A New York personal injury lawyer who was accused by his former partner of having affairs with their firm's secretaries and then lying about it to his partner has shot back with a suit that claims the allegations were made as part of a shakedown scheme.

Frank Eskesen said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court that his partner Kenneth Marder demanded $1.5 million in exchange for a peaceful breakup of their law firm, Marder, Eskesen & Nass. The suit claims Marder and his lawyers at Kent, Beatty & Gordon followed up on the threat by filing a suit on Nov. 22 that accused Eskesen of serial sexual misconduct and harassment of the firm's secretaries.

The lawyers are two founding partners of Marder, Eskesen & Nass, which boasts on its website that it has handled six- and seven-figure verdicts and settlements for plaintiff's claims related to car and construction accidents, medical malpractice and premises liability. The firm's website shows it has six attorneys, and it was founded in 2010.

Marder's November suit alleges Eskesen admitted to him in or after 2012 that he'd made a "serious error in judgment" and had an affair with a secretary of their firm and with another employee who'd been with predecessor firm Taub & Marder. Eskesen swore it wouldn't happen again, Marder said, and through 2018, Marder believed his partner's repeated denials of further misconduct, even as other secretaries complained that Eskesen was playing favorites.

In 2018, however, as Marder was making plans to retire and elevate another associate to be a partner, Eskesen's denials were proven false when the associate found that among the case files Marder installed on the associate's laptop were a secretary's nude photos. When Marder confronted him, his suit claims, Eskesen "h[u]ng his head in shame" and admitted to having another affair.

Marder said he subsequently told Eskesen that he wanted to wind down the partnership but said Eskesen has taken no major steps to do so.

'Blackmail'

In court papers filed Dec. 23, however, and in a suit filed against Marder's lawyers at Kent, Beatty & Gordon on Dec. 31, Eskesen denied Marder's allegations and said his ex-partner was trying to extort from him.

While Marder claimed Eskesen offered him $1.5 million to buy out his stake in their firm, Eskesen said he threw out that figure on a lark while the two were drinking wine and watching YouTube videos after hours on Friday and said it wasn't a real offer. Eskesen said he's taken steps to vacate the office, even though Marder didn't put a time frame on it.

He claims Marder dialed up the pressure to buy him out for a large sum at a July 2019 meeting where he demanded $1.5 million in exchange for allowing Eskesen to keep half the partnership's assets.

Eskesen quoted Marder as saying to him then, "You know, Frank, people both here and at home are telling me, 'You have all the power, all you have to do is tell his wife.' But I don't want to have to do that, I am sure we can come to an agreement."

Eskesen said he replied "that's blackmail!" and stormed out.

Starting in August, Eskesen said, Jack Gordon at Kent, Beatty & Gordon began representing Marder in breakup talks, asking for $1 million plus revenue from future cases. On Nov. 21, Kent, Beatty & Gordon and its client threatened to file suit and noted "negative publicity" would follow, Eskesen claims, adding he rejected the offers and accused Gordon and his colleagues of behaving unethically.

Marden sued for dissolution on Nov. 22 in Manhattan Supreme Court.

In his court papers, Eskesen doesn't dwell on the allegations of sexual misconduct but claims Marder declined to get involved when some of his secretaries were harassing one who worked closely with Eskesen. He claimed he didn't even have time to talk to his own children about the allegations against him before they read about Marder's lawsuit allegations in the New York Post.

Eskesen said there was no legal reason for Marder to include allegations of sexual misconduct in the dissolution suit.

In counterclaims filed against Marder, he seeks more than $100,000 in relocation-related costs and accuses Marder of intentional infliction of emotional distress and prima facie torts. Eskesen includes the same claims in the suit filed Tuesday, which is only against Marder's lawyers. Esekesen is representing himself in both lawsuits.

Gordon, Marder's lawyer, said in an email to the Law Journal that he would ask a judge to dismiss Eskesen's suit and might seek sanctions against him. He said it was filed after Eskesen "unilaterally canceled a mediation."

"Mr. Eskesen's decision to file a frivolous pro se lawsuit against my firm and some of our professionals is regrettable but understandable considering his obviously unbalanced state," he said in an email. "The real irony here is that Mr. Eskesen claims that my firm's 'conduct was extreme and outrageous' when it was precisely his extreme and outrageous conduct that prompted the need for Mr. Marder to seek dissolution of his law firm."

Marder, in a phone call, denied the extortion allegations, said Eskesen had started his own firm, and declined to comment further.

Eskesen's new firm is called the Eskesen Law Firm, according to state records. The New York Post reported that Marder has formed a new firm called Marder, Nass & Wiener.

Eskesen didn't respond to a comment request.