Former K&L Partner Guilty of Cyberstalking Multiple Former Firm Colleagues

Former K&L Partner Guilty of Cyberstalking Multiple Former Firm Colleagues

A federal jury in Manhattan has this week convicted former K&L Gates partner Willie Dennis of cyberstalking his ex-colleagues at the firm.

Prosecutors said Dennis, 60, had sent thousands of harassing, threatening and intimidating emails and text messages as part of a cyberstalking campaign that began in 2018.

Dennis\’ threats led one person at the firm to abandon New York for another state, while another upgraded their home security system and changed parking locations out of fear for their safety, prosecutors said.

The prosecution followed a one week trial which US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, said was a \”relentless cyberstalking campaign . . by texts, emails and other threatening communications\” which sometimes amounted to hundreds each day.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: \”Today, a unanimous jury has made sure that Dennis is accountable for his years-long harassment of his former law partners.” 

   According to the Indictment, documents previously filed in the case, and the evidence introduced at trial and recorded in a press statement from the US Attorney\’s Office:

            WILLIE DENNIS, a former partner at the Law Firm, engaged in a years-long campaign of harassment, intimidation, and threats against multiple individuals, including the three victims in this case, all partners at the Law Firm.  As part of that campaign, DENNIS sent the victims thousands of harassing, threatening, and intimidating emails and text messages, back-to-back, at all hours of the day and night.  DENNIS targeted the victims, their families, and threatened their physical safety.  He demeaned them, called them racist names, and warned them that they would become “biblical symbols.”  In his threats, he told one victim to “sleep with one eye open.”

Dennis, who is Black, has sued K&L Gates for racial discrimination and retaliation in November 2020. He claimed he was wrongly fired for raising concerns about alleged race and gender bias at the firm.

K&L Gates has denied Dennis\’ allegations in both public statements and in court. His discrimination lawsuit was paused pending the outcome of arbitration proceedings between him and the firm.

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