The law firm representing embattled developer Meyer Chetrit wants out.
Baron Samson has accused members of the Chetrit family of failing to cooperate with counsel and not paying legal bills, with the law firm allegedly no longer able to trust information from its clients.
It’s unusual to see these sorts of public accusations from an attorney about their client, but nothing about Chetrit’s past year has been typical. The developer is battling a $132 million judgement owed to an entity of Maverick Real Estate Partners after a foreclosure case, as well as criminal charges of tenant harassment.
“[P]romises of cooperation were made and broken many times over the months,” attorney Elliott Joffe wrote in a legal affirmation to support his firm’s effort to withdraw as Chetrit’s attorney in several cases. “I do not fully understand the difficulties.”
Joffe said recent communications with the Chetrits had also raised questions about “potential conflicts of interest” between Meyer and brother Joseph Chetrit, who both head The Chetrit Group.
Joffe has represented Meyer Chetrit in litigation tied to the Maverick foreclosure and in a separate matter involving Mack Real Estate Group. In the affirmation he said he also had frequent contact with Joseph Chetrit and the Chetrit Group staff.
But Joffe allegedly ran into issues “almost immediately” getting his clients to cooperate.
“[S]ome of my requests for information and cooperation remained unfulfilled for months after I first made them despite repetition and promises of compliance,” Joffe wrote in the affirmation. That resulted in missed deadlines and, in some cases, contempt applications. And at the same time, the Chetrit’s expectations of his services grew, he said, creating an “explosion of additional work.”
As the work snowballed, payment stopped, Joffe alleges. Baron Samson’s most recent invoice is so far unpaid with a significant amount due, according to the affirmation. The firm’s retainer deposit has been depleted and not replenished.
Those factors have all led to a “deteriorating relationship” between the Chetrits and the firm.
“Interactions which were once cordial have become contentious, to say the least,” Joffe wrote.
Finally, the affirmation refers somewhat opaquely to potential conflicts of interest between brothers Meyer and Joseph Chetrit, with Joffe referring to attorney client privilege as to why he couldn’t say more.
“[W]e have become concerned that these conflicts, if genuine, could impair our ability to represent either or both effectively,” the affirmation reads. “Indeed, it may be that these conflicts are responsible for some or all of the lack of cooperation we have received.”
Joffe does not appear to have represented Joseph Chetrit in any suit specifically, and Joseph is not named as a defendant in the cases related to Maverick or Mack.
Joffe did not respond to a request for further comment. His affirmation was posted briefly on the court’s portal, but then returned for correction.