A state appeals court is allowing to proceed a heated dispute between two Manhattan-based immigration law firms in which one firm contends that after it terminated an associate attorney, the lawyer started a rival firm and later wrongfully solicited his ex-firm’s clients.

The decision by an Appellate Division, First Department panel said that there remains a “triable issue of fact as to whether and to what extent” attorney Gadi Zohar solicited certain clients of the Manhattan-based immigration-focused firm he departed in 2016, Feiner & Lavy, which today appears to be run as a solo firm by Yaniv Lavy, according to the firm’s website.