Baker McKenzie’s verein structure has come under sharp scrutiny in a U.S. lawsuit that has seen the firm accused of malpractice, with the firm failing to convince a court that the case should be transferred to the U.K or Russia.
The long-running case concerns Baker McKenzie’s former client Lehram Capital—a U.K. investment business and the co-plaintiff in this case—which in 2018 accused the firm’s former Russian office of filing a claim on their behalf in the “wrong court in Russia” and also of introducing co-plaintiff and businessman Daniel Rodriguez to a Russian criminal group, “putting the lives of plaintiffs and their families at risk”.