A law firm known for representing cryptocurrency investors in litigation and one of its former founding partners ended a bitter legal battle involving allegations of stolen crypto tokens and bullying less than two weeks before the trial.
In a joint stipulation filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday afternoon, Freedman Normand Friedland LLP, formerly Roche Cyrulnik Freedman, and its ex-partner Jason Cyrulnik agreed to dismiss all claims against each other.
Randy Mastro, who represented the Freedman firm, stated that the parties reached a confidential settlement. “The Freedman team is happy to put this matter behind them,” said Mastro, a partner at King & Spalding. Cyrulnik’s lawyers at Kasowitz Benson Torres did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cyrulnik now serves as partner and chairman of his own firm, Cyrulnik Fattaruso LLP.
The case was scheduled for trial on July 8, according to court records.
The firm sued Cyrulnik in February 2021, seeking a court order affirming that they had properly voted him out of the partnership. The lawsuit alleged that Cyrulnik was a toxic presence and turned the firm into “a war zone.” Cyrulnik countered that other partners at the firm schemed to strip him of his rights to about $60 million in crypto tokens that a firm client, Ava Labs, had distributed to the firm.
Both the firm and Cyrulnik denied each other’s claims. The stipulation filed Thursday stated that all claims and counterclaims in the case would be dismissed with prejudice.
Roche Cyrulnik Freedman, founded in 2019 by a group of Boies Schiller Flexner lawyers, adopted its present name in 2022 after name partner Kyle Roche resigned.
The case is Freedman Normand Friedland LLP v. Jason Cyrulnik, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1:21-cv-01746.
For Freedman Normand Friedland LLP and its partners: Randy Mastro and Lauren Myers of King & Spalding.
