on vehicles, a temporary secretary at his firm signed up as lead plaintiff.
When he sued health insurers for not paying providers enough, he turned to chiropractor Mark Eavenson, who filed 24 suits.
When he sued lenders for charging excessive fees on mortgages, he turned to Alton lawyer Emert Wyss, who owned a title company.
Wyss agreed to find plaintiffs in return for 10 percent of settlements.
One lender moved to add his title company as defendant, claiming it should have detected any defect in the closing.
Circuit Judge Phil Kardis granted the motion, earning Wyss a newspaper headline as the lawyer who sued himself.
Television host Jay Leno displayed the headline and said he hoped the lawyer took himself for every penny he had.
Lakin continued to pursue personal injury claims, and in 2003 he took on the case of Dora Jablonski versus Ford Motor Company.
Her husband John died and she suffered severe injuries when a collision caused a wrench in the trunk of their Lincoln Town Car to strike the fuel tank.
The tank exploded and the car caught fire.
Circuit Judge Andy Matoesian set trial in 2005.
By 2004, public opinion had turned against class actions.
Americans grew weary of receiving trivial payments and coupons on complaints they knew nothing about while lawyers made millions.
They sensed more danger than justice in a $1 billion verdict of Williamson County jurors who found State Farm provided inferior parts for crash repairs.
They sensed greater danger when Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron entered a $10 billion judgment against cigarette maker Philip Morris.
He found Philip Morris deceived smokers by branding products as light or low tar.
In November 2004 Southern Illinois voters rejected class actions by electing Lloyd Karmeier to the Supreme Court.
He defeated appellate judge Gordon Maag, who delivered an opinion affirming the State Farm verdict.
Voters nationwide curbed class actions at the same time by electing George W. Bush for a second term over John Kerry.
Bush visited Edwardsville in 2005 to pitch for a bill in Congress that would prohibit national class actions in state courts.
Congress passed the bill.
The Illinois Supreme Court struck a heavier blow than Congress by overturning the judgments against State Farm and Philip Morris.
In the State Farm case they ruled that Illinois courts could no longer apply the state’s consumer fraud law to transactions in other states.
The firm’s situation appeared to improve when jurors in Matoesian’s court awarded $43 million to Dora Jablonski.
Lakin’s situation turned desperate in 2006, when Alton lawyer Edward Unsell filed a John Doe suit claiming Lakin committed sexual abuse against a child.
Federal prosecutors investigated and grand jurors indicted Lakin on five counts of cocaine distribution in 2007.
A sixth count alleged that he transported a person under 16 years of age to Malibu, California with the intent of engaging in oral copulation.
In 2008, Lakin agreed to plead guilty of distributing cocaine at his East Alton residence, possessing it with intent to distribute it, and distributing it to a person under 21 years of age.
Gilbert accepted the agreement and dismissed the other counts but said at sentencing that some of the terms were out of the ordinary.
“All of us make a concerted effort to prevent not only the application but also the appearance of a two tiered justice system, one for the rich and another for the poor, one for those with white skin and another for people of color, one for people with power and influence and another for those without,” he said.
Gilbert said the court’s normal and customary participation in the plea and sentencing wasn’t there in this case.
Special state prosecutors pursued the abuse charge and agreed that Lakin would not plead guilty but would register as a sex offender.
Unsell and Lakin eventually settled the John Doe complaint.
Lakin’s son, Brad Lakin, and firm member, Charles Chapman, kept the firm going under the name Lakin Chapman.
They had represented Dora Jablonski at trial.
Fifth District appellate judges affirmed her $43 million verdict in 2010.
The Supreme Court overturned it in 2011.
Chapman died four months earlier.
Brad Lakin practices in Sunset Hills, Missouri, according to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
A letter he sent to a judge in New York last year indicated he worked for investment manager Jeffrey Cooper of Edwardsville.
Tyler Zeller of Wood River, whose identity as John Doe in Unsell’s suit became a matter of public record, committed suicide in 2020.