David B. Fawcett — a shareholder in the Business Litigation and Trial Practice group of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Pittsburgh office — was noted in a number of articles the week of September 6, 2009, for his role in the ongoing case of Caperton v. Massey. As we reported in June, Fawcett and longtime client Harman Mining Company, owned by Hugh Caperton, obtained a landmark victory in a 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court concluded that due process can require a state judge to recuse himself when a party in a case before him has played a "significant or disproportionate" role in his election to the court as a result of sizable campaign contributions. Ultimately, the ruling sent the case back to the West Virginia Supreme Court, which is now in the process of hearing the case for the third time. The Sunday, September 6, 2009, edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as the September 8, editions of Law360 and The Am Law Litigation Daily, reported on the case, noting Fawcett's representation of Harman.

According to the Law360 article, titled "W.Va. Court Grills Massey In Appeal Of $50M Verdict," "West Virginia's highest court reconsidered Tuesday [September 8] whether to uphold a $50 million verdict against Massey Energy Co., this time without the chief justice, whose reversal of the verdict was tarnished by connections to the coal giant. … The dispute has a lurid history, with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals hearing Massey's appeal on remand after the U.S. Supreme Court determined in June that Chief Justice Brent Benjamin should have recused himself from the case before casting the decisive vote to reverse the 1998 verdict, currently valued at more $85 million."

Following the June victory, Fawcett said, "We are jubilant that the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Harman Mining Company. Everyone has a right to a fair trial and an unbiased judge under the Constitution. The idea that a corporate CEO could spend millions to influence the result in a case was a broadside attack on our system of justice. We are proud we won this battle — clarifying that judges who receive the benefit of vast sums of money from a corporation, or a corporate executive, must step aside from hearing important cases where the corporation is a litigant. … We now look forward to re-arguing our case before the West Virginia Supreme Court and achieving justice for not only Hugh Caperton but the many miners and others who were hurt by Massey's unscrupulous business tactics and greed."