NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) — A law firm alleges two of its former attorneys downloaded client data and attempted to solicit them prior to their resignation.
The Morgan Law Group filed a complaint July 12 in Louisiana state court against Matthew Averill, Brian G. Reaney, II and Averill and Reaney Counselors at Law LLC. The defendants removed the case to New Orleans federal court on July 15.
According to the plaintiff's complaint, the defendants resigned from the law firm on July 7, 2023. It claims that while employed at the Morgan Law Group, the defendants primarily worked with Louisiana clients on hurricane property damage claims. The plaintiff alleges that before resigning, the defendants accessed and downloaded data from client files and began directly soliciting those clients.
The plaintiff further alleges that the defendants misrepresented to Morgan Law clients that the firm would not have an attorney licensed in Louisiana to handle their cases and that they would lose their cases if they stayed with the firm. It claims the defendants have also changed their profiles in federal courts and removed The Morgan Law Group's email contacts from the firm's Louisiana cases.
The plaintiff seeks monetary relief, a restraining order, injunctive relief and all other just relief. They are represented by Douglas Kraus and Susannah McKinney of Brener Kraus LLC in New Orleans.
22nd Judicial District Court of Louisiana case number 2:23-CV-02530-WBV-DPC