One of the founding partners in a Chicago personal injury law firm has taken his old firm to court, asking a Cook County judge to order his former partners to pay him his cut of fees and revenue he said has been withheld, allegedly in violation of a contract, since he resigned earlier this year.
On Dec. 3, attorney David Figlioli filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court against Morici Longo & Associates, accusing the firm of breaking its contract with him.
Figlioli had served as one of the founding partners of the Morici firm, formerly known as Morici Figlioli & Associates.
James Morici Jr.
| Morici Longo & Associates
The firm specialized in personal injury lawsuits, as well as worker’s compensation cases and other lawsuits.
According to the complaint, after 20 years in business together, Figlioli and attorney James Morici Jr. amended their partnership agreements, and “introduced three new ‘partners.’” The lawsuit does not identify those additional partners, but specified that they were two new corporate entities held by “a different attorney” and a third partner who “was an individual attorney.”
According to the Morici firm's website, the firm's three managing partners are now Morici, Lisa Longo and Robert Butzow.
Under the new agreement, each partner held a right to require the firm to buyout their interest in the firm, so long as they were between the ages of 60-70. Following the buyout, that bought-out partner would be entitled to “an amount each year equal to the Firm’s net income for such year multiplied by 50% of such Electing Partner’s Partnership Percentage” at the date of the buy out.
In Figlioli’s case, that agreement entitled him to 20% of the firm’s annual net income, when he sought the buyout in April 2018, according to the complaint.
He also alleged he held a 50% cut of all fees the Morici firm would earn in worker’s comp and pension cases Figlioli handled.
Figlioli said he received those payments from 2018 until he resigned from the firm in June 2020, and became associated with another law firm, Anesi Ozmon Rodin Novak & Kohen, of Chicago.
After Figlioli left the firm, it changed its name to Morici Longo & Associates.
In his complaint, Figlioli alleges the Morici firm has since refused to pay him the amounts he alleges he is owed under the contract he held at the time of his buyout and resignation.
He has asked the court to order the Morici firm to pay him the fees he alleges he is owed, and 20% of the firm’s net income, as he alleges he is owed, until 2028. He asked the court to put those funds in a constructive trust, and tack on 5% in prejudgment interest to the amounts he alleges the Morici firm has improperly withheld.
Figlioli is represented by attorney James E. Dahl of the firm of Dahl & Bonadies LLC, of Chicago.