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With attorney fees, Gibson Dunn must pay over $725K to ex-partner who had earned $60M

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 19, 2024, 9:57 am CDT

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher has agreed to pay a former partner more than $140,000 in attorney fees unless the amount is overturned in an appeal of his much higher arbitration award.

Former partner Mark A. Perry, who left Gibson Dunn to co-chair the appellate practice at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, has been awarded more than $725,000 in all: $557,371 in retirement benefits, $27,502 in interest and $140,678 in attorney fees.

Law360 and Reuters have coverage of the Sept. 13 order by Judge Kevin C. Brazile of Los Angeles, which granted attorney fees based on the parties’ stipulation.

Perry left Gibson Dunn in 2022 after spending nearly 28 years at the law firm.

The fee award follows an arbitrator’s determination that Perry was entitled to retirement payments when he stops competing with Gibson Dunn. The firm had maintained that Perry wasn’t entitled to retirement payments because he had resigned, rather than retired.

Even if Perry was retired, Gibson Dunn said, he wasn’t entitled to retirement payments under the partnership agreement because he competed with Gibson Dunn.

Brazile confirmed the arbitration award in a June decision. He ruled for the firm, however, in a motion to seal portions of the partnership agreement and other sensitive information. But Brazile said there was no basis to seal “supposed ‘private’ information about Perry,” including his career earnings.

The earnings amounted to $60 million. Perry also had a “lucrative” 401(k), Brazile said.

Gibson Dunn has filed notice of appeal, Law360 reports.

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3. Kasowitz Benson sues former Gibson Dunn partner…

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Kasowitz Benson sues former Gibson Dunn partner for nearly $500K in latest suit seeking legal fees

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 29, 2024, 2:34 pm CST

Kasowitz Benson Torres is seeking nearly $500,000 in legal fees from a former Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York state court.

The suit seeking fees from suspended lawyer Ignacio Foncillas “is the latest in a string of court actions the firm has initiated against former clients since the start of 2023 for a total of $5.2 million in legal fees,” Law.com reports.

Kasowitz Benson had helped Foncillas negotiate a “highly favorable sentencing agreement,” according to the suit allegations cited by Law.com.

Foncillas pleaded guilty in June 2018 to operating an unlicensed money transferring business between the United States and Mexico. Operating without a license allowed customers to evade anti-money-laundering safeguards, according to prosecutors. The company allegedly aided the transmission of more than $9 million between the two countries.

Foncillas was sentenced to time served, two years of supervised release, 500 hours of community service and a $7,500 fine. He also consented to entry of a $9.4 million forfeiture judgment, but the government agreed to accept more than $262,000 in satisfaction of that amount, according to a court opinion affirming his one-year suspension.

Foncillas did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s request for comment, sent to an email address listed by the New York court system. His representatives did not return Law.com’s request for comment.

Other defendants sued by Kasowitz Benson for fees include a financial adviser, a real estate developer and a marketing agency, according to Law.com. The largest amount sought was $2 million, related to Kasowitz Benson’s representation of real estate companies in connection with a mortgage foreclosure.

Law.com spoke with Michael Heller, CEO of Cozen O’Connor, about the risk of suing for unpaid fees.

“Most law firm general counsel will try to caution their law firm leaders against filing for unpaid fees because you could get a counterclaim of malpractice,” Heller said.

He declined, however, to comment specifically on the Kasowitz Benson suits.