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Dechert sues former lawyer for alleged salary overpayment

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 29, 2025, 10:56 am CST

Dechert has sued a former senior project attorney for more than $90,000, the money that the law firm said it is still owed after a $132,250 salary overpayment.

The Jan. 21 lawsuit filed in the trial-level New York Supreme Court blames the salary overpayment on a clerical error.

Law.com has the story.

The suit says senior project attorney Kathleen Fay continued to receive her regular salary for a 7½ month period ending in May 2024, even though she wasn’t performing billable work at that time. A temporary employment agreement in effect during that period provided that Fay would be paid only for billable work assigned to her and performed.

The agreement was reached in late September 2023 after Fay asked to remain listed on the firm’s website. Fay’s contract as a project attorney ended without an extension June 30, 2023, but she continued to be paid for three months and was offered consulting services to help with her job search, the suit says.

When Dechert discovered its mistake in mid-May 2024, it demanded its money back. Fay did not comply, the suit says.

“In an attempt to make itself whole,” the suit says, Dechert “exercised its rights to recoup certain payments made to or otherwise due to” Fay.

Fay told Law.com that the suit allegations “are baseless and its actions are unethical.” She worked on the firm’s product liability team for more than a decade “and am now a law librarian earning less than a paralegal,” she said.

“It is unfortunate that Dechert has chosen to remove my vested funds from my 401(k) account and to bully me in public,” Fay told Law.com. “However, the equities and the law favor me and I look forward to vindicating my rights and reputation in court.”

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3. Dechert will pay millions of dollars to settle…

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Dechert will pay millions of dollars to settle ‘hack-for-hire’ allegations stemming from ex-partner’s work

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 5, 2024, 10:54 am CST

Dechert has agreed to pay $3.8 million plus costs to settle claims in the United Kingdom that a former London partner conspired to hack and release the emails of a client’s opponent.

The costs have not yet been determined, but they are about $11 million, bringing the total to nearly $15 million, according to Farhad Azima, the aviation executive who said his email was hacked.

Law360 and Bloomberg Law have coverage.

A spokesperson for Azima told Law360 that he has also resolved his claims against the former partner, Neil Gerrard, as part of the U.K. settlement. But the settlement does not resolve Azima’s a RICO suit against Dechert and Gerrard in the United States, according to Bloomberg Law and Law360. A motion to dismiss that federal lawsuit is pending in the Southern District of New York.

Gerrard was global co-chair of Dechert’s white-collar and securities litigation practice before his retirement in 2020.

Azima has alleged that his emails were hacked and released to reporters in a bid to silence his complaints about human rights abuses by Dechert client Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirates. Azima alleges that he was the victim of a “massive hack-for-hire operation” orchestrated by Girardi, according to Law360.

Dechert said there was no admission of liability in connection with the U.K. settlement.