Ex-Proskauer COO Accused of Scheme to Poach Staff for Rival Firm

A former Proskauer Rose executive who allegedly stole business secrets from the firm also hatched a scheme to bring key members of its finance team to rival Paul Hastings, according to a court filing.

Jonathan O’Brien conspired with “key executives,” including Proskauer’s former chief financial officer, Leigh Anne Whyte, in the effort to bring senior officials and staff with them in a move to Paul Hastings, Proskauer said Monday. The new allegations came in an amended complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court.

The firm also accused O’Brien of sharing recruiting information with the “chair of the competing law firm,” a reference to Frank Lopez, the Paul Hastings chair and a Proskauer alum. The two law firms are among the largest in the US, with each eclipsing over $1.2 billion in gross revenue in 2022.

O’Brien and Paul Hastings denied the accusations. Whyte, who has not been named as a defendant in the suit, did not immediately return a request for comment. Whyte is an Australian citizen who had served as Proskauer’s CFO since 2018, according to the complaint. It is unclear if she has taken a new role since her exit.

“Paul Hastings neither solicited nor received any confidential or proprietary information,” the firm said in a statement Tuesday. “This continues to be another firm’s personnel dispute and we do not comment on other firms’ personnel matters.”

Proskauer sued O’Brien in December, accusing him of stealing a swath of electronic files relating to Proskauer’s finances, strategy and billing rates before announcing his resignation as the chief operating officer on Dec. 20. The firm alleges O’Brien pilfered the files to use in his new role at Paul Hastings.

O’Brien has argued in court that he copied the firm’s confidential info onto two hard drives in order to work on transition issues while on vacation.

Russell Beck, a lawyer for O’Brien, said in a statement Tuesday that the amended complaint was “drafted with an eye towards using the media.”

Courting ‘Key Colleagues’

O’Brien and Whyte began planning a move Paul Hastings in the summer of 2022, Proskauer said in the amended complaint.

The pair recruited “key colleagues” to join them and created a list of Proskauer personnel to “poach” at a later date, the firm alleged.

The group of key colleagues included Jeremy Russo, Proskauer’s director of financial planning and analysis, who is alleged to have helped O’Brien steal the tranche of proprietary records. Russo, who had been in the role since 2019, did not immediately respond to a request for comment via LinkedIn and an email to his Proskauer account bounced back. He has not been named as a defendant in the suit.

O’Brien, Whyte and Russo are said to have informed the firm of their resignations around the same time in December.

O’Brien, while still at Proskauer, repeatedly talked with Lopez, the Paul Hastings chair, about how to get his colleagues on board, according to the amended complaint. He violated his fiduciary duties to Proskauer in those talks, the suit alleges.

O’Brien shared an internal “recruiting initiative” with Lopez, “who then used that information to Proskauer’s detriment,” the firm said.

Paul Hastings said in January that O’Brien would not be joining the firm, declining to give a reason for the decision.

“We are regularly recruiting across both our legal and business services roles in the ordinary course,” Paul Hastings said Tuesday in a statement.

Paul Hastings declined to answer questions on any offers extended to Whyte and Russo.

O’Brien faces additional claims of defrauding Proskauer, where he was employed since 2015, over a period of years and erasing a raft of his communications. Proskauer noted that an ongoing investigation found he deleted hundreds of messages in the hours and days after the Dec. 27 lawsuit.

A judge in January issued a preliminary injunction ordering him to refrain from further acts of misappropriation, and from further disclosing or copying the trade secret information.

The amended complaint asks for a permanent injunction,in addition to compensatory damages.

The case is Proskauer Rose LLP v. O’Brien, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:22-cv-10918.