Two prominent law firms—Reed Smith and Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer—are embroiled in New Jersey court litigation with a former client who accuses them of “a frenzy of self-dealing, fee-churning and malpractice” in a business deal.
As a result, says plaintiff John H.C. West III, the lawyers, along with his financial advisers, took fees totaling about $1.4 million in the 2007 sale of a business for which he received only $306,000 at closing—even though the business was making $6.5 million annually on a state contract.
