Bankrupt “anti-woke” financial technology startup GloriFi is shooting their shot against Biglaw. Via trustee Scott M. Seidel, they filed a complaint in Texas bankruptcy court against Winston & Strawn and one of its partners seeking $1.7 billion in damages, alleging malpractice and a breach of fiduciary duties.
GloriFi purported to be an “anti-woke” financial services firm for customers who care about that sort of thing, and hired Winston to go public at valuation of $1.7 billion. However that never happened, and the complaint alleges it was all the Biglaw firm’s fault.
From the court filing:
But Winston Strawn betrayed its fiduciary duties owed to GloriFi in favor of appeasing and protecting Toby Neugebauer (“Neugebauer”) – GloriFi’s wealthy founder, CEO, and majority shareholder who, with the active participation and assistance of Winston Strawn, repeatedly engaged in destructive self-dealing and pressure campaigns against GloriFi’s interests, outside investors, and independent board members.
The complaint continues, “At every turn, Winston Strawn conceded to, and assisted Neugebauer in, his unrelenting desire to engage in rampant self-dealing and helped Neugebauer run roughshod over GloriFi and its many other stakeholders.” This allegedly led high-profile investors — Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Ken Griffin, and Vivek Ramaswamy — to lose confidence in the company. As such, “Winston Strawn’s wrongdoing was a proximate cause in the nearly $2 billion in lost enterprise value suffered by GloriFi.”
Earlier this year, GloriFi’s trustee filed a strikingly similar lawsuit against another law firm, Chapman and Cutler, for taking positions adverse to GloriFi’s interests to please Neugebauer, the firm’s “prized, self-proclaimed billionaire client.” I guess it has to be *someone’s* fault that “anti-woke” financial services never became a thing.
The firm has a decidedly different take, saying,”Winston & Strawn adheres to the highest level of ethical and legal standards in our work on behalf of our clients. While we will not comment on active litigation, we look forward to addressing these meritless claims and correcting the record in court.”
You can read the full complaint below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
The post ‘Anti-Woke’ Startup Suing Biglaw Firm Because Why The Hell Not appeared first on Above the Law.
Bankrupt “anti-woke” financial technology startup GloriFi is shooting their shot against Biglaw. Via trustee Scott M. Seidel, they filed a complaint in Texas bankruptcy court against Winston & Strawn and one of its partners seeking $1.7 billion in damages, alleging malpractice and a breach of fiduciary duties.
GloriFi purported to be an “anti-woke” financial services firm for customers who care about that sort of thing, and hired Winston to go public at valuation of $1.7 billion. However that never happened, and the complaint alleges it was all the Biglaw firm’s fault.
From the court filing:
But Winston Strawn betrayed its fiduciary duties owed to GloriFi in favor of appeasing and protecting Toby Neugebauer (“Neugebauer”) – GloriFi’s wealthy founder, CEO, and majority shareholder who, with the active participation and assistance of Winston Strawn, repeatedly engaged in destructive self-dealing and pressure campaigns against GloriFi’s interests, outside investors, and independent board members.
The complaint continues, “At every turn, Winston Strawn conceded to, and assisted Neugebauer in, his unrelenting desire to engage in rampant self-dealing and helped Neugebauer run roughshod over GloriFi and its many other stakeholders.” This allegedly led high-profile investors — Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Ken Griffin, and Vivek Ramaswamy — to lose confidence in the company. As such, “Winston Strawn’s wrongdoing was a proximate cause in the nearly $2 billion in lost enterprise value suffered by GloriFi.”
Earlier this year, GloriFi’s trustee filed a strikingly similar lawsuit against another law firm, Chapman and Cutler, for taking positions adverse to GloriFi’s interests to please Neugebauer, the firm’s “prized, self-proclaimed billionaire client.” I guess it has to be *someone’s* fault that “anti-woke” financial services never became a thing.
The firm has a decidedly different take, saying,”Winston & Strawn adheres to the highest level of ethical and legal standards in our work on behalf of our clients. While we will not comment on active litigation, we look forward to addressing these meritless claims and correcting the record in court.”
You can read the full complaint below.
2389000-2389452-complaintDownload
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
