Ex-K&L Gates Partner Convicted of Cyberstalking Firm Partners

Lawyer Willie Dennis was convicted on charges of cyberstalking his former partners at K&L Gates by a Manhattan federal jury on Monday.

Prosecutors accused Dennis of a years-long campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats against firm partners. Dennis sent the victims thousands of harassing, threatening, and intimidating emails and text messages “back-to-back, at all hours of the day and night,” prosecutors said.

The jury convicted Dennis on three out of four counts of cyberstalking after a one-week trial, the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York said in a Monday statement. Each count carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Dennis, who is Black, was fired in 2019 and later accused the firm of systemically discriminating against Black partners. K&L Gates countered that the suit was part of a “smear campaign” and attributed his firing to “an extensive and documented record of erratic, harassing and improper behavior.” Dennis’s suit was paused pending arbitration proceedings.

Dennis’s harassment worsened in the 18-month span after he was fired, during which he sent emails, text messages, faxes, and voicemails to firm lawyers that were intended to “harass, humiliate, intimidate, or stoke fear” in the recipients, the firm said in a court filing.

The messages included sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and physically threatening statements. He told a Jewish lawyer to “start the ovens,” referred to an Asian-American lawyer as “Wuhan,” and used racial epithets to refer to other Black lawyers, the firm said.

The harassment led the victims to either relocate out of state, upgrade their home security system, or hire private security, according to prosecutors.

K&L Gates declined to comment.

Dennis didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The case is U.S. v. Dennis, S.D.N.Y., No. 20-cr-00623, 10/17/22.