City law firm to rebrand after co-founder demands name be stripped
The co-founder of a City-based law firm behind the largest group claim in UK history against mining giant BHP said he will file a cease-and-desist to have his name removed after the firm initiated legal action against its own clients in the claim.
US disputes lawyer Harris Pogust, who co-founded Pogust Goodhead (formerly PGMBM) alongside Thomas Goodhead in 2018, said on Wednesday on LinkedIn he “sent notice that I intend to file a cease and desist to have my name removed from anything having to do with that firm.”
“Your reputation is part of the legacy you leave when you are no longer here on this earth. That lifetime of work can be destroyed in a second by the acts of others who you have no contact with, don’t talk to and don’t see. Such was the feeling I began to feel as I watched what was playing out as the fight for control of the Mariana case began and continues,” Pogust said in the social media post.
Pogust Goodhead filed a claim against the client committee earlier this month after it emerged that US law firm Bailey Glasser International, led by former partners from Pogust Goodhead, said in a statement it “will replace Pogust Goodhead as solicitors for the [Brazilian dam] clients”.
The claimant firm hit back, stating the client committee “does not have the authority, acting on its own, to transfer the claims of hundreds of thousands of other people who have individual contracts with the firm.”
Pogust, in his lengthy post, said: “You are suing someone you are asking the court to allow you to continue to represent? Someone who lost everything they owned and in some instances family members to the worst environmental disaster in the history of Brazil.”
“This firm knows these people have nothing, no money, no homes, nothing, but they still file a claim form demanding such relief,” he said.
“I was embarrassed to have my name anywhere on that document,” he said. “So don’t expect to see the Pogust name used by that firm for much longer.”
The former co-founder, who also served as chairman of the firm for six years, stepped down last year and stopped participating in any English proceedings in the case against BHP.
Pogust Goodhead ‘intends’ to move away from its name
When approached for a comment, a Pogust Goodhead spokesperson told City AM: “Harris Pogust has had no involvement in the management or operation of this firm for approximately three years, and neither former founder has any role in running the business today. We intend to move away from the Pogust Goodhead name. The firm has moved on from its former leadership and its name should too.”
City AM revealed earlier this month that Thomas Goodhead, the firm’s former chief executive, co-founded it and was later ousted, was behind a bid to wrestle the £36bn from Pogust Goodhead.
Harris Pogust, Thomas Goodhead, BHP, and Bailey Glasser International were contacted for comment.