Three expat partners have been found guilty of poaching clients.
Australian John Forster Emmott, formerly of Richards Butler, joined Kazakh firm MWP in 2001. Whilst there he did everything he could to enhance the firm's profits by, err, sending clients and work over to a rival firm set up by two other expat Australians, Nicholls and David Slater. Emmott subsequently jumped ship and joined the rival firm, Temujin International (apparently named after Genghis Khan).
When MWP found out it sued all three partners, and Legal Week reports this week the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled in its favour. Justice Clifford Einstein held that Emmott had breached his fiduciary duty to MWP and ordered Temujin to pay back its profits for all of 2006 and part of 2007 on the basis that they were "tainted".
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Australian John Forster Emmott, formerly of Richards Butler, joined Kazakh firm MWP in 2001. Whilst there he did everything he could to enhance the firm's profits by, err, sending clients and work over to a rival firm set up by two other expat Australians, Nicholls and David Slater. Emmott subsequently jumped ship and joined the rival firm, Temujin International (apparently named after Genghis Khan).
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A lawyer contemplating stealing a client yesterday |
When MWP found out it sued all three partners, and Legal Week reports this week the Supreme Court of New South Wales ruled in its favour. Justice Clifford Einstein held that Emmott had breached his fiduciary duty to MWP and ordered Temujin to pay back its profits for all of 2006 and part of 2007 on the basis that they were "tainted".