Accused lawyer in scrapped AmEx case chooses to represent himself in court.
Shortly after causing a $75 million deal between American Express and major merchants to all through, Gary Friedman has decided to represent himself in court, despite advice from his legal team.
Friedman was the lead lawyer for major merchants suing American Express; however, before the closure of the case he was accused of sharing confidential information that could have jeopardized the fairness of the agreement in question with another lawyer, Keila Ravelo, who represented MasterCard in a similar case, and the case was dismissed.
According to a report by the New York Post, Judge Nicholas Garaufis has labeled the exchange of information between the two lawyers as the reason for scrapping the $75 million settlement last month. The failure of this case also threatens the success of another settlement, a $6 billion deal between Visa, MasterCard and many of the same merchants who were represented by Friedman.
Last week, Friedman made a claim that was sealed in Brooklyn federal court, and his lawyers immediately followed this claim stating that they could no longer perform legal duties for Friedman, due to a disagreement between the counsel and Friedman. Friedman has now decided to represent himself for further issues in this case without the help of the counsel.
