NEW YORK COURT OF APPEALS

CIVIL PROCEDURE, EMPLOYMENT, ATTORNEYS – Plaintiff was terminated from employment with a law firm after plaintiff withdrew as an equity partner and became a contract partner. The law firm opposed plaintiff’s application and moved for affirmative relief related to its fees and disbursements in enumerated personal injury lawsuits that plaintiff sought to retain. The firm stipulated to resolve disputes over substitution of counsel in these lawsuits and the transfer of files. The New York Court of Appeals found that those forays of the firm into the courthouse were improperly held as resolving the employment-related claims that plaintiff later advanced because the stipulation minimized any interruption of plaintiff’s representation of her clients. Reversed. Stark v. Molod Spitz DeSantis & Stark