Rebuffing arguments for leniency from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Lowenstein Sandler, a Bergen County, N.J., judge has ordered the two firms to pay $1.96 million in sanctions to defendants in a suit they filed on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman in a family dispute over hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Paul Weiss and Lowenstein Sandler argue that since they are both such important, well-regarded law firms, the mere finding that they engaged in frivolous litigation is deterrence enough,” Superior Court Judge Ellen Koblitz wrote in Estate of Claudia Cohen v. Robert Cohen. “They argue that this court’s finding of frivolous litigation has been widely publicized and besmirches their reputation, which will cost them untold, unspecified damages. A monetary sanction, however, is clearly appropriate here.”
