Bank Blames Lawyers Now at Dykema for Part of its Financial Woes
New Century Bank, which is on a losing streak financially, has filed a legal malpractice suit against Dykema Gossett and Schwartz Cooper.
New Century blames Schwartz Cooper in particular for giving the Chicago-based lender bad advice on a $1.8 million loan made to a trucking company, the Chicago Tribune reports. Dykema is named in the suit because most of Schwartz Cooper’s lawyers landed there after the firm closed its doors in 2008.
The bank alleges that Schwartz Cooper should have insisted that titles to the trucking company’s collateral be placed in escrow before funds were wired to borrowers, who have since defaulted and filed for bankruptcy protection. New Century later discovered that many of the trucks had been impounded by Georgia for tax violations, the Tribune reports.
The bank claims it has lost more than $2 million because of the loan.
