The National Law Journal (6/26, Bronstad) reports, “The resignation of a former staff attorney for the Deepwater Horizon settlement fund who was accused of pocketing some of the distributions came as BP PLC is challenging the method of calculating damages on oil spill claims.” Lionel Sutton III, “a staff attorney for the administrator of the $7.8 billion fund, resigned Friday after being placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation, according to Nick Gagliano, a spokesman for fund administrator Patrick Juneau. According to press reports, an anonymous complaint accused Sutton of collecting portions of settlement payments from a New Orleans law firm to which he had once referred claims.” The Journal notes, “The revelation came as BP prepared to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse court orders upholding the way in which payments for individual damages have been calculated and then dispersed.”