Of course, if his style always translated to money in the bank for his female clients, only their fat-cat husbands would complain. But that's not always the case. Take Maureen Sullivan Stemberg, the ex-wife of Staples founder Tom Stemberg. They divorced in 1987, and, in the settlement, she received nearly 500,000 shares of Staples stock, reportedly valued at $2.25 per share. Problem was, Staples went public two years later - at $19 per share - after she had unloaded nearly half her stock. She hired Inker to get her what she thought she deserved. The divorce grew into a decade-long mess, breathlessly retold on the front page of The Wall Street Journal in 1997. "I hired Monroe because he was supposed to be the best," Maureen Stemberg says now. "They had Tom and I go after each other, and it was like, sit back and watch the money roll in." She says she only met with Inker three times, despite the $3 million she estimates she paid his firm. Inker says his colleague handled the case. Maureen Stemberg says Inker's female clients are vulnerable. "He meets with them. He says, `Oh, you poor thing, your poor kids. Oh, my God,' and he doesn't even know their name. . . . He calls me the Staples lady," she says, then adds her experience with Inker's firm was atypical of her dealings with lawyers. After losing her case in 1994, she sued Inker and his colleagues for malpractice, a case that was eventually dismissed.
