The court-appointed referee overseeing the contentious breakup of Napoli Bern has declined to withdraw from the case following a disqualification bid by one of the New York plaintiffs firm’s former leaders, Marc Bern, who argued the referee had a conflict because he briefly represented Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

The referee, Mark Zauderer of Ganfer Shore Leeds & Zauderer, ruled Wednesday that there was no legitimate reason to question his impartiality in the long-running dispute in New York state court over Napoli Bern’s breakup, which pits Bern against former law partner Paul Napoli.