Photo: Diego Radzinschi/ALM

A legal battle stemming from the $71 million sale of litigation funder Oasis Financial three years ago has ensnared two major law firms and a pair of Chicago attorneys.

Last week Oasis' founder, Gary Chodes, sued Walter Holzer, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, and James Witz, the co-chairman of Littler Mendelson's unfair competition and trade secrets practice group, claiming they helped rig the sale of Oasis to Parthenon Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm. The lawsuit also names Kirkland and Littler as defendants, along with several Parthenon principals.

"What makes this case at once galling and baffling is that each of these defendants had: (i) credentials and professional experience such that they knew better; and (ii) access to counsel who could have or should have advised them that no deal, profit or professional fee is worth engaging in illicit acts, deceit with respect to fellow members, misconduct and fraud," the complaint asserts. "And yet they did, as the documents show."

Holzer and representatives for Kirkland did not respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. A spokeswoman for Littler rejected Chodes' claims. "We believe these allegations are without merit and plan to vigorously defend against them," she said.

The case is just the latest of seven lawsuits that Oasis, described in filings as "the nation's largest consumer legal funding business," and its founders and former CEO have lodged since 2016. Chodes is a party in six of the seven lawsuits.

More than half of the cases stem from the September 2016 sale of Oasis by D.E. Shaw, a New York-based hedge fund group that had a majority stake in the litigation financier, to Parthenon. Chodes has alleged that the $71 million sale price was far less than what Oasis was worth.

Although he was a minority owner of Oasis, Chodes alleges he was kept in the dark about the details of the sale to Parthenon, including a "secret side deal" that benefited Stellus Public, a spinoff group of D.E. Shaw financiers who had an equity stake in Oasis. That group allegedly received a "sweetheart" deal from Parthenon, in which they received equity stakes in another entity Parthenon controlled.

Chodes' 64-page complaint, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, claims that Kirkland and Littler, along with partners at Parthenon, helped Oasis' CEO in "steering and/or rigging the bidding process in favor of Parthenon." Kirkland allegedly represented multiple parties involved in the Oasis transaction, while Witz represented the holding and operating companies D.E. Shaw used to control Oasis Financial.

Specifically, Chodes alleges that Holzer "was aware of every aspect of the ways in which the transaction as structured and as documented was in violation of plaintiffs' and other Oasis minority owners' rights." Kirkland, he asserts, was "fully aware of and invested in" the alleged fraud.

The Oasis founder accused Witz and Littler of making false representations and omitting key details about the transaction to him.

The Cook County lawsuit against Kirkland, Littler and others comes two months before Chodes, D.E. Shaw, Parthenon and other individuals and entities are set to go to trial in neighboring Lake County Circuit Court over Chodes' 14-count amended complaint in the earlier case.

James Madigan, a Chicago solo practitioner who is representing Chodes in the new suit and several prior lawsuits, said the claims against Kirkland and Littler weren't included in the Lake County litigation because they weren't aware of any alleged wrongdoing by those firms until earlier this month.

"If I had known about these things then, I would have included them then," Madigan said.

Madigan said the outcome of the Lake County case in November would not predetermine the outcome of their claims against Kirkland, Littler and the others.

These aren't the only lawsuits being waged over the $71 million transaction. Michael Pekin, the CEO of Momentum Funding, another litigation-financing company, and a founder of Oasis, filed a pair of lawsuits in Lake County Circuit Court on Sept. 6 against Oasis, D.E. Shaw and Parthenon, asserting parallel claims.

Madigan is representing Pekin in both suits, one of which Chodes also joined.

Separately, Chodes has also sued Oasis seeking to recoup $1.75 million in severance, as well as insurance premiums and a $288,356.75 bonus. Oasis, meanwhile, has filed separate lawsuits against Chodes accusing him of stealing trade secrets as well as ripping off its trademarks.

Chodes declined to comment. Madigan declined to comment on the damages they are seeking.