Clifford Chance partner wrote 'happily ever after' post before he died in yacht disaster
Rescue teams and divers returned to the site of a storm-sunken superyacht Tuesday to search for six people, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch and Clifford Chance partner Christopher J. Morvillo, who were thought to be still trapped in the hull 50 meters underwater. They have since been confirmed dead. (Photo by Salvatore Cavalli/The Associated Press)
Updated: A partner at Clifford Chance and his wife are among six people confirmed dead after a superyacht sank off the Sicily coast during a storm Monday.
The families of law firm partner Christopher J. Morvillo and his wife, Neda, released a statement Thursday saying they are “completely devastated” by their deaths, Law360 reports.
Morvillo, 59, was on the yacht with Mike Lynch, a client acquitted in June in a fraud case with Morvillo’s help. Lynch was accused of misrepresenting the financial health of his software company Autonomy when he sold it to the Hewlett Packard Co. in 2011.
Lynch is among the six victims whose bodies were recovered by Thursday afternoon, according to Reuters.
A seventh person who had been missing, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, was still unaccounted for.
Ayla Ronald, a senior associate at Clifford Chance who is based in London, was among 15 people who survived. Her father said the yacht trip was supposed to be a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal.
Business Insider, the New York Post, Law.com, Original Jurisdiction, CNN and the Associated Press had early coverage of the disaster.
A waterspout likely caused the yacht to sink, a Sicilian civil protection official told CNN.
Morvillo, who was based in New York City, wrote an “eerie” LinkedIn post in the months before the tragedy, according to the New York Post.
In the post, Morvillo thanked others who worked on the case. At the end, he thanked his family.
“None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home,” he wrote. “And they all lived happily ever after.”
A co-defendant in the fraud case who was also acquitted, Stephen Chamberlain, was struck and killed while jogging Saturday, according to Gary Lincenberg, Chamberlain’s lawyer, who spoke with Business Insider.
“In the course of 48 hours, I can’t process what has happened, but both of our clients, as well as Chris and his wife, are gone,” Lincenberg told the publication.
Morvillo, a former federal prosecutor, told Law360 in June that he had represented Lynch for one-third of his 32-year legal career. He said he was looking forward to a little time off.
A Clifford Chance spokesperson gave a statement to Law.com earlier this week.
“We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” the statement said. “Our utmost priority is providing support to the family, as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who, together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident. Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected.”
Updated Aug. 22 at 2:10 p.m. to include the statement from the Morvillo families and the confirmation of deaths.
