Donovan Hatem and Name Partner Ordered to Pay $3M to Ex-Partners
Boston law firm Donovan Hatem has been ordered to pay $3 million to nine former partners who claimed a name partner engaged in abusive behavior and manipulated profit numbers.
Judge Judith Fabricant affirmed an arbitration panel finding and ordered the firm and name partner David Hatem to pay $3 million along with attorney fees over a two-year period, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (sub. req.) reports in a story summarized by the Boston Business Journal. After leaving Donovan Hatem, the nine partners formed the Boston office of LeClairRyan.
Plaintiffs in the bitter lawsuit had claimed Donovan Hatem didn’t pay profits it owed them, and that Hatem displayed “increasingly tyrannical and abusive behavior” after the death of name partner John Donovan Jr., a moderating influence. They also alleged that Hatem had manipulated the firm’s accounting to decrease funding for partner payouts. A Donovan Hatem counterclaim alleged that those who jumped ship were trying to humiliate and destroy their former firm.
Fabricant wrote that, “but for Hatem’s conduct the plaintiffs would have had no reason to leave the firm, which conduct caused substantial financial harm to the plaintiffs.”
