Locked-Out Lord & Whip Partner Pursues ‘Nuclear Option’

A year ago, Lord & Whip had 15 lawyers. But now it is down to no more than four partners, and they reportedly can't agree on anything. So managing partner Kathleen Bustraan allegedly took matters into her own hands.

Without a partnership vote, she locked attorney John Boyd and his paralegal out of the firm's Baltimore office, he contends in a lawsuit filed last week in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The firm apparently is taking the position that he has been expelled, reducing the partner roster to three; however, he says in a lawsuit that a partnership vote was required to do so, according to the Daily Record.

The lawsuit seeks what Boyd's lawyer, Ronald Dawson, describes as "the nuclear option" for resolving partner deadlocks: a court-ordered involuntary dissolution of the more than 100-year-old civil litigation defense firm, the publication writes.

Attorney Benjamin Rosenberg apparently represents Lord & Whip. He says Boyd's allegations aren't accurate, but otherwise declines to comment, according to the Daily Record.