Attorney L. Lin Wood
One of the defense attorneys representing Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Trump supporter accused of fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month, has some legal trouble of his own following a tumultuous split with several colleagues at his law firm. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the Superior Court of Georgia, three former employees accused attorney L. Lin Wood of failing to pay them an undisclosed sum as part of a settlement agreement that was reached when they left the firm earlier this year.
Attorneys Nicole Wade, Jonathan Grunberg, and Taylor Wilson filed the breach of contract complaint against Wood and his law firm, L. Lin Wood, P.C. (LLW PC). They accused their former employer of consistently “abusive” and “erratic” behavior, which, they said, led them to negotiate their departure from the firm.
“In early 2020, due to the erratic, abusive, and unprofessional behavior of Defendant L. Lin Wood as described herein, Plaintiffs sought to leave Defendant LLW PC and entered into a Settlement Agreement rather than litigate – and despite – the issues described herein,” the lawsuit stated. “Indeed, Plaintiffs Wade, Grunberg, and Wilson made significant financial concessions in the Settlement Agreement, despite having no legal obligation to do so, specifically to avoid filing this lawsuit in favor of protecting the privacy of Defendant Wood and various third parties.”
Despite an “avalanche of evidence to the contrary,” Wood is denying that the plaintiffs were ever associated with LLW PC, according to the lawsuit. Plaintiffs claim Wood refused to pay them the largest fee negotiated in the settlement agreement.
“It is now clear that Defendants committed fraud because they never intended to pay the majority of the money they owe to Plaintiffs under the Settlement Agreement,” the complaint stated. “Defendants’ bad faith in entering into a contract under which they never intended to perform, as shown herein, demonstrates that they fraudulently induced Plaintiffs to enter into the Settlement Agreement so that they could exact financial concessions from Plaintiffs for which Plaintiffs had no legal liability in exchange for finally obtaining Defendants’ false promise to pay to Plaintiffs a larger sum, to which they were entitled, which Defendants never ultimately intended to pay.”
The complaint also provided several accounts of the work environment allegedly fostered by Wood at LLW PC, replete with threats, promises of revenge, and instances of Wood referring to the wrath of “God Almighty.”
“You all better get on your knees and pray to Almighty God that He now asks me to show you mercy,” read one of the emails Wood allegedly sent to the plaintiffs.
“Who the fuck did you think you were dealing with? You were screwing around me with (sic), but I was someone else in disguise. You in fact have been screwing around with God Almighty,” read another.
In a statement provided to the New York Law Journal through his attorneys, Wood said he was “deeply disappointed and saddened that three young lawyers I mentored and involved in some of my cases in recent years have chosen to file a frivolous and unnecessary lawsuit against me and my law firm.”
He added that “these young lawyers have chosen to willingly engage in a disgraceful and unprofessional effort to publicly attack me by including irrelevant, out-of-context private messages I sent to them in the midst of a difficult time in my personal life arising primarily from my family’s reaction to my faith in Jesus Christ.”
The lawsuit alleging lack of payment comes at time when Wood and attorney John Pierce are raising funds for Rittenhouse’s defense through their #FightBack website.
“For too long, the fake news media have lied and attacked conservatives without accountability. That’s where we come in. We bring lawsuits to check the lies of the left,” the website says.
Wood represented Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann in defamation lawsuits against CNN and the Washington Post, leading to settlements.
Read the full lawsuit below:
Wade Et Al v. Lin Wood Complaint by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via Fox News screengrab]