Small Law Firms

Someone Take Lin Wood's Keyboard Before He Gets In More Trouble

New sanctions motion alleges the attorney sat on some problematic emails.

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L. Lin Wood (photo by Gage Skidmore)

Lin Wood already got kicked off social media and booted from the local lawyers’ club in light of his “execute the Vice President of the United States” messages. Now he’s facing a sanctions claim that he not only defrauded his former partners, but hid a clutch of incriminating (or inliability-ating anyway) emails. Wood denies these emails amount to much of anything, but putting aside the merits of the claim… this guy really needs to stop writing down everything that pops in his head before it gets him in real trouble. Listen to your friend Stringer Bell.

The National Law Journal has a story on a new sanctions motion in the ongoing dispute between Wood and three of his former law partners. The parties signed a settlement agreement that acknowledged that the former partners were, in fact, partners and not merely office tenants, and that Wood would share fees from a specific case (almost certainly the Nicholas Sandmann case) with them. When the time came to pay up, Wood said that the client wouldn’t agree and said there was nothing he could do about it.

At issue is Wood’s claim to the court that he had “endeavored in good faith to obtain consent of the client in the Disputed case to the fee split” after the other partners split with Wood. The plaintiffs suspected that Wood hadn’t genuinely tried to get them their money under the agreement, but Wood “denied under oath,” according to the motion, the existence of any documents on this issue.

Well, let’s have a little litigation pop quiz… if the request is “all communications, correspondence, text messages, or emails exchanged to or from [local counsel in the Disputed Case] regarding settlement funds from the [Disputed Client’s] case or referencing any of the Plaintiffs,” do you think this email from Wood to local counsel would be responsive?

I need for you and [the Disputed Client] to state in writing that [the Disputed Client] do not and shall not agree that any fees due to my PC be divided with any other lawyer except on a quantum mer[uit] basis. I am confident they have the right to control the fees…. In short, I need your help and the help of [the Disputed Client] to nip this nonsense in the bud quickly and quietly…. Will you help me?”

What about this one?

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“I would like to ask you to consider preparing a letter from you to Beal [Plaintiffs’ counsel] and a letter signed by [the Disputed Client] … making clear that it is there [sic] express directive that no fees be paid to Taylor, Jonathan, and Nicole that exceed a quantum meruit basis regardless of any agreement I made or attempted to make… This needs to be nipped on the bud and quickly so…. Would you please be willing to call me in the morning and let me give you the basic details of what is going on and what I would like for you to consider doing for me and what I would like for [the Disputed Client] to consider doing for me which I believe will bring this foolishness to an abrupt and unhappy ending for Taylor, Jonathan, and Nicole. If they realize they are not going to receive [the fees from the Disputed Client], they will have NO ability to finance their frivolous claims … and the remaining office lease liability…. That alone will cut off their ability to finance and publicize their BS claims against me.”

Please submit your answers forthwith!

Wood’s attorney responded to the sanctions allegations by denying that these emails are a “smoking gun” but rather “the three emails merely evidence the Defendants’ position regarding the fee dispute, which predates the settlement discussions which began in earnest on March 11, 2020.”

Which seems to miss the whole point of this “discovery” thing.

Because Wood can argue all he wants that trying to get the client to say “I won’t pay them” before the agreement and then acting surprised when the client says “I won’t pay them” isn’t incriminating — he might even be right! — but that doesn’t mean it’s not relevant to the request.

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Bringing us full circle to Wood’s whole problem: he needs to stop writing down everything he’s thinking. Because, assuming arguendo that these emails don’t represent a premeditated effort to thwart the anticipated settlement agreement, Wood’s former partners absolutely knew that if there was anything even questionably off about this settlement agreement, Wood was going to have it all laid out in an email. That’s why they doggedly pursued this: when discovery produced zero troubling emails from Wood that in and of itself was a red flag to them.

Seriously, sanctions and the substance of this matter aside, someone needs to get this guy to stop writing. Because it feels like every time he starts putting words to digital paper it ends up putting him in a deeper and deeper hole.

Lin Wood’s Ex-Partners Seek Sanctions, Saying He Lied to Court Over ‘Hidden’ Emails [National Law Journal]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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