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Prominent Law Firm Hit With Lawsuit Over Alleged Litigation Tactics

The firm has vowed to fight the case.

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Silhouette of gavel shadowEmployment law firm Wigdor Law is known for taking on big — and highly publicized — cases focusing on representing clients with discrimination, sexual harassment or assault claims. And they take on big names — the NFL, Meta, Sean Combs, Intel, St. Lawrence University, Harvey Weinstein, TikTok, to name a few. But it is the firm’s litigation surrounding the sexual misconduct allegations of former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo that led to a lawsuit being filed against the firm.

Former Cuomo spokesperson, Richard Azzopardi, filed a malicious prosecution lawsuit against Wigdor Law in New York state court earlier this week. (Complaint available below.) In 2022, Wigdor represented an anonymous New York trooper (trooper 1) that alleged sexual harassment at the hands of Cuomo, and that lawsuit included claims against Azzopardi. But Azzopardi alleges Wigdor had “full knowledge that the claims asserted were frivolous and unsustainable as a matter of law.”

Azzoparsi claims he was publicly critical of trooper 1’s lawsuit against Cuomo and the Wigdor Law firm and, thus, in retaliation claims were added against Azzopardi. As reported by Law360:

Azzopardi said Wigdor is “widely known to use the press to extort settlements on behalf of ‘anonymous claimants'” in a public statement issued shortly after the trooper’s suit was filed, the complaint says.

A day later, the trooper filed an amended complaint that added Azzopardi as a defendant on one claim of retaliation.

“Defendant Wigdor … joined Azzopardi to the pre-existing suit solely because he had publicly expressed his opinions about defendant Wigdor’s practices,” Azzopardi said.

Earlier this year, the retaliation claim against Azzopardi was thrown out. Trooper 1 subsequently filed a new lawsuit against Azzopardi and Cuomo alleging they attempted to “coerce, intimidate and threaten trooper 1.” Azzopardi was critical of the new lawsuit, “This new state action materially regurgitates the same allegations contained in the now dismissed federal complaint.”

Azzopardi’s complaint alleges that the litigation against him was designed by the firm to maximize the negative impact, “Defendant Wigdor filed the first amended federal complaint and publicized it widely solely to harm, render unmarketable and humiliate Azzopardi.”

Wigdor has gone on the offensive in the face of the lawsuit with attorney Valdi Licul saying Azzopardi’s lawsuit is “the latest attempt to silence one of Andrew Cuomo’s victims and interfere with her rights.”

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“As set forth in Trooper 1’s recently-filed complaint, Mr. Cuomo — often through his spokesperson Richard Azzopardi — has lobbed threats at anyone who has sought to hold him to account for creating what federal and state authorities have repeatedly found to be a hostile work environment for women,” Licul said. “We will not be deterred by this latest desperate tactic.”

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Kathryn Rubino HeadshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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