Ex-client sues law firm King & Spalding for $1 billion over alleged malpractice
By David Thomas
Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.S. law firm King & Spalding and one of its former partners are facing a $1 billion legal malpractice lawsuit over allegations that they tried to wrest the ownership of a health care-based investment fund away from its client.
White Oak Global Advisors alleged in a complaint filed Saturday in New York County Supreme Court that former King & Spalding partner Terry Novetsky worked against its interests by secretly helping Isaac Soleimani, the then-CEO of White Oak's health care-based fund.
The lawsuit alleges that Novetsky and the law firm, while representing White Oak Global Advisors and White Oak Healthcare, worked with Soleimani "to craft and execute a multi-step plot to usurp control of White Oak Healthcare," including creating "pretextual litigation" on Soleimani's behalf. White Oak alleged that Novetsky and Soleimani communicated with each other through their personal Gmail accounts.
"The paper trail is damning," White Oak said in its lawsuit. It said King & Spalding's malpractice caused it to suffer hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, as it prohibited White Oak from launching two multi-billion dollar health care funds.
A spokesperson for King & Spalding did not immediately respond to a request for comment. White Oak said in its lawsuit that Terry Novetsky left King & Spalding for an unnamed law firm in 2023, where Novetsky continued the scheme. Novetsky did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The other law firm was not named in the lawsuit.
White Oak said it is seeking at least $1 billion in damages, including at least $500 million in punitive damages. King & Spalding engaged "in an unprecedented conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty toward its clients," White Oak's law firm Kasowitz said in a statement.
Soleimani, who was not named as a defendant in White Oak's legal malpractice lawsuit, was terminated as the CEO of White Oak Healthcare in September 2023. Attorneys at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, who represented Soleimani in another legal dispute with White Oak, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case is White Oak Global Advisors v. King & Spalding, New York County Supreme Court, No. Unassigned
For White Oak Advisors: Marc Kasowitz, Albert Shemmy Mishaan, Daniel Koevary and Dwayne Amos of Kasowitz
For King & Spalding: Not yet available
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