In a longstanding fee fight, D.C. District Court Judge Paul Friedman earlier this week denied a summary judgment to dismiss a suit brought by Thomas Fay against Greenberg Traurig and Steven Perles. Fay and Perles are fighting over the windfall after successfully litigating two wrongful-death actions against the government of Iran.
But that victory has led to lawsuits. Anne Marie Kagy, an attorney who worked with Perles from 1994 to 1999 on the two wrongful-death suits is suing Perles for $1.3 million. It was during the first legal salvos from Kagy, that Fey and Perles transferred $2 million into an account that would pay for legal defense and any money that was to be paid out to Kagy. That account was operated by Greenberg partner Steven Schneebaum, who was then a partner with Patton Boggs. (Schneebaum is still representing Perles in his suit against Kagy, which is being appealed en banc to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.) But Fay says that only half of the $2 million was intended to pay for Kagy’s lawsuit. The rest, Fay contends, belongs to him. Which is exactly what will be for the D.C. District Court to decide.
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