Some accuse plucky Beverly lawyer of uncivil actions

He is still frequently identified in news stories as the obsessed personal-injury lawyer who represented families of childhood leukemia victims in the Woburn case, an association he only reinforced in a recent interview by repeatedly referring to bittersweet memories of the dispute and its humbling lessons.

But if people thought Schlichtmann might mellow after being immortalized in Jonathan Harr’s classic piece of reporting and the movie of the same name, forget about it. Schlichtmann is still fighting, only now his adversaries include the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority over proposed toll increases, ink and paint manufacturers over a factory explosion that ravaged a Danvers neighborhood, and former colleagues over legal fees.

Just last Monday, Schlichtmann won a round in the state Appeals Court in his long-running war against well-known Boston lawyers over $9 million in fees he says he lost when they scuttled a 2003 settlement he had negotiated with the owner of Poland Spring water. The settlement followed threatened litigation over alleged misrepresentation of the water’s source.

One lesson from Woburn, says Schlichtmann, is that conflict in the courts usually begets more conflict. He says he would rather resolve disputes through negotiation, instead of litigation, which he contends reflects a “diseased’’ legal system.

So how does he reconcile his newfound spirit with his scorched-earth approach toward fellow lawyers in the Poland Spring case?

“I sit here and almost drown in the irony of it,’’ the wiry, 58-year-old replied in his wood-paneled office in a 19th-century building on the grounds of his house overlooking Beverly Harbor. “Because at the end of the day, one of my challenges as a human being and as a lawyer is that I also have to take a stand.’’

Schlichtmann’s fans speak of him glowingly.

“I can’t think of a better lawyer for us in our circumstances,’’ said Susan Tropeano, a leader of the Danvers neighborhood group Safe Area For Everyone. She said residents and businesses expect to get about $1 million in a settlement Schlichtmann helped negotiate with the owners of a factory that exploded in 2006 and damaged nearby buildings.

But Max D. Stern, a prominent Boston criminal defense lawyer who was among the attorneys Schlichtmann sued in the Poland Spring case, characterized him as a scoundrel masquerading as a do-gooder. Schlichtmann, he said, abandoned a potential class of consumers the moment he thought he could grab a generous payday through a settlement.

“I never met the man before,’’ Stern said, referring to the Poland Spring case that brought them together, “and I regret having met him.’’

No case better illustrates the contradictory views of Schlichtmann than the bizarre and convoluted Poland Spring affair.

Several years ago, Schlichtmann and his onetime friend, Cambridge lawyer Thomas Sobol, got the idea of filing a class-action suit against Maine-based Poland Spring, contending there were impurities in its water supply.

They teamed up with other lawyers, including Stern, and mounted a two-pronged attack: a class-action suit on behalf of consumers and claims on behalf of several small bottled-water competitors. They recruited a Marblehead environmental activist, Lori Ehrlich, now a state representative, as lead plaintiff in the threatened class action.

In 2003, Schlichtmann negotiated settlements with Nestlé Waters North America, which owns Poland Spring: about $20 million for the business claims and several million for the class-action suit.

But his colleagues spurned the deal and filed separate class-action suits, after concluding the settlements would do little to benefit consumers. Nestlé withdrew its offer, prompting Schlichtmann to sue his former legal teammates.

The warring lawyers accuse each other of greed. Stern says Schlichtmann sold out Poland Spring consumers to enrich himself and the bottled water competitors and, in a deposition last year, called Schlichtmann’s actions “fraudulent and dishonest.’’

But Schlictmann insists he was only following the wishes of his clients, including Ehrlich, and that the other lawyers simply wanted a richer deal. “What happened here was very, very tragic,’’ he said.

A state judge dismissed Schlichtmann’s claims against the lawyers in December. But Schlichtmann hopes to revive them as a result of last week’s appellate court ruling, which said he did not violate a state law by filing the suit, as Stern had contended.

Schlichtmann is also going after the Turnpike Authority. He recently filed a class-action suit on behalf of a group of commuters who want the authority to repay toll-payers hundreds of millions of dollars they say was illegally used to pay for the Big Dig, rather than for the cost of using the turnpike.

The lead plaintiff is Sandra Murphy of Natick, a 48-year-old nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital who says she is sick of toll increases on the turnpike.

Schlichtmann said he is happy that a transportation bill recently signed into law by Governor Deval Patrick has a “toll equity’’ provision that says all tolls collected on highways must be used to maintain tolled roads. But Schlichtmann wants tollpayers compensated for what he called a “half-billion-dollar crime.’’

Schlichtmann, whose clients formed the Masschusetts Turnpike Toll Equity Trust, unsuccessfully asked a state judge last month to place attachments on Turnpike Authority property so motorists could still get payouts, even though the authority will be eliminated in November.

Adam Lewis, one of the lawyers for the authority, was incredulous and told the judge that the suit was merely “political theater, and it’s bad theater.’’

Schlichtmann is also working to get compensation for residents of Danvers for damages in one of the worst industrial accidents in state history. A factory jointly operated by CAI Inc. of Georgetown and Arnel Co. of Danvers exploded Nov. 22, 2006. More than 100 homes were damaged.

W. Paul Needham, a Boston lawyer who represented CAI, said it appeared to him that Schlichtmann “muscled in’’ on another lawyer who represented people in the neighborhood. That lawyer, Peter A. Lagorio, and Tropeano, of the Danvers neighborhood group, flatly denied Needham’s assertion.

The owners of the factory have agreed to a settlement that will provide residents and business owners about $1 million. But Schlichtmann said that “we’re looking at others responsible for the explosion’’ and plan to release more information soon.

He said he would rather not file a lawsuit, but who knows?

“If I have to fight, I’ll fight,’’ he said. “But does that mean we always have to fight? No.’’