A River Forest developer, who had been ordered to jail on three separate occasions amid disputes with lawyers and his ex-wife over big legal fees in a long, contentious divorce case, has now sued some of his ex-lawyers, accusing them of abandoning him on the eve of trial in the divorce, allegedly costing him millions and of allegedly double-crossing him by representing other lawyers who were also seeking to enforce a claim against the developer for legal fees in the divorce proceedings.
On March 7, Frank "Marty" Paris filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court against attorneys Brian Hurst and Olga Stambler and the Chicago divorce law firm of Hurst Robin Kay and Allen, for which they worked.
The lawsuit further names as defendants attorney Howard Rosenfeld and the firm of Rosenfeld Farmer, of Chicago.
The lawsuit centers on accusations of legal malpractice, fraud and other alleged breaches against Hurst and the HRK&A firm related to their representation of Paris for a time during Paris' divorce proceedings.
Marty Paris is the founder and president of Sedgewick Development in Chicago, a real estate development company which has built condominium buildings and other projects.
At the end of 2024, Paris and his ex-wife, Kerry Paris, settled the eight-year-long legal conflict between them, according to court documents.
The couple had married in 2002, and have seven children, including some now over the age of 18.
Former Cook County Judge Tim Murphy formally dissolved the Paris' marriage in December 2022.
However, Marty and Kerry Paris remained at odds in court for two more years, amid a dispute over how much Marty should be forced to continue paying his ex-wife and her lawyers.
Amid that dispute, Marty Paris has been ordered to jail on three separate occasions, including for a month over the Christmas season in 2023, as judges on several occasions found him in civil contempt for not fulfilling orders issued by Cook County Judge Abbey Fishman Romanek and others involved in the proceedings to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to Kerry Paris' lawyers and other attorneys involved in the case.
Marty Paris has consistently argued throughout the court fight that the jailings amounted to an illegal "debtors' prison" scheme intended to squeeze him for money he didn't have.
Throughout the process, Paris has argued the nature of his business means that seemingly tens of millions of dollars in revenue that appear on balance sheets and income statements don't actually equate to money in his bank accounts. Rather, Paris has argued those revenue figures represent "phantom income" that merely passes through his business to lenders who help to finance his company's residential building projects in Chicago and nearby suburbs.
However, judges have consistently ruled against him, finding that they believe Paris has a net worth of more than $20 million, and should be able to afford to pay off court-ordered judgments, including thousands of dollars each month in alimony and child support plus all living expenses for the homes held by his ex-wife, tens of thousands of dollars annually for his children's "activities," and millions in legal bills for attorneys who represented him and his ex-wife.
Those lawyers seeking payment under those orders included some of Marty Paris' own former lawyers, including Hurst and the HRK&A firm.
In his new complaint, however, Paris levels much of the blame for his spate of legal troubles at Hurst and HRK&A.
According to the complaint, Paris hired Hurst and his firm in 2020 and again in 2022 to represent him in the divorce proceedings and particularly to represent him in the expected trial to determine the resolution of the divorce case.
According to the complaint, however, just before the Paris couple brought the case to trial in 2022, Hurst allegedly "reneged" on his agreement to represent Marty Paris and withdrew, allegedly leaving Paris with no time or ability to secure other counsel before the trial.
According to the complaint, the lack of representation led to "a negative result from trial" that left Marty Paris owing millions of dollars and ultimately "landed him in jail."
According to the complaint, Paris alleges Hurst's alleged actions ultimately led to a payment of $1.19 million to settle the divorce case, in addition to "otherwise unnecessary legal bills to other attorneys," collectively estimated at more than $1 million.
However, the complaint further accused Hurst and HRK&A of not only joining the ranks of lawyers petitioning Judge Romanek to jail Paris, but also of representing Rosenfeld and the Rosenfeld Farmer firm in their pursuit of another fee petition against Paris.
According to the complaint, Rosenfeld sought $229,000 in fees for his work on the case. According to court records, Rosenfeld served as representative for the Paris' minor children in the case.
According to the complaint, Hurst's representation of Rosenfeld amounted to a violation of Rule 1.9 of the Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct, which governs attorney conduct. That rule forbids a lawyer from representing a party in a case if they had previously represented someone else involved in that same case.
According to the complaint, Paris alleges Hurst initially did not "push back" against Rosenfeld's fee request, while still representing Paris. After withdrawing from representing Paris, Hurst then entered an appearance in the case on Rosenfeld's behalf.
According to the complaint, Hurst and Rosenfeld had a prior professional relationship while working at the same law firm. But Paris claims Hurst allegedly never disclosed that fact to Paris at any point.
According to the complaint, the pursuit of fees on behalf of Rosenfeld came despite terms in the agreement between Hurst and Paris, which allegedly had expressly excised language from the agreement that allegedly should have allowed Paris to pursue mediation to resolve such fee disputes.
Altogether, Paris asserts Hurst's alleged actions resulted in fee awards worth $385,000, combined, to Hurst and Rosenfeld from the divorce case.
"Rather than protecting the Plaintiff’s statutory and contractual rights to mediate, the Defendants worked to proceed against him – together – after abandoning him on the eve of trial unable to find any representation," Paris wrote in his complaint.
"Ultimately, they had him thrown in jail while executing their conspiracy, leaving the Plaintiff with millions in damages due to the the Defendants’ malfeasance."
Hurst did not reply to a request from The Record requesting comment and has not yet responded in court.
Paris is representing himself in the action.