Motion for sanctions against David Boies 'is itself deserving of sanctions,' law firm says
David Boies is the chairman and a managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner. An April 8 motion seeks sanctions against Boies and law firm co-managing partner Sigrid McCawley. (Photo by Kathy Anderson/ABA Journal)
Updated: A motion for sanctions filed against two Boies Schiller Flexner leaders was “filed with the improper purpose of threatening, harassing and intimidating” the lawyers and the sex-trafficking plaintiffs they represent, according to an April 19 motion filed by the lawyers.
Boies Schiller chairman David Boies and law firm co-managing partner Sigrid McCawley allege that the motion for sanctions is “full of misstatements that are patently unreasonable.”
The sanctions motion “is itself deserving of sanctions,” the Boies Schiller lawyers conclude in their sanctions motion, filed in federal court in New York City.
The first sanctions motion was filed April 8 by the co-executors of the estate of convicted sex offender and multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by hanging himself in jail.
The co-executors—Epstein’s personal lawyer Darren K. Indyke and Epstein’s accountant Richard D. Kahn—are accused of facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking in the lawsuit filed by the Boies Schiller lawyers.
Indyke and Kahn claim that lead plaintiff Danielle Bensky and other victims can’t sue because they signed “ironclad” liability releases in return for “massive monetary payouts.”
Boies and McCawley argue that the existence of a release of claims is an affirmative defense that does not have to be anticipated in the legal complaint. In any event, the lawyers allege, Indyke and Kahn had direct involvement in facilitating Epstein’s sex crimes, and that wasn’t known when the releases were signed.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian of the Southern District of New York denied sanctions motions filed by both sides in an order posted Tuesday evening.
Updated April 25 at 4:25 p.m. to report that Judge Arun Subramanian of the Southern District of New York denied both sanctions motions.
