Legal News

Kasowitz Benson Issues Negative Statement About Ex-Partner

By Peter Lattman

Earlier this month, IP boutique Morgan & Finnegan announced that Jeremy Pitcock joined its firm from Kasowitz Benson. The Law Blog receives announcements like this one all the time, so it didn’t registered on our radar screen. Until today.

In a rare instance of a firm issuing a negative public statement about a former lawyer, Kasowitz Benson said today that its former head of IP was fired in December for “extremely inappropriate personal conduct,” but didn’t elaborate. The American Lawyer first reported on the news. Pitcock joined Kasowitz in March 2006 from Simpson Thacher, where he was a senior associate.

Why did Kasowitz Benson, a firm known for its aggressive litigation tactics, issue such a statement? They were peeved by a story last week in trade pub IP Law 360 that said Morgan had lured Pitcock from Kasowitz. In his statement directed toward IP Law 360, name partner Dan Benson said, “It was inaccurate to use ‘nab’ in your headline, or to use ‘jump ship’ in your opening paragraph.”

AmLaw connected with Pitcock, who said the reason for his departure from Kasowitz “has absolutely nothing to do with my practice.” He also said he had been hoping for an amicable departure. A Morgan & Finnegan spokesperson described the situation to AmLaw as “an alleged personnel matter at another firm.”

Said Benson in his statement: “We were not looking to publicize this incident, but because of those incorrect news items, we felt compelled to set the record straight.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 22, 2008 (boomark / email).