Dechert’s General Counsel to Be Deposed in Lawsuit Alleging Hack

Dechert’s general counsel will testify this month in a lawsuit alleging that his law firm assisted a hacking scheme that targeted an American business executive.

The general counsel, Benjamin Rosenberg, will be deposed privately Feb. 29 by lawyers for the executive, Farhad Azima, according to a person familiar with the matter. Rosenberg will testify as the firm’s corporate representative and be asked about the firm’s knowledge of the alleged scheme, the person familiar said.

Dechert and Azima did not respond to requests for comment. Dechert has previously denied Azima’s allegations.

The deposition is tied to a lawsuit Azima brought four years ago against private investigator Nicholas Del Rosso. Azima accuses the investigator of directing a hack of Azima’s computer systems after being hired by Dechert and the firm’s former London-based partner, Neil Gerrard.

The case is scheduled for trial in North Carolina in September. Dechert is not a named defendant in that dispute.

Azima, a Missouri-based aviation executive, is also pursuing a separate lawsuit targeting Dechert over an alleged conspiracy the firm was a party to while working for Ras al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates making up the United Arab Emirates.

The long-running disputes have roots in Ras Al Khaimah’s hiring of Gerrard, then a top partner in Dechert’s London office, a decade ago. The emirate hired Gerrard and the firm to aid an investigation of the former leader of its sovereign investment fund, according to Azima’s complaint against Dechert and Gerrard.

Azima, who had a business relationship with the emirate, claimed that he became a target because of his effort to publicize the regime’s human rights abuses. Azima’s emails were ultimately stolen and posted online.

Ras Al Khaimah used the documents to successfully sue Azima for $4 million for making fraudulent misrepresentations in prior commercial agreements, including one related to a hotel sale. Azima is fighting that ruling while pursuing lawsuits that seek monetary damages against Dechert, Del Rosso and others.

Dechert on Feb. 2 reached a settlement with Azima in a separate lawsuit filed in the UK. The firm will pay Azima $3.8 million plus “reasonable costs,” the firm said. The firm also last August settled a former Wall Street Journal reporter’s suit tied to the same alleged hacking scheme for an undisclosed amount.

Linda Goldstein, a former Dechert partner who had represented the emirate in prior US proceedings, was deposed in December as part of the North Carolina case, the person familiar with the matter said.

Gerrard retired in 2020 and Goldstein left the firm two years later to become senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights.