“Widow Wants Lowenstein Sandler DQ’d From Estate Fight” —

• “A pharmaceutical executive’s widow has called on a New Jersey state appeals court to ban Lowenstein Sandler LLP from representing one of its attorneys as co-executor of her late husband’s estate in a probate matter, as she and the lawyer are battling over the handling of assets once valued at more than $170 million.”
• “Lowenstein Sandler previously represented Angela Krivulka as co-executor of the estate along with Lerner, her interests are ‘materially adverse’ to Lerner’s, and the firm never obtained her ‘informed consent’ to its prohibited representation of Lerner, according to Wright.”
• “With respect to such consent, the firm has pointed to a 2018 joint engagement letter that ‘at best seeks a future conflicts waiver, which is not enforceable,’ Wright said. As examples of their adversity, she noted that Lerner sued Krivulka in probate court to, among other things, remove her as a co-executor and to have the her marriage to Joseph declared invalid.”
• “‘It’s the same matter. They’re adverse. They did not obtain informed consent,’ Wright told the panel. ‘So they should be disqualified.'”
• “Lerner has countered that Krivulka consented in the engagement letter to Lowenstein Sandler continuing to represent him, court documents state. The letter included a provision stating that, if a conflict of interest arose between them, the firm may have to withdraw as counsel to one or both of them, court documents show.”
• “After the firm began representing Lerner and Krivulka as co-executors, she raised the issue of Lowenstein Sandler’s purported conflict of interest, and Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP stepped in to represent her, court documents state.”

“Bankrupt Brooklyn Hotel Gets to Keep Its lawyer” —

• “A bankruptcy judge overseeing the Williamsburg Hotel bankruptcy case Thursday opted not to rule on a motion filed by the U.S. Trustee, who urged the court to disqualify law firm Mayer Brown LLP from representing the hotel owner, 96 Wythe Acquisition.”
• “The U.S. Trustee argued in his motion that the law firm’s role in a separate bankruptcy case involving the same developers behind the hotel, Toby Moskovits and Michael Lichtenstein, poses a clear conflict of interest because a court-appointed examiner is now investigating fund transfers from the hotel to different entities owned by the developers.”
• “Judge Robert Drain said the motion, based on the current evidence, was premature. But he also didn’t dismiss it, leaving a chance for a future discussion.”