Ex-law firm partner hits dead end in lawsuit against Wall Street banks - Reuters
- Ex-Pillsbury, Greenberg Traurig lawyer claimed Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs boycotted airport financing tool
- Linda Grant Williams has pursued banks for more than a decade
(Reuters) - A New York state judge has dismissed a former law firm partner's allegations that a trio of Wall Street banks conspired to shun her proposed cost-saving method of financing airport construction in violation of state antitrust law.
The ruling by Justice Melissa Crane comes more than 11 years after Linda Grant Williams first filed suit against Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs Inc. in New York County Supreme Court.
Williams, a structured finance specialist, alleged Citi rejected her proposed financing method, and JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs agreed to boycott it as well, in order to maximize profits and maintain their market dominance in underwriting traditional airline special facility bonds.
She also alleged she was fired from the partnership at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in 2006, and from a position with Greenberg Traurig in 2007, due to the boycott.
But evidence gathered over more than a decade of litigation showed there was no boycott, wrote Crane, who pointed to testimony given by airline employees about why they didn't use Williams' proposed financing structure. Crane also cited testimony from a Citi official who said Williams' method would be complicated and difficult to implement.
Crane also noted that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan did market Williams' airport financing idea to multiple airlines, but no one bought into it.
"This is entirely inconsistent with plaintiff's claim that Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan colluded with Citi to orchestrate a boycott of the structure," Crane wrote in her ruling granting the banks' motion for summary judgment.
The judge also held that the evidence did not support Williams' assertion that she lost her positions at Pillsbury and Greenberg due to pressure from Citi. The law firms were not parties to the case.
Williams brought a similar case against Citi in Manhattan federal court in 2008. She voluntarily dismissed that suit in September 2011.
Williams said her attorneys at Kirby McInerney were preparing for an appeal. She referred a request for additional comment, including on her current employment status, to her attorneys, who did not immediately respond.
Lawyers representing the three Wall Street banks did not respond to requests for comment. Representatives for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs also did not respond to requests for comment; a representative for JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.
The case is Linda Grant Williams v. Citigroup Inc, et al., New York County Supreme Court, Index No. 650481/2010.
For Linda Grant Williams: Meghan Summers and Daniel Hume of Kirby McInerney
For Citigroup Inc and Citigroup Global Markets Inc: Carmine Boccuzzi, of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
For Goldman Sachs Inc: Daniel Tabak, Scott Thomson and Ronald Wick, of Cohen & Gresser
For JPMorgan Chase & Co and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC: Anne-Marie Mitchell, William Escobar and Melissa Byroade of Kelley Drye & Warren
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source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/ex-law-firm-partner-hits-dead-end-lawsuit-against-wall-street-banks-2021-10-28/
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