Real Estate Investors Sue Law Firm For $1.1B In Malpractice Case

New York real estate investor Jacob Frydman and companies United Realty Advisors and Prime United Holdings have revived a $1.1B legal malpractice suit against the law firm Herrick Feinstein.

The suit alleges the firm missed a number of important deadlines during discovery in Frydman’s federal racketeering suit against a former partner, Eli Verschleiser. As a result, the suit alleges, Frydman missed out on a much higher award in its case against Verschleiser.

Frydman originally brought the case against Herrick Feinstein in 2019, but discontinued it last year. On Friday, the investor filed a new complaint against the firm, accusing it and one of its partners, Arthur Jackoby, of lying about the deadlines during the previous litigation against Verschleiser.

“Jakoby and at least one other Herrick attorney lied to Plaintiffs’ experts and told them that their reports were not due until after the expert disclosure deadline, resulting in Plaintiffs serving untimely expert reports,” the suit alleges, further noting that Frydman missed out on recovering punitive damages of more than $1.1B against Verschleiser as a result.

“In sum, Herrick and Jakoby blew a clear and unambiguous court-ordered deadline, and then lied to not one, but two federal judges to cover up their malpractice," the lawsuit said.

Herrick and Jakoby said in a statement, as reported by Reuters, that the claims "completely lack merit" and that the Herrick "has a substantial unpaid legal fee claim against Mr. Frydman."

A federal jury sided with Frydman in his suit against Verschleiser, which alleged that Verschleiser had conspired with others to hack into the email servers of Frydman's company, United Realty Partners. The jury awarded Frydman more than $2.1M. Verschleiser is appealing the verdict.