Prominent divorce lawyer Norman M. Sheresky lodged a $26 million suit against his former partners at Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan on Friday after being pushed out earlier this month (See Complaint).
Sheresky -- whose clients have included former supermodel Christie Brinkley's most recent ex-husband and actor James Gandolfini's ex-wife -- alleged that his ex-partners in the firm he founded 15 years ago, motivated by "disloyalty and greed," reneged on agreements to pay his life insurance premiums and the mortgage on his apartment.
The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, followed the breakup earlier this month ofSheresky Aronson, considered one of the top matrimonial firms in Manhattan. The firm has formally dissolved, and all of the partners except for Sheresky have reconstituted it under the name Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan.
At the center of the suit are questions common among law firms faced with aging senior partners and the challenge of handing over the business to younger lawyers. Sheresky, 82, in an interview yesterday, said he considered partners David Aronson, 61, and Allan E. Mayefsky, 57, like sons, having trained them and shared profits with them early. What they have done to him, he said, is "age discrimination."
"They're trying to hijack my firm," he said.
Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan in a statement said the firm was "disappointed" that Sheresky filed the suit, which "is full of gross misstatements of fact, seeks relief to which he is not entitled," and was designed to launch an attack in the media. The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Timeson Sunday.
The firm said Sheresky was attempting to shift the burden of his failure to plan for his retirement onto his former partners.
"Mr. Sheresky's decision to publicly lash out at those who have loved and supported him is extremely sad," the firm said. "In the end, this is nothing more than a garden-variety dispute among partners concerning compensation."
Aronson Mayefsky said it expected the firm would be "stronger than ever."
Sheresky began working with Aronson and Mayefsky early in their careers, according to the complaint. Sheresky, then at Coltron Weissberg Hartnick Yamin & Sheresky, in 1979 hired Aronson after he was passed up for partnership at Proskauer Rose, the complaint said. Allan Mayefsky, a former Proskauer associate, joined in 1987. Neither had substantial matrimonial experience but picked up the trade under Sheresky, the complaint said.
Sheresky early on went to bat for the two in getting them better compensation and jobs, according to the complaint. When Sheresky decided to leave Coltron Weissberg, he said he waited for a firm that would hire his entire group rather than just part of it. When he settled on Baer Marks & Upham, Sheresky said that Aronson and Mayefsky came in as partners only after he urged the firm to reconsider its initial offer.
Sheresky Aronson was itself born out of those efforts, the complaint said, after Baer Marks' management committee said it would only increase Sheresky's compensation and not that of his team. After bringing back the news to Aronson, Mayefsky and another lawyer, Sheresky said he decided to form a new firm.
Sheresky said from the beginning he "made it clear that a principal reason for treating his partners as liberally as he did was that when he retired he expected to be treated as fairly," and both Aronson and Mayefsky agreed.
Much of the current dispute centers on two deals Sheresky said his partners made. In 1998, the partners agreed to pay for a whole life insurance policy for Sheresky with a $1 million death benefit. Since then and until March 2010, the firm paid the premiums, the complaint said.
Later, in 2007, Sheresky claims his partners agreed that the firm would pay off a $1.1 million mortgage on his apartment of 30 years, which was coming off rent stabilization. The mortgage payments, at $100,000 a month, were included in Sheresky's income, the complaint said.
Mayefsky in an interview said the firm paid the insurance premiums for all of its partners, but only so long as they were partners. And as for the apartment, no such agreement to pay his mortgage existed.
"There was a discussion about paying him an amount each year for any claim he had to any firm assets after his retirement, which was what the $100,000 was supposed to be," he said. "It was a buyout."
Sheresky said Aronson and Mayefsky began orchestrating a plan to "squeeze" him out. In June 2007, Sheresky Aronson moved to an "elaborate and expensive" space at 485 Lexington Ave., taking out "substantial" bank loans needed to finance the move and renovation, he claimed. The firm, at Sheresky's partners' urging, also took on a fourth partner, Pamela Sloan, that year from Herman, Sloan, Robarge & Sullivan, Sheresky said.
Sheresky alleges in the complaint that his partners' plan was to pay for the space with borrowed money, continue using his name to build business, and eventually replace Sheresky with Sloan, 53, who was better at generating clients than Aronson and Mayefsky. Sheresky in the complaint said that while he believed at the time that Aronson and Mayefsky were acting in the best interest of the partnership, he now views their statements as false.
"It is obvious that [Mr. Sheresky] had no other economic interest in spending huge amounts of partnership assets and incurring debts far into the future if he was not to be part of that future," the complaint said.
Sheresky was increasingly shut out of the firm, the complaint said. Aronson and Mayefsky stopped having regular lunches with him and he was not kept advised on cases he referred them. He was also no longer invited to Yankees games or to play golf.
In March, Sheresky said he suggested he make plans to "slowly" retire over several years. But at a lunch that month to discuss the issue he characterized as hostile, Aronson and Mayefsky instead said they planned to cut his compensation, "which they acted upon without the slightest authority," the complaint said.
In a memorandum sent out after the lunch, Sheresky said the partners "recharacterized" the $100,000 a year as a "buyout payment" that would end after 10 years. In a later letter, the two said they would cease payments on the life policy and mortgage immediately if he did not accept their offer.
Following several months, Sheresky's partners on June 29 informed him they would begin dissolving the partnership and start a new one if he did not agree to their terms. That same day, they fired his secretary of 35 years, he said.
Sheresky said he did not realize his partners had formed a new firm, Aronson Mayefsky, until receiving a letter with different letterhead. His health insurance was canceled Aug. 4.
Sheresky in the interview said he is entertaining several offers to join law firms, though he may also practice on his own. Some of his former clients have suggested they would join him, he said.
Sheresky said he and his wife earlier this month listed their two-bedroom condo in West Palm Beach, Fla. They are seeking $825,000, according to the broker's website.
Thomas P. Puccio represents Sheresky.
Aronson Mayekfsy is represented by Bruce E. Fader at Proskauer Rose.
