Lawsuit Filed Over Watkins Ludlam - Jones Walker Merger
People predicting litigation over the unusual aspects of the merger between Watkins Ludlam and Jones Walker turned out to be right.
On October 14, former Watkins Ludlam shareholders Hall Bailey and Vikki Taylor filed suit against the seven Watkins Ludlam partners who negotiated the merger with Jones Walker. The Watkins Ludlam lawyers named as defendants were William Dossett, Dennis Miller, Neville Boschert, Aileen Thomas, Jeffrey Barber, Craig Landrum and Gary Snyder.
Watkins Ludlam was also named as a defendant. But from my reading of the Complaint, the individuals are the target defendants. Jones Walker is not a defendant. The suit alleges breach of fiduciary duty and other claims.
Here is the Complaint, filed in the Circuit Court of Hinds County.
I view paragraph 39 as containing the most interesting allegation in the Complaint:
"Under terms of the agreement not disclosed to shareholders was the fact that the Watkins Ludlam Defendants negotiated for themselves financial terms materially better than that of other Watkins Ludlam shareholders similarly situated and in particular the Plaintiffs, whereby they achieved pecuniary gain at the expense of the Plaintiffs."
Danny Cupit of Jackson and John Shows of Flowood represent the plaintiffs.
My Take:
This is very interesting. As I stated in yesterday's post, I am preparing for trial and have limited time to blog this week. I will post my commentary about this lawsuit later (probably early week-after-next).
