Pierce Bainbridge - Big-Time Clients, Big Time Problems: $50 Million Suit Dropped & $70 Million Debt

The high-profile clientele of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP has substantially increased the spotlight on the battered law firm; and yesterday that light was searing. CNN reported that Tulsi Gabbard dropped a $50 million suit Pierce Bainbridge filed against Hillary Clinton. Hours after that report, the New York Law Journal reported that John Pierce entered an almost $4 million Confession of Judgment related to a loan he took out in February. The catastrophic collapse of Pierce Bainbridge has been something out of a movie with severe suspended belief.

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The firm now has a reported $65 million debt to Virage Capital Management, is a defendant in seven filed lawsuits, four involving cash provided upfront against alleged firm receivables. The Gabbard withdrawal was the second of two $50 million lawsuits filed on behalf of the Hawaiian Congresswoman; the first was against Google. In less than a year, both suits have been disposed of with zero dollars recovered.

The torrent of bad news has featured substance abuse, massive debt, dishonesty, misogyny, and objectively poor litigation results.

Questions have been raised as to what convinced high-end clientele such as Rudy Giuliani, Michael Avenatti, Tulsi Gabbard, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, and Don Lemon to sign up with a fledgling firm and no track record of meaningful success.

It is apparently not an unfamiliar crutch, Pierce’s 24/7 long-time confidante Lauren Schaefer-Green wrote in 2018: “[John’s] just being a dick. drunk. kicked me out. then cried for me today. standard protocol.” In a recent Law 360 report Pierce confirmed he was in “rehab” for “substance abuse and other addictive behaviors.”

Hecht has been the subject of much criticism for his allegiance to Pierce and other matters.

Bainbridge is dogged by no discernible on-line history in the over 40 years since he graduated Harvard Law School, other than primarily FTC filings from the mid-1990’s accusing him of being the ringleader of an $80 million scheme on the consuming public.

Pierce Bainbridge refugee firms such as BraunHagey & Borden, Goldstein & McClintock and Withers Bergman are presumably feeling the collateral impacts.

The newly formed Hecht Partners in comprised of eight lawyers, seven who worked at Pierce Bainbridge, five of whom were partners.

Pierce Bainbridge - Big-Time Clients, Big Time Problems: $50 Million Suit Dropped & $70 Million Debt 8

In addition, an ex-associate has accused David Hecht of lies in a federal court and new outside counsel for Pierce Bainbridge, Ed Altabet of Cohen Seglias of engaging in scare tactics to keep the former Pierce Bainbridge attorney from coming forward.

Pierce, and many of his former partners, may be having restless nights: fearful of what’s around the corner.

With Pierce seemingly judgment proof, and a Law360 report that Virage is chasing partners at new firms, there presumably is concern about what else Pierce may have done, and whether they’ll face additional legal, financial and reputational discomfort as a result.

As for the featured clientele, Pierce claims he’s “good friends” with Giuliani, appears to have taken financial “advice” from Avenatti, claims to have a leadership military background like Tulsi, has an seeming aversion to the truth like Papadopoulos, and is seemingly anti-Hillary Clinton like Carter Page. However, CNN’s Don Lemon? Very odd. Pierce’s disturbing misogynistic writings and status as a Donald J. Trump supporter seem spectacularly outside of Lemon’s lane.

The Pierce Bainbridge plans of global litigation domination have failed, the firm is now known primarily for the distasteful, the bizarre, accusations of corruption and a catastrophic implosion. The firm has been gutted.

A quick review of the partner departures since October 2019 is enlightening; one would imagine that Rudy, Tulsi, Carter, Michael, George, and Don did not foresee this level of carnage when they entrusted their legal fortunes to Pierce Bainbridge.

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A roll call of the partners who have quit the firm since October 2019 is incredible. Pierce Bainbridge stopped listing lawyers on its website a few months ago, so this is our best guess:

FORMER PB PARTNER	PRIOR TO PB	NEW ENTITY
Andrew Lorin	Drinker Biddle	(unknown)
Amman Khan	Glaser Weil	Khan Law Office
Brian Slater	Kramer Levin	Hoag Partners
Caroline Polisi	Creizman LLC	Armstrong Teasedale
Carolynn Beck	Murchison & Cumming	Goldstein & McClintock
Christopher N. LaVigne	Success Charter Schools	Withers Bergman
Craig Bolton	Wilson Sonsini	Goldstein & McClintock
David L. Hecht	Steptoe & Johnson	Hecht Partners
Conor McDonough	Paul Weiss	Hecht Partners
Daniel Terzian	Duane Morris	Warren Terzian
Deborah Renner	BakerHostetler	FINRA
Denver Edwards	Bressler Amery & Ross	(unknown)
Eric Creizman	Creizman LLC	Armstrong Teasedale
Franklin Velie	Sullivan & Worcester	BraunHagey & Borden
Greg Sephton	Kramer Levin	Hoag Partners
Janine Cohen	Gerard Fox	Hecht Partners
Jeffrey Alexander	Kasowitz Benson	Wachtell Missry
Jonathan Kortmansky	Sullivan & Worcester	BraunHagey & Borden
Jonathan Sorkowitz	White & Case	Law Offices of Jonathan A. Sorkowtiz
Joan Meyer	Baker McKenzie	Thompson Hine
Kathryn Lee Boyd	Pepperdine Law School	Hecht Partners
Maxim Price	Quinn Emmanuel	Hecht Partners
Melissa Madrigal	Creizman LLC	Armstrong Teasedale
Michael Pomerantz	Grais & Ellsworth	(unknown)
Michael Winograd	Ropes & Gray	Brown Rudnick
Patrick Bradford	New York City Council	(unknown)
Robert Allen	McKool Smith	Glaser Weil
Susan Winkler	United States Attorney’s Office	Winkler Law
Theodore Folkman	Murphy King	Folkman LLC
Thomas D. Warren	Baker & Hostetler	Warren Terzian
Thomas Frongillo	Fish & Richardson	Hecht Partners