Mayer Brown’s US and
UK partnerships have both filed motions to dismiss the $245m (£119.4m) lawsuit relating to the firm’s advice on the 2005 collapse of futures broker Refco.
The motion — which relates to the claim made by a former creditor of Refco, Thomas H Lee Partners, in the summer — will be decided by a judge in New York in the new year. Mayer Brown is also considering its position on other Refco disputes, including a $2bn (£975m) claim filed in August by Refco trustee Marc Kirschner against a number of the company’s advisers.
Meanwhile, Mayer Brown has denied an allegation that the firm and its insurers agreed to pay out around $250m (£121.5m) to settle a 1999 claim relating to advice it gave US company Commercial Financial Services saying that it is “not even in the same ball park”.
The firm’s general counsel Mark McLaughlin added that the claims would not cause problems. He said: “We are confident that the firm will not have trouble getting insurance coverage. We will defend all the cases vigorously.”
Other firms will be watching the cases to gauge the protection that separate LLPs offer to firms attempting to limit their liability, as Mayer Brown’s UK partnership has been named in several of the claims. One partnership expert said: “The view is that separate LLPs should be robust against challenge, but the trouble is you cannot predict what a US judge will say.”
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