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October 2, 2023

Ex-BDO CEO’s Quest to Get Firm to Pony Up for His Legal Bills Not Going So Well

Former BDO CEO and Wolfpack leader Denis Field received some bad news in his quest to get BDO to pay his hefty legal bills:

A panel unanimously affirmed rulings by Justices Saliann Scarpulla and Barbara Kapnick in Matter of Denis M. Field v. BDO USA, 600010/12, refusing to grant motions by Denis Field, former CEO of BDO Seidman, to vacate an arbitrator's decision denying him attorneys fees he claimed he was owed by the tax and accounting firm.  
Field has been trying to get BDO to foot the bill for "millions in legal fees" that the firm stopped paying his defense lawyers in 2007, "after it determined his conduct as CEO was not 'ordinary and proper,' and thus not indemnifiable under the New York Partnership Act."
 
That was quite a stroke for Bravo Delta Oscar, however, after Field was acquitted in his 2013 re-trial, he started chasing BDO for the money, saying the firm deceived the arbitrator to "avoid its commitment to provide for fees."
 
The appeals panel did not agree:
"Field has failed to meet his heavy burden of establishing that the arbitration award should be vacated on the basis of fraud," said the panel, which consisted of Justices Angela Mazzarelli, John Sweeny Jr., Judith Gische and Darcel Clark.  
Somthing tells me this isn't over, especially in light of BDO getting its third comma.
 

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