David Bovino/courtesy photo

David Bovino, who merged his Aspen trial firm with Kasowitz Benson Torres in 2018, sued the firm and founder Marc Kasowitz on Monday, alleging he was underpaid and wrongfully ejected from the partnership in 2019 after he disclosed he was suffering from PTSD.

In a complaint filed in district court in Denver County, Bovino alleges the defendants removed him as a partner after only seven months, and paid him an average of $20,000 a month despite  making an "unambiguous promise" to pay him a $1 million yearly base salary in addition to bonuses and other partnership distributions.

A spokeswoman for the firm said all of Bovino's material allegations are false and that he was terminated for cause.

Bovino is the third Kasowitz Benson partner to sue the firm since the beginning of the year, all alleging they were paid too little. Gross revenue and net income at the Am Law 200 firm fell in 2019.

In January, Houston bankruptcy lawyer Kyung S. Lee sued Kasowitz Benson, alleging it failed to pay him all of the $550,000 it promised after he joined as a partner in Houston in 2018, and then fired him after he complained. The firm denied the allegations, and the dispute is now in arbitration. Also in January, David W. Fermino, a partner in San Francisco from June 2017 through August 2018, alleged in a complaint filed in Superior Court in San Francisco that the firm "refused" to pay him more than $190,000 in unpaid salary owed to him for 2017 and 2018. The firm has characterized the allegations as "outrageously false and completely contrary to the facts."

As alleged in Bovino's complaint, he merged his firm with Kasowitz Benson on Nov. 1, 2018, after more than a year of negotiations. Before that, after meeting Kasowitz in 2014 while adversaries on a high-profile case, Bovino alleges, he referred multiple lawsuits and high-net-worth clients to Kasowitz Benson.

While talks were progressing, Bovino alleges, Kasowitz shared "salacious secrets" with Bovino in order to "impress and woo" him into partnership with the firm, such as Kasowitz's alleged quarterbacking that terminated a senior official in the Justice Department 0f the executive branch.

Bovino alleges Kasowitz, a former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, made these disclosures to convince him he was "extremely well-connected" with the executive branch, and could help certain of Bovino's "wealthy VIP clients" obtain ambassadorships and other positions in the federal government.

With the merger, Bovino alleges he transferred all active matters—about 15 suits—at his firm Bovino & Associates to Kasowitz Benson, and that litigation has generated more than $2 million in fees already, with more expected.

He alleges he was hired as a "rainmaking" partner, and that his offer letter states he would receive total compensation of $1 million during his first year at the firm, and that he would forfeit that only if he voluntarily withdrew from the partnership, was terminated for cause or died.

After the merger, Bovino alleges, he became managing partner of Kasowitz Benson's Aspen office and split his time between there and New York, and within his first month brought in $500,000 in receivables. However, despite his sizable "contributions" to the firm, and his close relationship with Kasowitz, the defendants were not abiding by agreements with him.

Bovino alleges he was paid only $104,201 during his seven months of employment.

In early 2019, Bovino alleges he was going through a divorce, and due to financial and personal stressors, began to have vivid flashbacks of a near-death experience in 2006, when he and his then-fiancee survived a home invasion in South Africa in which they were robbed, shot and left for dead.

Also around that time, Bovino became concerned about the stability of the firm after a group of 15 real estate lawyers departed to join Vinson & Elkins in New York.

Bovino alleges he reached out to Kasowitz in April 2019 about his health, since he was experiencing symptoms of PTSD related to the 2006 attack. He alleges the firm began preventing him from engaging in business development. In May 2019, Bovino alleges he asked for a private meeting with Kasowitz to discuss his health issues, but said he would need to retain an employment lawyer to protect his rights if Kasowitz insisted on having employment partner Mark Lerner involved. The next day, Bovino alleges, Lerner notified him the firm would "part ways" with him effective immediately.

"Thus, in the span of less than a year, and without any notice, Mr. Bovino was summarily ousted from his partnership," the complaint alleges.

But the spokeswoman for Kasowitz said in a statement that Bovino "made no effort to perform or develop legal work, as he had committed to do." She said Bovino also left the Aspen office on a 3-month trip through Asia without informing the firm.

"When the firm discovered that he was absent and managed to contact him, Mr. Bovino claimed, not that he was on a business development trip, as he now falsely alleges. Rather, he said he 'needed a vacation' and was experiencing a recurrence of PTSD which had been dormant for 10 years," the spokeswoman said, noting that was the first time he mentioned PTSD to management.

The spokeswoman said emails sent at the time of his trip reveal that he was in Asia socializing and pursuing a venture with no relation to his work for the firm.

Bovino alleges he was "unlawfully discriminated against, humiliated, and degraded" by the defendants, resulting in emotional distress as well as loss of income.

He brings breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,  promissory estoppel, breach of fiduciary duty against the defendants, and claims they violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

Bovino's lawyer, Peter Thomas of Praxidice in Aspen, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

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