Legal financing firm founder sues in connection with sale
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The founder of a litigation funding firm sold three years ago has filed suit against two law firms and two of its partners in connection with the $71 million sale, charging he had not been notified of the sale as contractually required.
Gary D. Chodes, who founded Rosemont, Illinois-based Oasis Shareholder Recovery LLC and was a minority shareholder, filed suit in Cook County court in Chicago against defendants including law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP and its Chicago-based partner Walter Holzer; law firm Littler Mendelson P.C. and its Chicago-based founder, James M. Witz; and partners in Boston-based equity firm Parthenon Capital, which bought Oasis in 2016, according to the Sept. 10 complaint in Oasis Shareholder Recovery LLC (f/k/a/ Oasis Legal Finance Holding Group, LLC); Gary D. Chodes v. Zack Sadek; Anthony Orazio; Andrew Dodson; Jack Lavin; Walter Holzer; Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Littler Mendelson P.C.; and James M. Witz, et al.
The complaint charges the Oasis Financial companies were merged and sold by its New York-based hedge fund majority co-owner, which was the D.E. Shaw Group, to Parthenon Capital, and that the attorneys and were involved in the transaction.
“But nobody bothered to give (the contractually required) notice to the Illinois minority co-owner Plaintiffs – even though the Transaction purported to ‘cancel’ and extinguish Plaintiffs’ equity,” according to the lawsuit.
“In fact, the sale process, transaction and several gluttonous side-deals that comprised this transaction were all actively concealed for plaintiffs.”
Another lawsuit related to the deal is set to go to trial in Waukegan, Illinois, in November.
Mr. Chodes and Parthenon had no comment while Mr. Holzer did not respond to a request for comment. Littler said in a statement, “We believe these allegations are without merit and plan to vigorously defend against them.”
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