£3m battle as boss sues law firm he hired to sue law firm
Businessman launches another cash claim
TOP SOLICITORS FACE COURT OVER FEES A law firm are being sued for £ 3million by their own client over claims the fees they charged him were “illegal”.
Businessman Robert Kidd has launched the cash claim against leading solicitors’ practice Levy & McRae.
He and his firm, A& E Investments Inc, want £ 2,925,000 from the Glasgowbased law firm and the advocate they used to represent him, Jonathan Brown.
Levy & McRae specialise in high-profile clients and currently represent former FM Alex Salmond in his case against the Scottish Government.
Brown is one of Scotland’s leading criminal advocates and acted for Charles Green in a case against Rangers over legal fees.
Kidd has lodged a commercial action against Levy & McRae and Brown at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. The row relates to court act ion Kidd took against his previous lawyers , Burness Paull, over the sale of one of his companies.
Kidd hired Levy & McRae but the case was settled out of court for a “significant” undisclosed sum earlier this year.
However, he was dissatisfied with the amount Levy & McRae and Brown took from the settlement as their charges.
Kidd agreed to pay Levy & McRae a fee for legal services based on their staff ’s hourly rates.
He also agreed a “success fee” understood to run into millions of pounds should he win the case.
The legal action by Edinburghbased solicitors Davidson Chalmers claims that the agreement reached with both Levy & McRae and Brown is “illegal and unenforceable”.
Kidd and A& E Investments are also looking for the costs of the court action to be recovered.
It was revealed in January that the businessman had settled his previous £ 160mil lion claim against Burness Paull for an undisclosed sum. Kidd lodged an action against the firm in Edinburgh’s Court of Session amid claims he suffered financial losses as a result of advice they gave him when he sold a stake in a business in 2009.
The firm acted for him in the sale of his share of an Aberdeenbased oil services company, ITS Tubular Solutions, to US private equity firm Lime Rock Partners.
But a lawyer from the same office also provided advice to the purchaser, which is a breach of conflict of interest rules.
The parties settled moments before the start of proceedings.
The case focused on the circumstances surrounding the sale and subsequent failure of I TS , who went i nto administration almost five years ago before being sold to a rival.
In August, Levy & McRae and Salmond served legal papers on the Scottish Government as he challenges the way sexual misconduct allegations against him have been handled.
Levy & McRae said a petition for judicial review in the Court of Session has been served on legal representatives of the government.
A spokesman for the firm said: “We consider the action raised to have no merit and it is being defended vigorously. As this matter is the subject of ongoing court proceedings, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
Kidd was unavai lable for comment.