Facing claims that its affiliate in Brazil jeopardized a client’s $3.18 billion settlement from that country’s “Operation Car Wash” corruption scandal, Baker McKenzie is asserting that American firms have no legal obligation to probe the status of another firm’s attorneys.

John Villa of Williams & Connolly, renowned for his defense of law firms, has showed his cards for the first time in the case, which was filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by an investment entity controlled by two billionaire brothers.