Billing missteps, disgruntled rainmakers, shocking emails: Behind the scenes of a legal industry scandal – Zach Olsen speaks to The American Lawyer

Infinite Global president Zach Olsen recently spoke with The American Lawyer to look back on last year’s unprecedented reputational crisis that rocked first Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, then emergent firm Barber Ranen.

“As the dust has settled over the past year, the fallout and scope of the scandal has become more apparent and more questions have been raised than answered,” Olsen said.

Last summer, a large contingent of lawyers left Lewis Brisbois, many of them following John Barber and Jeffrey Ranen to their newly minted law firm. Shortly thereafter, Lewis Brisbois released a deluge of emails exchanged between Barber and Ranen during their tenures at the firm riddled with racist, misogynistic, vulgar language, causing their new venture to completely break down.

“The most fascinating part of this entire scandal is that releasing the emails was deemed worth the risk, exposure and reputational hit that Lewis Brisbois was going to take by doing so,” Olsen explained.

Read more about the scandal that shocked the legal industry here.