Ex-WolfBlock Partner Claims Top Lawyers Colluded With Competitor Firm
A former WolfBlock partner is refusing to return distributions paid before the law firm dissolved in March 2009, citing alleged collusion with a competing law firm.
The wind-down committee for WolfBlock is seeking $1.6 million in distributions from 49 former partners, only one of whom has paid up, the Legal Intelligencer reports. Robert Crowe, former head of WolfBlock’s Boston office, is one of the lawyers refusing to pay. In an interview with the Intelligencer, he said the firm “foolishly” decided to pursue the income partners.
He explained his objections in an arbitration filing obtained by the Intelligencer. The document claims WolfBlock’s managing lawyers breached their fiduciary duties for converting money owed to him and for a conflict of interest caused by negotiations with Cozen O’Connor before the vote to dissolve.
“In short, the managing partner and members of the executive committee orchestrated the demise of the firm by colluding with a competitor firm to divest the firm of assets that could have been used to pay creditors while leaving the liabilities to be shouldered, at least in part, by partners who played no role in the dissolution,” Crowe’s response said.
The negotiations proposed moving a substantial number of high-earning partners to Cozen, “thereby ensuring that WolfBlock could no longer continue as a viable entity,” the document said. Crowe is now a lawyer with Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.
Cozen O’Connor president Thomas “Tad” Decker told the Intelligencer his firm offered to hire only one WolfBlock lawyer before the dissolution vote, and there were no concrete hiring discussions until after the decision to dissolve.
