Ex-Kasowitz Partner Accuses Law Firm of Stiffing Him on Pay Deal

Kasowitz Benson Torres is facing a lawsuit by a former partner who says the firm owes him more than $250,000.

Intellectual property lawyer Jay R. Deshmukh alleges that the firm “deliberately” fired him in June in order to avoid paying him the full compensation owed under his contract. Deshmukh, who filed the complaint in New York state court on Tuesday, said the firm paid him less than half of his $500,000 minimum annual compensation.

Deshmukh was a partner at Kasowitz for more than four years until he jumped to Greenberg Traurig in January 2023. He returned to Kasowitz seven months later.

The firm has been “misconducting itself in bad faith and in utter and willful disregard” of Deshmukh’s right to compensation, he said in the complaint. A Kasowitz spokesperson called the claims “meritless.”

“He came back to the firm based on representations that he had substantial business, and it is clear now that those representations were false,” the spokesperson said via email. “As a result, after paying him generously during his unproductive year, the firm owes him nothing and we have parted ways.”

Deshmukh focuses on IP and patent infringement litigation, including Hatch-Waxman cases, Kasowitz said when it announced his return last year. He was a partner at two other firms—Arent Fox and Knobbe Martens—before first joining Kasowitz in 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He’s no stranger to fights with his former law firms over money. Arent Fox sued Deshmukh in 2019, claiming that he owed the firm $91,000 as part of an agreement stemming from his resignation. The firm later voluntarily dismissed the complaint.

Kasowitz Benson paid Deshmukh approximately $236,000 over the nearly one year after he rejoined, he said in the complaint. Marc Kasowitz, the Manhattan litigator who founded the firm, told Deshmukh that he was being fired in an early June conversation. The firm later refused his request to be paid the remaining $264,000 minimum owed under the agreement, Deshmukh alleged.

Kasowitz Benson was sued by another former partner alleging similar claims in January 2020. Houston bankruptcy lawyer Kyung S. Lee accused the firm of shorting him on the $550,000 he was entitled to under his partnership agreement. The case was later moved to arbitration.

Kasowitz Benson is among the 200 largest law firms in the country, bringing in more than $244 million in gross revenue last year, according to data compiled by The American Lawyer. The firm’s 89 partners include 40 equity partners, the data show. It reported more than $2 million in profits per equity partner last year.

Deshmukh is represented by lawyers at Levy Goldenberg, who declined to comment.

The case is Jay R. Deshmukh v. Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, N.Y. Sup. Ct., 7/9/24.