Dentons Drama Could Play Out in Court After Rare Appeal Granted

A California appeals court has paused a New York arbitration proceeding between Dentons and John “Jinshu” Zhang, handing a long-shot victory to the ex-partner who says he was wrongly terminated by the world’s largest law firm.

In a rare occurrence, the appeals court on Friday granted Zhang’s emergency appeal request. Its order stayed a New York arbitration proceeding and signaled that the California court will determine what law applies and where the dispute will go forward.

The ruling keeps alive the possibility that the dispute will proceed in a public courtroom, which could extend a public relations fiasco for the firm. Zhang alleges that Dentons’ former U.S. CEO Mike McNamara orchestrated a “forgery” in an effort to collect a $35 million contingency fee Zhang earned on a matter.

The court’s order asked Zhang and Dentons to answer questions about how to apply a provision of California’s Labor Code that requires disputes involving California employees to be heard in the Golden State.

“This is a huge victory,” Zhang’s lawyer, Paul Murphy of Murphy Rosen LLP, said. “All we want is a full and fair hearing before a California court that is familiar with these issues about the controlling law and where this dispute will be litigated.”

Dentons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dentons last month scored a victory in the dispute when a New York state court judge ruled the case belonged in arbitration and confirmed three arbitration awards Dentons had won prior to the case spilling into court.

Zhang was fired on May 5, shortly after he called for McNamara’s termination in an email to the firm’s U.S. board, accusing McNamara of a “massive fraud,” according to a redacted copy of the e-mail viewed by Bloomberg Law. Dentons has called Zhang’s allegations “false and slanderous.”

McNamara was replaced as Dentons’ U.S. CEO on July 2, with the firm reportedly seeking a formal replacement. He had been in leadership roles at the firm for more than a decade.

Zhang filed a petition for a writ of mandate, which is a last-ditch request that the California appeals court take up a case.