Stalwart Law Group is representing a putative class of individuals who were represented by attorney Helen Chaitman in the aftermath of Bernie Madoff’s arrest. Ms. Chaitman simultaneously represented both “net winners” and “net losers” and thus had an obvious conflict of interest among her clients, which she failed to disclose. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, to disgorge the millions of dollars in fees Ms. Chaitman charged her clients for this work.
The defendants argued the case should be thrown out of federal court because plaintiffs could not establish there is more than $5 million at issue. In a lengthy, well-reasoned opinion, the court rejected that argument and confirmed the case may proceed because defendants’ own evidence confirmed they collected more than $5.9 million in fees from Ms. Chaitman’s representation of Madoff victims.
The full opinion is available here. News articles about the opinion are available here and here.