The Solitary Big Law Whistle Blower Who Is Turning The Tables On A Firm That Made Him A Target

The disturbing allegations from a whistleblowing, former Pierce Bainbridge attorney whose allegations continue to reveal an ugly picture of a Big Law firm unravelling

Contents

- 0.0.1 The disturbing allegations from a whistleblowing, former Pierce Bainbridge attorney whose allegations continue to reveal an ugly picture of a Big Law firm unravelling

1 “Greed in the end, fails even the greedy”
2 When and What did the Partners Know?
3 The Departed Six
4 The (Not So) Sweet 16
5 The Creizman, Polisi Drama
6 “Robbing Peter to Pay Paul”
7 “Fraud is the daughter of greed”
8 More Must-Read LawFuel Articles

Dan Garner – LawFuel were first to seriously call the finances of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP into question. Upon seeing competing quotes in Forbes from firm founder John Mark Pierce and ex-partner Don Lewis, we sensed a red flag. Lewis made very specific statements about “$9,157,072.95” declared default by Pierce Bainbridge litigation funder Pravati Capital LLC, which Pierce claimed was “not true.”

We continued to question Pierce’s statement and continue to investigate allegations of foul play at Pierce Bainbridge; the collapse of the firm, as reported by Ryan Boysen of Law360, now appears to confirm what Lewis has been telling his ex-partners, the courts and LawFuel all along.

“Greed in the end, fails even the greedy”

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One of the first casualties has been Pierce (pictured, right) as a credible individual with his outlandish and often infantile statements about his firm.

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Lewis, (pictured, left) a double Harvard graduate, has named various attorneys as party to the Pierce attacks upon him as whistle blower, including Michael D. Yim of Putney Twombly and S. Jeanine Conley of Littler Mendelson as additional enablers and promoters of the Pierce attack on his reputation that he claims was an attack solely launched for the purpose of discrediting and humiliating a whistle blower. (Coverage of the alleged hypocrisy and of Conley and collusive malice of Yim are illuminating. Conley and Yim are pictured below with Pierce confidante Lauren Schaefer-Green, all three – and the affiliated firms – are defendants in lawsuits brought by Lewis )

A fourth law firm, Mukasey Frenchman and Sklaroff, led by Marc Mukasey, has filed to withdraw as counsel for Pierce Bainbridge citing ethical concerns with continued representation.

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As for the “money drying up,” any doubt appears to have been removed based on yet another recently filed lawsuit against Pierce, Pierce Bainbridge and related entities. This new complaint, filed on March 17, 2020, is the second recent lawsuit from a “cash advance” lender.

An allegation from the complaint is alarming:

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Lewis has hardly held back on his views of Pierce and his former colleagues. Pierce and Lewis were in the Harvard Law School Class of 2000 and Lewis has alleged in court filings: “Pierce is a desperate, broke, substance abusing shell of his former self. . .” It also appears that under the watch of Pierce and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Cash (formerly of Orrick Herrington), Pierce Bainbridge, apparently like John Pierce himself, is “broke.”

When and What did the Partners Know?

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Another lawyer back in 2018 warned Pierce about growing too fast and “ending up in jail,” like Marc Dreier (pictured, left). As Benjamin Weiser reported in the New York Times, attorney Dreier concocted an “elaborate fraud scheme” and “was sentenced to 20 years in prison.” In addition, a recent article by Aaron Kesel of ActivistPost.com is entitled “Lawyer Don Lewis Exposes Marc Dreier Fraud Redo.”

The Departed Six

The partners who saw the writing on the wall six months ago, the “Departed Six,” include: Deborah Renner (Renner Law; prior experience at Simpson Thacher, Sonnenschein and BakerHostetler, Renner was known as the “lead attorney” for Trustee Irving Picard in unwinding the fraudulent activity of Bernie Madoff). Jeff Alexander (Wachtell Missry, prior experience at Latham & Watkins; Labaton Sucharow; Bleichmar Fonti & Auld and Kasowitz Benson) Robert Allen (Glaser Weil, prior experience at Gradstein & Marzano, and McKool Smith) Michael Winograd (Brown Rudnick, prior experience at Sullivan & Cromwell, Wachtell Lipton, Wilson Sonsini, and Ropes & Gray), Joan Meyer (Thompson Hine, prior experience Baker & McKenzie, United States Department of Justice), Susan Winkler (Winkler Law, prior experience United States Attorney’s Office.)

The (Not So) Sweet 16

Notwithstanding the defections of the Departed Six (most of whom have strong experience in white-collar criminal law), Lewis’s former partners, as noted, remain or remained committed for months.

The Creizman, Polisi Drama

Lewis has some keen observations on some of the key, departed former partners.

“Caroline Polisi recently joined Eric Creizman at Armstrong Teasedale; I was surprised. Polisi had worked for Creizman for years and said not so nice things about him which I will not repeat here but it is in writing. As for Creizman, he pitched an email fit about the prospect of being mentioned in a press release alongside Polisi and Christopher N. LaVigne. An upset and self-important Creizman messaged me: ‘I’m not on the same footing as they are’ and ‘I am one of the best white-collar lawyers in the City.’” Two of the several e-mails are below.

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Creizman continued peppering Lewis with messages and concluded with a self-aggrandizing declaration, on which others were copied:

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A top white collar attorney like Creizman would have presumably seen the situation occurring before him. He could not be “a chump” for John Pierce.

Just three months after Creizman joined Pierce Bainbridge, the Washington Post reported that Creizman was an “advisory board member who also did legal work,” for a company — World Patent Marketing — subject of a federal investigation into accusations of fraud, which the company settled earlier in 2018 “for more than $25 million,” without admitting fault.

Continuing Creizman’s theme of self-importance, a related press release is titled: “Legendary New York Attorney, Eric M. Creizman, Joins World Patent Marketing Advisory Board.” In addition, in August 2019, the purportedly “Legendary” Creizman, submitted a declaration in response to petition filed by Stefan Lumiere, a former portfolio manager at Visium Asset Management, seeking relief on the ground of “ineffective assistance of counsel” from a “swift verdict” and Lumiere’s conviction by a federal jury.

“Robbing Peter to Pay Paul”

The Sweet 16 were on notice of alleged foul play for well over a year; Lewis provided each of them several telling written communications.

In November 2018, Lewis and his counsel sent letters and e-mails to his former partners which mentioned “collective unethical, improper and potentially illegal” conduct; and stated “we are compelled to note the curious timing of Mr. Lewis’s leave, forced isolation and continued ridiculous demands for lifetime isolation, given recent concerns he had very strongly expressed over conduct, and dealings at Pierce Bainbridge.”

In March 2019, each of his former partners received a copy of Lewis’s draft complaint, which lays out with substantial specificity alleged financial misconduct at the firm, and contains the following allegations:

“[T]the firm was . . . essentially ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul.’ ~ Don Lewis, May 16, 2019

“[Pierce] is trying desperately to keep the massive house of Pierce Bainbridge cards from crashing down all around him.” ~ Don Lewis, May 16, 2019.

In a recent Law360 article by Andrew Strickland, “Pierce Bainbridge Funding Deal Raises Ethical Red Flags,” Lewis is quoted: “Everything I said . . . is proving to be true: dishonesty, lack of ethics, financial foul play. I exposed the firm as a house of cards and, as the truth comes out, that house is collapsing.”

As if on cue, a Law360 article by Ryan Boysen shortly thereafter, suggests the firm’s death knell is imminent.

“Fraud is the daughter of greed”

Lewis’s original May 16, 2019 complaint is rife with mention of “fraud.” Another key allegation in light of recent events:

“The opening of PB’s books, would very likely reveal that Pierce is a fraud and a con man, lying to his partners, lying to the press, lying to his clients and lying to investors; it would also very likely crater a firm built on smoke and mirrors . . .” ~ Don Lewis, May 16, 2019

The partners presumably that had access to the books and records. In fact, almost a year ago, in July 2019, in a short letter sent to all of his former partners, as well as Putney Twombly managing partner Daniel Murphy, Lewis provided the simplest of road maps; the letter stated: “I admonished John Pierce for his greedy self-dealing, which is surely documented in Wells Fargo bank statements.”