THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, September 2, 1994              TAG: 9409020634
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                         LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

2 LAWYERS FIRED BY WINNER ARE AWARDED $850,000

Walter Cole wasn't the only man who got rich from Judge E. Preston Grissom's ruling Thursday.

A bunch of lawyers - Cole's former attorneys, whom he fired after seven months' work - also got a big chunk of his $9 million Lotto prize.

Grissom ruled that the attorneys - Norfolk lawyer Peter Decker, Elizabeth City lawyer Russell Twiford and their firms - will split $850,000 for about 1,000 hours of work.

And that was much less than the lawyers wanted.

Decker and Twiford had asked for $2.4 million. They said Cole signed a standard contingency contract in 1992, promising the law firms one-third of the amount in dispute.

Although the Lotto prize is $9 million, only $7.2 million of it was in dispute, the share claimed by Cole's former friends.

Decker and Twiford argued that their early work in the case lay the groundwork for Cole's victory Thursday. They also argued that this was a complex case requiring extensive research and that it subjected the law firms to great risk if they lost. In that event, the firms would have been paid nothing.

``This was not going to court for a speeding case,'' said Twiford's associate, John Morrison. ``This was going to court over $9 million.''

But Cole's son, Leondis Cole, said the contingency-fee contract was outrageous. ``I think you guys deserve to be paid for what you did,'' he told Decker and Twiford from the witness stand. ``But I think the price that you're asking is astronomical.''

He testified that Decker was sometimes arrogant, and that both law firms failed to communicate well with the family.

In the end, the judge asked each lawyer how much he usually charged clients per hour:

Morrison said $125.

Decker's partner, Joel Weintraub, said $150.

Cole's current attorney, J. Nelson Happy, dean of Regent University Law School, said $150. Happy is charging Cole a flat fee, but the exact amount is not known.

Decker said $300 to $500 an hour for murder cases or corporate litigation.

In the end, Grissom said he arrived at the $850,000 figure not by calculating an hourly rate, or a percentage of the Lotto prize, but simply what seemed ``a fair award.''

KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA LOTTERY WINNERS LAWSUIT by CNB