Derek Smith Law Group Misconduct Sanction Upheld After Appeal

Derek Smith Law Group PLLC was properly sanctioned with an order to pay an opposing party’s $81,439 in attorneys’ fees, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

The firm and Johnmack Cohen, an attorney there, engaged in “bad faith misconduct,” a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said.

The sanction stems from the attorneys’ work on a 2018-2023 lawsuit, John Doe 1 v. East Side Club, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The now dismissed action was brought by a John Doe who alleged sexual harassment ...