July 2018 – KBK Partner Alan Jay Weil won the dismissal of a $3.6 million lawsuit filed against a prominent law firm by a plaintiff who sued the law firm’s clients in underlying litigation. Not satisfied with the outcome, the plaintiff then sued the law firm, claiming that the law firm’s client paid the firm’s legal fees with money that the plaintiff alleged belonged to it.
KBK filed an anti-SLAPP motion on behalf of the law firm, arguing that the firm’s receipt of fees in defending its clients in the underlying litigation was protected petitioning conduct under the anti-SLAPP statute and that plaintiff’s claims were barred as a matter of law by the absolute litigation privilege. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis agreed, granted the motion, and dismissed the case. Mr. Weil, Corey E. Klein, and Meaghan L. Lert represented the law firm client in this matter.