Law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr on Monday opposed an attempt to exclude the firm from defending JPMorgan Chase & Co in a lawsuit accusing the bank of complicity in the abuse of women and girls by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
WilmerHale’s attorneys said in a court filing that the firm’s past work for an anti-sex trafficking organization that supported an alleged Epstein victim, Courtney Wild, had “nothing to do” with the case against JPMorgan, which was being sued by another accuser. van Epstein was sued in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
JPMorgan has denied participating in Epstein’s abuse.
An attorney for the plaintiff, who is not named in the court filings, alleged last week that WilmerHale has a conflict of interest and should be disqualified.
Lawyers for WilmerHale drafted a “friend-of-the-court letter” on behalf of the anti-trafficking organization ECPAT-USA in 2021 urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal from Wild seeking a non-compliance agreement. 2007 prosecution between Epstein and U.S. prosecutors.
The Court decided not to hear the case.
WilmerHale said on Monday’s filing that it did not represent Wild and that its work with ECPAT was limited to filing the Supreme Court’s letter on a legal issue unrelated to the JPMorgan case. The office argued that EPCAT, as an outside organization, was not directly involved in Wild’s case.
WilmerHale’s attorneys accused the plaintiff of “games” in an attempt to disqualify the JPMorgan law firm.
An attorney for the plaintiff, Bradley Edwards, who also previously represented Wild, said in a court filing that WilmerHale attorneys had communicated with Wild’s attorneys about the legal strategy.
Wild is not a party to the New York case, but Edwards said that as Epstein’s victim, she is a potential member of the group of complainants.
2023-05-08 23:39:01
#Law #firm #JPMorgan #Epstein #case #challenging #request #disqualification
