Dentons allegedly aided a vape distributor’s bid to sabotage a manufacturer, including by hacking into its executive’s laptop, the manufacturer claimed in a lawsuit Tuesday.
The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, centers on allegations that vape distributor Next Level Holdings coordinated with Dentons staff in Salt Lake City and Shanghai to assume control over the manufacturer, Avid Holdings.
Dentons “coordinated the overall plan” to drain Avid’s resources, assume control over the assets, and cut out Avid’s founder from the marketplace, the complaint alleges. A spokesperson for Dentons US didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
The alleged scheme included hacking into the laptop of Avid’s founder, as evidenced by Google Drive logs showing Dentons’ IP address. Next Level disguised the ill-gotten information through a subpoena and used the information to mislead judges in previous litigation against Avid, according to the complaint.
Avid’s lawyer, Colin Hagan of Shlansky Law Group, declined to comment on the complaint.
“Although zealous legal representation is not improper,” the complaint said, Dentons was “directly involved in actionable misconduct.”
Dentons Global severed ties with its Chinese arm, Dacheng Law Offices, earlier this year.
The case is Avid Holdings v. Kwon, C.D. Cal., No. 2:24-cv-08196, complaint filed 9/24/24
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