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| August 21, 2009 |
By: Julie Kay |
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n what is sure to go down as one of the ugliest law firm breakups in South Florida, personal injury attorney John Leighton is suing his former longtime partner and boss, Ira Leesfield, and asking for a court order to see the firm’s financial records.
Among the explosive charges, Leighton claims Leesfield used law firm funds for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign while serving as her Florida finance co-chair and being away from the firm for several months in 2007 and 2008.
Leesfield also put his daughter on the payroll and used law firm funds to pay his and his wife’s personal credit card bills for expenses including Broadway shows, birthday parties and vacations, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Leighton said he was a 19 percent shareholder in the law firm and Leesfield’s designated successor, but the managing partner refused to share the firm’s financial data with him even though he repeatedly promised to do so.
Leighton accuses Leesfield of installing computer spyware on office computers to keep track of his employees and ensure no one was gaining access to his finances or client information.
Miami attorney Andrew Hall, who represents Leesfield and his firm, said Leighton filed the suit after being fired last year for secretly downloading 15,000 documents about clients and financial information about the firm. Leighton was preparing to start his own firm and wanted to take the clients with him, Hall said.
“He got caught with his hand in the cookie jar,” Hall said.
Leesfield said he is “very hurt” by the suit.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” he said. “I paid him $2 million one year. My daughter baby-sat for him. I think John has gone astray due to greed and personal envy.”
Both Leighton and his lawyer, Robert Frankel of Robert P. Frankel & Associates of Miami, declined comment on the case.
“I’ll let the court decide this,” Leighton said.
The lawsuit catalogs the bitter unraveling of a 25-year professional relationship between Leighton and Leesfield. Leighton is seeking $250,000 he claims he is owed for his share in the firm plus damages.
Leighton set up his own firm in downtown Miami called Leighton Law.
Leesfield has taken Leighton off the company letterhead and renamed the firm Leesfield & Partners. The firm, known for its multimillion-dollar judgments, charitable works and Democratic political activism, has offices in Miami, Miami Beach and Key West.
Leesfield hired Leighton straight out of law school at the University of Florida and groomed him to someday take over the firm, according to the 36-page complaint. Leighton, national chair of the Academy of Trial Advocacy, became a firm shareholder in 1989.
In 2005, Leighton became a name partner and increased his shares after being continually assured the firm would be transferred to him upon Leesfield’s retirement within a few years.
Leesfield said he planned to turn over the firm to Leighton but changed his mind a couple years ago due to Leighton’s conduct and excessive personal spending. Hall said Leighton stopped working on files for a year or so before leaving the firm and registered his new firm’s domain name 18 months before leaving the Leesfield firm.
The relationship nosedived when Leesfield failed to turn over the firm’s financial records shortly after Leighton became a name partner, the suit said. Leighton grew concerned about the firm’s expenses, overhead and compensation. At the same time, Leesfield would continually lecture Leighton about curbing his expenses.
“In 2007 and 2008, Leesfield spent several months away from the law firm and the active practice of law pursuing personal interests including serving as the finance chairman for Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign,” the complaint states. “Much of the time that Leesfield actually spent in the office was used to solicit contributions for Hillary Clinton, and Leesfield as it turns out was using the law firm’s resources including staff, offices, postage, office supplies and other items to fund Leesfield’s personal political interests for Hillary Clinton causes.”
Leesfield “became confrontational, dictatorial and verbally abusive” when Leighton asked about firm finances, the complaint said.
Hall does not deny Leesfield spent a lot of time working for Clinton.
“He has a lot of causes he believes in, and he has earned the right to work on them,” Hall said.
Leighton suspected the firm was paying for Leesfield’s personal expenses including “vacation homes, parties, meals, entertainment, travel for himself and his family, clothing, luxury items and social, political and personal activities that were completely unrelated to the law firm’s business,” the complaint said.
Leighton also accuses Leesfield of putting his daughter on the firm’s payroll when she worked only sporadically and renting office space he and his wife personally owned at rates above fair market value.
Hall said Leesfield’s daughter, who does public relations for the firm, is actually underpaid for the work she does and Leighton, not Leesfield, is the big spender. “He had to have a $110,000 car,” Leesfield said.
Leesfield installed computer surveillance and keystroke logging technology to spy on his employees, the complaint said. By last December, Leesfield determined Leighton had obtained access to the firm’s records and confronted him.
“You work for me,” he yelled, according to the complaint. “This is my firm!”
On Dec. 16, Leighton was locked out of the firm’s computer system and the law firm. Three days later, he was fired.
Leighton alleges he was wrongfully fired and should be paid his 2008 year-end bonus or at a minimum the estimated $250,000 value of his shares.
Leesfield said Leighton has already received that money through revenue from former firm clients.
About 28 clients left with Leighton, and the Leesfield firm filed property liens against most of them, alleging they are in default to Leesfield, the complaint said. This could adversely affect their credit and reputation, Leighton alleges.
“The practical effect of the liens was to improperly encumber the real property of the clients in question, thereby serving to vex and harass them in retaliation for choosing representation with Leighton,” he claims.
Hall said it is standard procedure to file a lien against a former client when the attorney involved was fired.
After getting no response to a request for copies of the firm’s tax returns and corporate records, Leighton has asked for the court to compel the firm to produce the records, appoint a receiver and award legal fees to Leighton.
Ira Leesfield photo by Richard M. Brooks
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