Hogan & Hartson partner Robert Cave was warned not to get involved.

The bitter dispute between a wealthy investment banker and his ex-wife had already chewed through several Washington lawyers by the time it came to him in 1997. Williams & Connolly litigator Brendan Sullivan Jr. called it a real mess, according to court documents. Cave’s colleague, J. Warren Gorrell Jr., who currently chairs Hogan, did not want the case to come into the firm.