OPINION

Dear Friends,

Famous attorney Alan Dershowitz, who I’ve written about many times in this column as he has helped TranPerfect in their case, made a LARGE “gesture of good faith” in order to resolve the longest-running Chancery Court case after nearly 10 years, Ellen Bardash wrote in her story below in Delaware Business Court Insider.

A decade is far too long for a legal case. Imagine how costly the fees have been. Millions have been wasted!  Please send your feedback. It is always welcome and appreciated.

Respectfully Yours,

JUDSON Bennett – Coastal Network 

TransPerfect Attorney Offers Payment to End Years-Long Chancery Fee Dispute

Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz, holding what he said was a file folder containing checks, said as a gesture of good faith and an effort to resolve the longest-running Chancery case after nearly 10 years.

January 04, 2024 at 06:12 PM

Ellen Bardash

Attorney Alan Dershowitz said during a Thursday morning hearing before Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick that TransPerfect Global Inc. is ready to pay the attorney fees it’s been ordered to and put an end to litigation in the Court of Chancery.

Dershowitz, holding what he said was a file folder containing checks, said as a gesture of good faith and an effort to resolve the longest-running Chancery case after nearly 10 years, TransPerfect was willing to hand over the entirety of the money that’s disputed, with the condition that an estimated $441 million earmarked for the federal court be held in escrow.

“It would be a better faith gesture if your client just did what the court has already ordered multiple times,” McCormick said.

The court previously ordered TransPerfect to pay roughly $5 million to compensate the custodian who worked on the sale that’s the root of the original Chancery litigation, former Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom partner Robert Pincus, represented at the hearing by Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders partner Doug Herrmann.

Dershowitz said the ask to set aside the remaining funds related to the securities action rather than turning it over with the rest has to do with TransPerfect wanting to preserve its appellate rights, stating it otherwise would be difficult for TransPerfect to claw back any of that money if needed.

“We just want some assurance that that amount of money is not gone forever,” Dershowitz said.

While the parties agreed to the resolution TransPerfect has proposed, no money exchanged hands during the hearing.

McCormick agreed to hold off on considering Pincus’ two undecided motions to sanction TransPerfect for not complying with the earlier orders. Those motions had been scheduled to be addressed during the hearing, but TransPerfect the night before filed an emergency motion in the securities action it’s pursuing against Pincus in the District of Delaware.

If TransPerfect hasn’t paid up properly by the time the federal court resolves the emergency motion, McCormick said, she’ll revisit the allegations of contempt.

“And because your client has admitted to violating multiple orders, it will be an easy, easy motion to decide,” McCormick told Dershowitz.

Herrmann laid out what exactly Pincus is seeking with his third and fourth contempt motions: in addition to just over $5 million for fees accrued between January 2021 and August 2023 and post-judgment interest on that amount, the court is being asked to fine TransPerfect an additional $50,000 each day that the fees remain unpaid.

Herrmann said the fact that four motions have been filed points to a pattern of wrongdoing of an “intentional and willful nature,” arguing that that pattern warrants upping the daily fine from the $30,000 the court imposed when sanctioning TransPerfect in 2021.

“It should be a stiffer sanction than that of just an isolated incident,” he said.

“Truly, Mr. Dershowitz, it is to the point of ludicrous,” McCormick said about TransPerfect’s delayed payment.