Ex-Kasowitz Associate With ‘Superior Legal Mind’ Sues the Firm for $77 Million

17 Aug 2011 at 6:19 PMPosted in:



Lawsuit of the Day:
 Ex-Kasowitz Associate With ‘Superior Legal Mind’ Sues the Firm for $77 Million

By David Lat

Gregory Berry: the $77 million man.

This morning we mentioned a lawsuit filed against litigation powerhouse Kasowitz Benson and two Kasowitz partners by Gregory S. Berry, a former first-year associate at the firm. Berry’s 50-page complaint, filed in New York state court, contains 14 causes of action, including wrongful termination, fraud, and breach of contract. Berry seeks a whopping $77 million in damages — $2.55 million in estimated lost income, and $75 million in punitives.

After working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley for several years, Gregory Berry matriculated at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He graduated from Penn Law in 2010 and was admitted to the New York bar in 2011. He summered at Kasowitz in 2009 and started working at the firm full-time in September 2010. Less than a year later, in May 2011, he was fired.

According to Berry’s complaint, he “immediately began doing superlative work” at Kasowitz. Alas, the law firm was unable to accommodate his “superior legal mind.” After he began seeking greater responsibility in a way that rubbed some colleagues the wrong way, he got canned.

“There’s simply no room in a big law firm for an intelligent, creative lawyer with real-world experience,” Greg Berry told Thomson Reuters News & Insight. “I had to find that out the hard way.”

Let’s have a look at his interesting allegations, plus hear from some tipsters….

Gregory Berry is proceeding pro se. Unlike some other attorneys who have gone up against their former firms, Berry is not represented by a high-powered, plaintiffs-side employment lawyer — like Anne Vladeck, counsel to Patricia Martone in Martone v. Ropes & Gray, or Daniel Alterman, counsel to Aaron Charney in Charney v. Sullivan & Cromwell.

Greg Berry’s pro se complaint — filed against Kasowitz and two of its partners, Aaron Marks and Kim Conroy — is quite a read. Here’s how he describes his pre-law-school career

Please read continued and complete article at link below:


http://abovethelaw.com/2011/08/lawsuit-of-the-day-ex-kasowitz-associate-with-superior-legal-mind-sues-the-firm-for-77-million/