By the Numbers: 9 Firms, Lawyers Became Legal Targets in 2022

Law firms thrive on lawsuits, yet they don’t like when they are the targets of them.

Some prominent law firms and attorneys in 2022 found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being named as defendants in civil lawsuits or criminal prosecutions.

These are the law firms and lawyers that faced some of the year’s most notable cases.

Jones Day

Jones Day this month argued that two married former firm associates who alleged paternity discrimination hadn’t sufficiently proved their case to warrant a trial.

Mark Savignac and Julia Sheketoff filed the suit in 2019, alleging that Jones Day gave new fathers eight fewer weeks of paternity leave than mothers. They also said the firm fired Savignac, now at Steptoe & Johnson, for complaining.

A filing by the couple gained attention for another reason—it correctly predicted Stephen Brogan would step down as managing partner of Jones Day. The couple’s prediction that Traci Lovitt would succeed him was incorrect, however. The role went to Greg Shumaker.

In its motion for summary judgment, Jones Day contended that the couple hadn’t offered sufficient evidence to support their claims.

Dentons

Dentons last month lost what may be the mega firm’s final effort to overturn a $32.3 million legal malpractice judgment. The case has implications for that firm and several others structured as Swiss vereins.

The Ohio Supreme Court declined to reconsider the award for RevoLaze Inc., a former Dentons client that alleged misrepresentation because a firm affiliate in Canada represented a company RevoLaze sued for patent infringement.

Verein structures let firms market services from loosely affiliated legal operations under a single brand. The case could test whether firms that use a verein model must do conflicts checks with each affiliate as they weigh whether to take on a client.

Proskauer

Proskauer Rose is facing renewed claims it conspired with a prominent accounting firm to promote tax evasion.

Former firm clients Douglas and Jacqueline Coe originally sued Proskauer for legal malpractice and other claims in 2015—13 years after the firm and BDO Seidman LLP allegedly advised them to invest in distressed debt from a foreign company to offset tax obligations.

The Georgia Supreme Court in September reversed lower court rulings that a statute of limitations began to run on the Coes’ claims in 2002.

The couple claimed losses on their tax returns because of the advice they received from Proskauer and BDO, they said. They later faced an IRS audit, which they settled.

Morgan Lewis & Bockius, however, doesn’t have to face claims filed in Illinois. The First District Appellate Court of Illinois found this month that a lawsuit in 2014 by several people who bought tax solutions from BDO Seidman was filed too late.

Christopher Kamon

Christopher Kamon, the former chief financial officer of the dissolved law firm Girardi Keese, was charged last month with wire fraud after being picked up at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Kamon allegedly stole more than $10 million through a “side fraud” that funded an escort he paid $20,000 per month and new cars and homes in California and the Bahamas, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles-based plaintiffs firm collapsed after allegations that its principal, Tom Girardi, had misappropriated client funds.

Dechert

In October, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and an Iranian American aviation executive claimed Dechert and one of its partners, Neil Gerrard, participated in a “hack and dump scheme” to reveal damaging documents.

The reporter, Jonathan Solomon, and executive Farhad Azima separately sued Dechert and others under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Civil RICO cases over computer hacking are uncommon and litigation under the statute is highly complex and difficult to win, attorneys have said, which could be good news for Dechert.

Kirkland

A former Kirkland & Ellis associate, Zoya Kovalenko, claims that the firm and some partners discriminated against her because she’s a woman and retaliated when she complained. She filed a federal lawsuit filed in October.

Kovalenko said the bias occurred during a 10-month tenure with the intellectual property practice starting in 2020. She alleges she was saddled with more work than comparable male IP practice associates and was paid less than them.

Kirkland said after the suit was filed that her allegations were found to be without merit and that her performance fell below the firm’s standards.

Michael Avenatti

Michael Avenatti, the disgraced former lawyer who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels, was sentenced this month to 14 years in prison for stealing millions of dollars from clients. He was also ordered to pay about $11 million to the IRS and clients.

Avenatti, a long-standing critic of Donald Trump, already had been sentenced to four years for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from Daniels, and more than two years for trying to extort Nike Inc. on behalf of another client.

The judge in the most recent case ordered that his prison terms run consecutively—meaning Avenatti faces two more decades behind bars.

Polsinelli

A Florida-based federal judge in May rejected Polsinelli’s motion to dismiss a legal malpractice suit alleging the firm failed to conduct due diligence when it represented a now-defunct cryptocurrency trading club.

The suit from the liquidating agent for a crypto hedge fund called Q3I LP alleges Polsinelli lawyers failed to catch false representations made by the man who created a crypto trading algorithm the company used and didn’t verify his reported returns.

The firm had attempted to dismiss the complaint in April, under a legal doctrine that bars remedies where parties are equally wrong.

Willie Dennis

Former K&L Gates partner Willie Dennis in October was convicted of cyberstalking lawyers at the firm.

Dennis, who is Black, was fired in 2019 and later said the firm systemically discriminated against Black partners. K&L Gates countered that the suit was part of a “smear campaign” and attributed his firing to improper behavior.

According to the firm, Dennis sent sexist, racist, anti-Semitic and physically threatening statements to his colleagues, and his campaign intensified after he was fired.