Lawsuit of the Day: Williams & Connolly v. IDT Corp.
The litigators at Williams & Connolly are known for being a hard-charging bunch. So it’s probably not a wise idea to dare them to make your day — because they probably will.
From the BLT:
It’s not uncommon these days to see law firms suing former clients over unpaid legal bills (see, for instance, McDermott Will & Emery’s recent $606,000 case). Still, this latest bit of legal fee litigation seems remarkable: Williams & Connolly is taking a former client to court over $2 million after the company practically invited the firm to sue.
According to the complaint, Williams & Connolly and its ex-client, IDT, worked out a payment plan for $3 million in legal fees. IDT made the first $1 million payment, but then stopped paying on the debt.
So what happened next?
Williams & Connolly then received a visit from Shmuel Jonas, the son of IDT founder and chair Howard Jonas. The younger Jonas allegedly informed Williams & Connolly that his father had no intention paying the balance of his company’s legal bills.The complaint states that Jonas “acknowledged that Williams & Connolly would win in court if Williiams & Connolly filed a lawsuit to enforce the agreement.” But according to the complaint, Jonas also “explained that his father had concluded that IDT ‘could harass Williams & Connolly for a couple of years and then settle out of court for a reduced amount.’”
Refusing to pay a debt, knowing that you can settle for less than the face value, is not uncommon. But it’s tacky to be so brazen about it.
And it’s probably not a wise strategy to employ against Williams & Connolly, which didn’t even bother hiring an outside law firm to chase after the money. As noted by the BLT, “Apparently Williams & Connolly is pretty confident in its chances too. An associate, Beth Stewart, is the only lawyer listed on the complaint.”
Fee Fight: Williams & Connolly Sues Ex-Client for $2 Million [Am Law Daily]
Williams & Connolly Sues Client for $2 Million [The BLT / Blog of the Legal Times]
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Comments
FirsTTT
First to say don't fuck with the clients they pay the bills . . . oh wait
Did this Shmuel guy go to SMU?
W & C had better settle fast. IDT is in such bad shape it is abandoning its skyscraper in Newark for smaller, less expensive offices. If IDT gets liquidated in bankruptcy-- which is not beyond the realm of possibility-- W & C might get very little.
W&C is f-ing awesome.
WHERE IS ELIE, did he get FIRED after Lat's explosion???????
6
Elie was fired "for performance reasons." He was given a stipend worth 3 months pay and forced to perform community service blogging about dog bite law.
6,
I know I'm late to the party, but what did Lat say? I
Ms. Stewart appears to be bright (Harvard - HLS) but she has only 4 years of experience - it must be a slam dunk!
8
http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1112962&mc=20&forum_id=2&PHPSESSID=3e833067a4e6287e76fc254499e294bf
Elie has released a public response to Lat:
http://eliemystttalspeaks.ytmnd.com/
8,
Not generally a gossp person, but hell, this is what happens when you let a scandal loose among people who comment on a tabloid.
He made a twitter post to the effect of "is wondering if there is a remedial class in grammar and spelling that he can make a colleague of his attend."
Allegedly there were other facbook posts, but I've only seen the references to those on autoadmit.
http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1112962&mc=20&forum_id=2&PHPSESSID=3e833067a4e6287e76fc254499e294bf#13008749
which didn’t even bother hiring outside law firm to chase after the money
booooo
Elie has released a public response to Lat:
http://eliemystttalspeaks.ytmnd.com/
First to say that I'd bang Beth Stewart.
As they say, "It's business-it's business time!"
Lat
We need an explanation or an apology. Is Elie fired, our are you just giving him a breather after your bitch fit? If he just got a day or two to lessen the liklihood that he punches you in the face, it seems unfair to him that you let this speculation to continue. Let us know he will be back.
If the Mystal days are done, you should just let that cat out of the bag. People are not going to stop talking about it until they know the answer. You suck at crisis management. And management.
The Lat v. Mystal "fight" is about as real as "Balloon Boy." It's a hoax designed to boost pageviews (now that law firm layoffs are slowing down).
Remember this staged Lat / Mystal fight?
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/07/gatesgate_a_legal_hypothetical.php
Former IDT employee here (I left on my own).
They are morons. Shmulie, the son of Howard, used to be in charge of the cafeteria at the company headquarters. It was allegedly kosher but it was disgusting. You wouldn't let your worst enemy eat there. Not surprised to see such a dumb move by such a dumb company.
Was Shmuel counting pennies?
When are you taking down Mystal's name from the masthead?
Slow news day? Maybe some of you are happy Elie is gone, but sheesh -- can we get at least an interesting blog post at some point today? It isn't quite 5. You all still have time to put something at least mildly worthwhile up.
This isn't my fight, and certainly a lot of the posts here have been offensive and needed to be deleted immediately, but, what's the deal with the moderation policy?
Comments have been completely disappearing, as opposed to reading "comment removed by moderator" or whatever. This includes an (unoffensive) comment about Lat's typo in the original post, and now one of 19/20's double posts.
New policy? Has Lat always been more proactive?
With such a useless day of ATL posts, I think a lot of people were late to the party here...
Elie posted an email from a tipster that was filled with tipster commentary and skewered the intent/image of the attorney and firm that authored it.
Lat goes off on Elie on Facebook.
Elie apologizes for his lack of diligence and workmanship.
ATL readers go on a binge and post nearly 800 comments on the post.
Elie disappears the following day.
Shmuel Jonas = JaKe Emeritus
24 - I hope you are getting paid for that. Though, either way you are a douche.
23 is right. Posts are just disappearing now. The best part of ATL is the community of degenerates that have formed in the commentary. Eliminating this will alienate your readers further. So people post stupidity, so what? You are not catering to 55 year old partners. Your readers are predominantly young, alcoholic, overworked stressed out social maladjusts that enjoy picking on each other. JDUnderground, yo.
This is all getting pretty heavy. If ATL wasn't such a goddamn necessity, you'd think it looks like it's in its last throes or something.
Well said 27.
- /s/ Young, Alcoholic, Overworked Stressed out Social Maladjust
Lat, my dear boy, seems we both got our balloons popped. Let's get a beer and cry about how the world does not understand our p.r. genious. Unethical, no, creative, yes.
Richard Heene
Father of Baloon Boy
4 may be right, in which case they better get paid more than 90 days before the company files or they will get Preferenced.
Yet another Kiddush Hashem. We probably won't be hearing about this at the next fete honoring Jonas publicized in The Jewish Press.
Way to go.
Also, hell of a way to encourage future law firms to do business with you.
Finally, a big thumbs up for encouraging standard antisemitic impression of Jews.
All around, a big Yishar kochcha, Jonas!
15 - You must be a gay man because Beth Stewart looks like a dude.
32 - did you mean to say Yasher Koach? if so, hebrew fail!
32 - You sure this is the proper forum for conveying your message to Jonas? Kiddush/Chillul - take it to where it belongs, which ain't here. By making an issue of Jonas' ethnic/religious affiliation and turning the spotlight to it, it's you who's exacerbating what you're seemingly so concerned about...
Lema'aseh, it is takaeh a benzunderah machloikes in the poiskim. Uber, memunechshuch it is azoi a Chillul Hashem deoraisah. Farshtait?
The lawyer representing himself has a fool for a client.
36 - duh bist a grosse putz. Farshatast?
38 - talking like that is bad for shiduchim - wait till the shadchan hears!
I love reading the comments on this blog. They remind me of behavior I need to watch out for when hiring associates.
1. I will happily motherfuck a client over bills when I perceive the benefit outweighs the cost. For my firm, that is seldom. But not never.
2. I always assumed that Mystal included grammatical errors as a sop to the idiotic, pedantic cretins who regularly populate this blog. I'm sorry that Lat is put out about it; I find it kind of amusing.
3. To all the haters, yes I'm a partner at my firm, and yes I have decision-making authority. And I find cynics somewhat distasteful, for what it's worth.
4. To the other readers, the practice of law CAN be both fun and rewarding!
-- ET!