The Appellate Division, First Department, has reinstated the lawsuit of a lawyer against several Wall Street banks for allegedly conspiring to block a form of airport financing she devised. Linda Grant Williams, who practiced at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and Greenberg Traurig, sued Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, alleging they boycotted her new bond structure, and the banks’ threats led the two firms to fire her.
Last June, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bernard Fried in Williams v. Citigroup, 650481-2010, found Williams had no standing to assert the claims of airlines and municipalities against the banks, which underwrite bonds for the construction of airport terminals, finding her only a vendor of services and not a competitor.
