After weeks of negotiations about Johnson & Johnson’s proposed $10 billion bankruptcy plan, R. Allen Smith needed to get Andy Birchfield, with whom he shared nearly 12,000 talcum powder clients, on board.
Birchfield, of Beasley Allen in Montgomery, Alabama, was adamantly opposed to the plan. Smith suggested they send a joint letter to their clients, laying out their opposing positions, but Birchfield rejected the idea.