Bitter Boston Breakup Battle After Donovan Lawyers Create LeClair Office
Updated: A raid last summer by Virginia-based LeClairRyan on Boston’s Donovan Hatem has resulted in an extraordinarily bitter and well-publicized breakup battle.
At least some of a welter of claims and counterclaims between current and former Donovan lawyers, contending that the firm didn’t pay departed partners their due, and that those who jumped ship are now trying to humiliate and destroy their former firm, is headed to arbitration soon. Meanwhile, observers are agog over details of allegedly abusive conduct toward his then-colleagues by name partner David Hatem, 55. His abrasive nature, a pleading contends, led to “increasingly tyrannical and abusive behavior” after the death of name partner John Donovan Jr. removed his moderating influence, according to the Boston Globe.
The July 2007 exodus of nine Donovan Hatem partners and two senior lawyers who left to form the local LeClairRyan office, as well as a subsequent move to join them by seven Donovan associates, has not improved relations among the warring attorneys. Hatem, on his side, now contends that his former colleagues launched a “shameless public smear campaign” in a “bald-faced effort to disrupt, and perhaps destroy” their former firm, the newspaper reports. He says Donovan’s disputed finances have been checked by an accountant and passed muster.
In a March 12 telephone interview with ABAJournal.com, David Greenberg, general counsel for LeClairRyan, emphasizes that the departing Donovan lawyers had already decided to leave their firm before they entered into discussions with LeClairRyan. (Lawyers from the two firms already knew each other, he notes, due to prior professional relationships.) Additionally, the Donovan group spoke with several other law firms before deciding to establish a LeClairRyan office in Boston. Greenberg also points out that LeClairRyan is not involved in the dispute between the current and former Donovan Hatem partners.
As discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, the partner-pay dispute has resulted in a court-ordered hold on the distribution of Donovan’s 2007 profits, until the arbitration takes place. Some $2 million is reportedly sought by the former partners.
Updated at 8:48 p.m., central time, March 12, 2008, to include Greenberg comments and clarify that LeClairRyan is not involved in the dispute between current and former Donovan partners.
