Today’s tale is reported by David Lat (excerpts from the New York Post), who regales us with the lawsuit of Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi, involving allegations of extreme sexual harassment at a boutique law firm.
This infamous story centers on an affair between a senior partner Paul Napoli and a junior attorney Vanessa Dennis; the crazy conduct of the senior partner’s furious wife, and a mysteriously missing cat.
It is about one of New York City’s most prominent law firms — which raked in tens of millions of dollars representing 9/11 responders — has been ripped apart by a soap opera involving an office affair, a scorned wife and a power struggle. The firm boasts that it has won $3 billion representing diet-pill users, Ground Zero workers and other aggrieved claimants. But after partner Paul Napoli got sick with leukemia in May, partner Marc Bern made unspecified “startling discoveries” about Napoli’s operation of the practice, including “financial irregularities and debts,” Bern claims in court papers.
Napoli also had an affair with one of the young lawyers at the firm, court papers allege, and when his wife, Marie, discovered it, she stalked and harassed the woman — and may have even taken her cat.
Court filings allege that Marie Napoli tried to text the husband of Vanessa Dennis, the young lawyer in question.
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According to the same court papers, Vanessa Dennis joined Napoli Bern in February 2011, started having an affair with Paul Napoli eight months later (allegedly not his first dalliance), and left the firm in May 2013, with $150,000 in severance. We’ve seen similar stories in Biglaw (just with bigger severance amounts).
But the typical Biglaw wife might be better at moving past alleged infidelity (perhaps with the help of a shopping spree or spa day). Here are some of the actions allegedly taken by Marie Napoli: She emailed Dennis on May 12, 2013, saying, “just so we are perfectly clear I have full access to all the work/office emails and contacts of yours, and be rest assured I am not afraid to use them.” She also threatened to follow her “like a scarlet letter.”
Later that day, Napoli emailed again with a note that said: “Happy Mothers Day! Oh yea I should say happy motherless day. Tick tock.”
Dennis had previously told Paul Napoli that she might not be able to have children.
As you might expect from a feisty, flame-haired litigatrix, Vanessa Dennis could dish it as well as take it:
In June 2013, Dennis was fed up with Marie Napoli’s depiction of her as a seductress and fired off an angry email to Paul Napoli.
“What’s more believable Paul — that a 32-year-old junior attorney who weighs 100 pounds soaking wet seduced and physically attacked her 40 something year old boss (who happens to be a managing partner and a millionaire) and twice her size or the other way around,” read the June 24, 2013, email, included in court papers.
A day later, she reminded Napoli of the confidences he once shared about his wife. “What was the last thing you said. Oh yeah, that 3 babies really changes a woman’s …..,” she wrote in an email seen by The Post.
Dennis moved to Texas — but trouble allegedly followed her:
In early January 2014, Dennis got out of the shower in her Houston apartment to find her back door open and her cat, Padme, gone. She received a series of texts on Jan. 27, 2014, written as if from Padme, with one saying, “How do u think I got out . . .” Well, it could have been worse. At least she didn’t find Padme in the microwave or something.
Interestingly enough, Paul Napoli stands by his woman:
Paul Napoli told The Post he supported his wife’s actions “100 percent,” adding he saw nothing wrong “with confronting a person that there was an affair with.”
“Everything my wife said in any email whether it sounds terrible or not was all true and was all factually correct,” he said from a Manhattan hospital room, where he is recovering from a bone-marrow transplant.
Perhaps Marie Napoli can invoke truth as a defense in the defamation suit that Vanessa Dennis has filed against her. In April, Dennis sued the Napolis, Marc Bern, and the firm of Napoli Bern for defamation.
And that’s not the only litigation arising out of this debacle. Last week, Marie Napoli sued Vanessa Dennis under the Illinois “alienation of affections” statute, alleging that Dennis lured Paul Napoli into sex during a Chicago business trip. Last month, Paul Napoli sued Marc Bern for breach of contract, alleging that Bern “orchestrate[d] a takeover of the firm” while Napoli was sick. Bern, for his part, claims that he discovered all sorts of “financial irregularities and debts” arising out of Napoli’s operation of the firm and that Napoli “looted” the firm’s offices of financial records.
Last week, an outside lawyer was appointed to oversee the business affairs of Napoli Bern.
Latest update has it that Paul Napoli has issued a lengthy statement condemning the Post story as libelous and saying that the Post “captured only part of the story and twisted the claims to make tabloid news.” Napoli’s comment is quite interesting itself, accusing Marc Bern of having “a mental collapse,” alluding to Bern’s multiple marriages, and dishing dirt about Bern’s deceased son.
Tales indeed… Seniors Beware!
