David B. Fawcett was featured in an article titled "Campaigns & Conflicts," published on the front page of the August 11, 2008, edition of Legal Times. Fawcett is a shareholder in the Pittsburgh office of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, practicing with the firm's Litigation section. The article reports on a recent development in a closely watched West Virginia case that, according to novelist John Grisham, provided the idea for his recent bestseller, "The Appeal."

The article noted that multiple organizations, including the American Bar Association, filed briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. The hope is that the court will "finally spell out when judicial campaign contributions cre¬ate such an appearance of bias in a specific case that due process requires the judge who received the donations to recuse, or bow out."

Fawcett says the case is a prime example of the harm that results from judges' failure to recuse themselves. The ongoing case was tried in 2002 when Fawcett secured a multimillion-dollar verdict against Massey Energy in a lawsuit brought by his client, Harman Mining Company, in Boone County, West Virginia. After the verdict, Massey's CEO Don Blankenship spent over $3 million to elect a new judge to the West Virginia Supreme Court. That judge then cast the deciding vote overturning the verdict.

"People feel now that if the court doesn't hear this, we're all in trouble," said Fawcett in regards to the petition.  

The article also explained that Fawcett recruited former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to join him in petitioning the Supreme Court. Olson argued and won the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case of Aetna Life Insurance Co. v. Lavoie, the last time the high court discussed judicial recusals.

"We begged him for three or four months," Fawcett told Legal Times.

A principal reason for wanting Olson, Fawcett explained, was to stress that the issue is not just of concern to liberal reform groups but to business-oriented conservatives as well.

"Some people characterize Ted [Olson] as conservative, but this issue cuts across all ideologies," Fawcett said.

The case has also been covered extensively by the National Law Journal and other publications.