A federal judge on Friday dismissed a $180 million legal malpractice lawsuit against global law firm DLA Piper, ruling that its ex-client Link Motion Inc filed the case too late.
U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in Manhattan found that a three-year statute of limitations on Link Motion’s claims expired in January 2022, eight months before the Chinese software company sued.
“We are very pleased to see this meritless complaint dismissed with prejudice,” Kevin Rosen, a Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner who represented DLA Piper, said in an email.
Link Motion’s allegations stemmed from a 2018 shareholder lawsuit that forced the company into receivership. The shareholder lawsuit claimed Link Motion and three of its executives were stripping the company of valuable assets that were transferred to unknown third parties.
Link Motion never responded to the lawsuit and consented to being placed into receivership. However, in its legal malpractice lawsuit, the company argued that DLA Piper could have raised defenses against the shareholder claims, pegging damages at $180 million.
DLA Piper asked and received permission to withdraw as Link Motion’s counsel in the shareholder case four months after it was filed. The firm said Link Motion was unable to pay its legal fees and was unresponsive.
Marrero on Friday said Link Motion’s claims boiled down mostly to its assertion that a receiver should never have been appointed in the first place.
Rosen said after the decision that Marrero “made clear that the crux” of Link Motion’s claim about the receiver being wrongfully appointed “was entirely without merit.”
Michael Maloney, a lawyer representing Link Motion, said in an email that Marrero’s ruling “does not deny the merits of Link Motion’s claim against DLA Piper.” Marrero in his ruling said his ruling does not “address the adequacy” of Link Motion’s pleadings.
The case is Link Motion Inc v. DLA Piper LLP (US), U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1:22-cv-08313.