Former Patton Boggs partner resigns from new law firm because of potential conflict
A former Patton Boggs partner is citing a potential conflict as the reason he is resigning from his new law firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.
Benjamin Chew, who had led Patton Boggs’ commercial litigation and antitrust practice, joined Pillsbury Winthrop earlier this year. He confirmed he is leaving the new firm in an email to the National Law Journal.
“My departure is exclusively due to a potential conflict relating to my prior affiliation with Patton Boggs,” Chew told the National Law Journal. “I have the utmost respect for Pillsbury, which the firm kindly advises is mutual.”
The NLJ notes that Chevron is a longtime client of Pillsbury and says Chew’s name surfaced in connection with Patton Boggs’ collection work in an environmental case against Chevron. Patton Boggs withdrew from the case in March and agreed to pay $15 million to Chevron after the oil company succeeded in blocking a $9.5 billion judgment awarded by a court in Ecuador.
A motion objecting to the Patton Boggs settlement alleged that Chew was one of the lawyers who had attorney-client communications about the case. Chew had not been identified as a lawyer in previous documents in the case, the National Law Journal says.
