In ‘Kafkaesque’ Case, Pro Se Client Foils Former Counsel’s $145K Fee Collection

Apparently unhappy about his lawyer's handling of a federal national-origin discrimination case in which he won an $80,000 jury verdict on a retaliation count, a tenured assistant professor of economics at Seton Hall University's Stillman School of Business fought back.

After dismissing his counsel, Antonia Kousoulas, and successfully defending the New Jersey university's appeal of the retaliation judgment pro se, Chander Kant began focusing his efforts on over $100,000 in legal fees claimed by his own trial lawyer, reports the New Jersey Law Journal in an article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).

Once the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed the $80,000 judgment in 2008, Seton Hall paid it. But, unsure about the attorney fee award, to which Kant also was laying claim, the university simply deposited the money with the court, the legal publication reports. With interest, the unexpended attorney-fee fund now totals nearly $145,000.

Kant has now asserted a malpractice case as a counterclaim to his former lawyer's fee petition—and on Monday, U.S. District Judge William Walls ruled that it could proceed, rejecting Kousoulas' argument that counterclaims to attorney fee petitions aren't allowed under New Jersey state law.

Kant's complaints about the way Kousoulas handled his discrimination case include claims that she set the settlement bar too high, at $150,000; told him he could expect $300,000 in damages at trial; and pursued front-pay damages without informing Kant that this would preclude his seeking promotion to a full-professor post as an equitable remedy, the law journal article continues.

Kousoulas describes the case as "Kafkaesque," but otherwise declines to comment.