When lawyers fall out

Long-term readers of Family Lore will no doubt remember the 'YouTube divorce' and the delightful Ms. Walsh-Smith (how could you forget her, much as you may wish to?). Who did her beleaguered husband turn to to contain the damage but one of New York's top divorce firms Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan, LLP? Well, now it seems that Messrs. Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan are involved in a divorce of their own, according to this report in The New York Times.

Apparently, 82-year-old Mr. Sheresky left the firm 'in a huff' last month, claiming that his former partners had reneged on an agreement to take care of him financially 'in the twilight of his career'. Mr. Aronson and Mr. Mayefsky denied that such an agreement existed, and dissolved the partnership, forming a new one with Pamela Sloan. Mr. Sheresky has now filed a $26 million lawsuit in the State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleging breach of contract and fraud "stemming from the defendants collective and purposeful disloyalty and greed aimed at forcing Mr Sheresky from the law firm he founded and stripping him of the economic security and income to which he is entitled".

It all used to be so different. With delicious irony, the NYT tells us of a video made in honour of Mr Sheresky's 80th birthday, in which his wife asks Mr Aronson what he thinks is the secret of the three men staying together for so long. "We love each other," Mr. Aronson replied, "it goes beyond our professional relationship — the way relatives would love each other." No doubt these nauseating words are now coming back to haunt Mr Aronson.

It seems that there is no love lost now, and this particular divorce promises to be every bit as messy as any that the firm has handled. Mr. Mayefsky and Mr. Aronson dismiss Mr Sheresky's claims "as so much fantasy".

And what does Ms. Walsh-Smith think of all of this? She called the situation "poetic justice," and added: "I wish them a horrible divorce, and I hope they shed as many tears as I have." Nice to see she's got over it...