Ex-Alston & Bird Partner Defends Work for Client Suing for Malpractice
Former Alston & Bird partner Jack Sawyer took the witness stand Friday to defend his representation of a family-owned company whose ex-manager is accused of stealing about $1.5 million.
February 20, 2018 at 03:18 PM
6 minute read
As the first week of trial in the legal malpractice suit against Alston & Bird concluded Friday, former partner Jack Sawyer—accused of mishandling a family company's affairs and allowing the eldest sibling to abscond with about $1.5 million—took the witness stand to rebut the earlier pummeling he took at the hands of plaintiffs counsel.
Sawyer said he was as surprised as anyone to learn former manager Maury Hatcher cashed out his interest in the family company, Hatcher Management Holdings LLC, paying himself an inflated price on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars in self-dealing fees.
“I assumed that, if he decided to go forward [in selling his interests], I would be notified in advance,” said Sawyer, who began discussing with Hatcher in late 2008.
Maury had been fending off queries about company finances and distributions from younger brothers, Jerry and Barry Hatcher. In January 2009—when Maury announced he would resign at month's end—his brothers presented what they said was a ballot of family members naming them co-managers.
Sawyer and another Alston & Bird partner he brought on, Nowell Berreth, are accused of helping Maury deny company members' access to financial records and documents after he was no longer the manager.
In one email after his effective resignation, Maury wrote to Berreth that he wanted to keep the records from being turned over until his brothers agreed to a “universal release for everyone.”
“I view your holding the records as a degree of leverage,” Maury wrote.
The company and several family members sued Maury, who failed to appear for trial, in late 2009. The court entered a default judgment against him for more than $4 million in 2013. He never paid it and is not a witness in the ongoing trial.
Hatcher Management sued Alston & Bird for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty in 2013, arguing Sawyer knew about Maury's plans to cash out and even helped him write a “cease and desist” letter to Jerry and Barry after they told him they had assumed management duties.
Sawyer was called as the first plaintiffs witness and underwent questioning about his knowledge of Maury's plans and role in drafting the company's operating agreement. The plaintiffs lawyers, Harmon Caldwell Jr., Harry MacDougald, Jeremy Moeser and Christine Dial of Caldwell, Propst & DeLoach, have accused Sawyer of deliberately drafting the agreement to allow Maury to hide information such as his own salary and the distributions paid to family members.
The defense's case has yet to begin, but Sawyer was called out of turn Friday because he is not available this week.
A tax and estate lawyer with 37 years in practice, Sawyer left Alston & Bird last year after 28 years at the firm.
Under friendly questioning by Robbins Ross Alloy Belinfante Littlefield partner Jeremy Littlefield, Sawyer described his relationship with the company and Maury as one in which he occasionally provided advice after being retained to draft the operating agreement in 2000.
Sawyer said claims he drafted the agreement to hide details like the members' shares are misguided, because he did not know the relative value of those shares at the time. He also disputed that the agreement allowed Maury to set his own pay.
Sawyer said no family members contacted him with concerns, and in early 2009—after Maury had apparently resigned and Jerry and Barry were contacting banks and a company tenant saying they were running the company—he agreed to send a “cease and desist” letter Maury requested while the management dispute was sorted out.
“The whole thing was up in the air,” said Sawyer, who along with Berreth had Maury bring the company's records to Alston & Bird's offices and arranged for them to be copied and turned over to Jerry and Barry.
Littlefield, defending Alston & Bird with firm partners Richard Robbins and Jason Alloy, asked whether Sawyer believed he had worked in his client's best interests.
“I believe that with all my heart,” Sawyer said.
That assessment was challenged by plaintiffs expert David Hricik, a professor of legal ethics at Mercer University School of Law.
Hricik said Sawyer and Berreth should have first ascertained who their client was before helping Maury stiff-arm his brothers and the company.
“If you're in a position where you're uncertain, the first thing you do is help the client figure it out,” said Hricik. “The one you clearly don't communicate with is is Maury … who's trying to get leverage out of the files.”
Robbins, leading Alston & Bird's defense, laid into the professor as a “preaching” academic who failed to recognize the “real world” decisions lawyers face.
“It's easier to tell people what to do rather than do it yourself, wouldn't you say?” asked Robbins in one of the testy exchanges.
“Lawyers like Jack Sawyer and Nowell Berreth are in the trenches every day making judgment calls,” Robbins said.
Robbins also slammed Hricik for acting as a hired expert against Sawyer, noting the professor is of counsel with Taylor English Duma, where Sawyer is a recent partner.
“Wouldn't you agree that it's a conflict of interest for you to voluntarily take money to testify against a partner in your firm?” Robbins demanded.
Hricik retorted that he was involved in the case for several years and that Sawyer—whom he has never met—signed on with Taylor English “three or four months ago.”
“Would it have been ethical for me to have quit after 10 years?” Hricik asked, addressing the jury. “Would that have been fair to the plaintiff, to the judge, to all of you?”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllAppellate Court Finds Trial Court Wrongly Dismissed Legal-Malpractice Suit Despite Disqualifying Counsel a Week Prior
Herschel Walker's 2022 Campaign for Senate Sues Media Agency for Inflated Ad Costs
Trending Stories
- 1Call for Nominations: The Recorder and Law.com's California Legal Awards 2025
- 2The Week in Data Dec. 13: A Look at Legal Industry Trends by the Numbers
- 3Antitrust Class Actions Against CVS, Other Pharmacy Benefit Managers Are Piling Up
- 4Judge Grinds NY's Cannabis Licensing Regime to a Halt Again
- 5On the Move and After Hours: Barclay Damon; VLJ; Barnes & Thornburg
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250