Deal struck between warring leaky home litigators
Helen Rice had accused her former partners of dissolving their firm and starting a new one without her.
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Hawke’s Bay
Lawyers representing leaky home litigators in a partnership fallout dispute have told a High Court judge a deal has been struck.
A two-week trial was to have started today in the High Court at Auckland before Justice Ed Wylie.
Helen Rice was suing her former legal partners Heaney & Partners lawyers David Heaney QC and Susan Thodey. She claimed they had dissolved the partnership and then set up an identical new firm without her.
After a delay in this morning's hearing, Ms Rice's lawyer, John Billington, QC, has just told Justice Wylie a deal has been reached.
The parties have some small figures to work out, Mr Billington said, but will exchange agreements this afternoon. He told the judge he would confirm whether there was a settlement by the end of today.
In a pre-trial decision refusing NBR ONLINE's application to read the court file, Justice Rebecca Ellis said the matter had untested, “serious and embarrassing” allegations and could still be settled out of court.
Heaney & Co is best known for its work defending all seven former Auckland councils in leaky building disputes, for which it has reaped $31 million in legal fees since 2002.
Ms Rice – who had been at the firm for more than a decade – now operates Rice & Co lawyers. The website for her new practice says it also specialises in litigation and employs another former Heaney & Co lawyer, Nikki Flexman.
According to a pre-trial decision delivered by Justice Simon Moore, Ms Rice said the partners in Heaney & Co had a “bundle of rights” that were breached when the new firm was created.
She says Mr Heaney breached a duty he had toward her when he set up with the staff, in the same premises and with largely the same client base.
Ms Rice had claimed that, on the same day that he dissolved the partnership, Mr Heaney made contact with clients of the firm saying she would no longer be a partner, and that from June 1 he and Ms Thodey would be joined in a new firm.
Victoria Young
Mon, 02 Mar 2015
Mon, 02 Mar 2015
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Deal struck between warring leaky home litigators
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