How do you get a law firm to return the $5.5M they put in an escrow account for you that one of their lawyers then embezzled and ran off to Hong Kong with?
You get another lawyer to sue them, is how. After what Regal Real Estate is calling a "breach of its contractual duties and ethics," they're suing international law firm Crowell & Moring for damages amounting to no less than $6M, after Crowell & Moring failed to return the $3,074,734.25 they were holding in an escrow account for Regal Real Estate (which is, Regal contends, part of a total sum of around $5.5M Crowell's supposed to be holding onto for them that's missing).
As noted earlier, this is after one of their lawyers pulled off one of the lamest anti-heists in the history of embezzlement. Question is, Crowell & Moring—power firm that they are—employed an unquestionable screwup. Will they now take responsibility for him and return the funds, or defer and fight Regal on it? Operative words: power firm. Take a wild guess.
Through a representative, Crowell & Moring did declined to comment to the Observer on the suit, filed today. Earlier, they declined comment on Regal's threat of a suit to the Observer.
fkamer@observer.com | @weareyourfek