Sucker Law Firm Loses Claim to Undo Wire Transfers

Have you gotten one of those emails that says a non-U.S. outfit has big money coming to it but somehow no one there knows any U.S. lawyers and that the sender wants you to help it get the big money?  Perhaps you could advance a small sum -- $10,000 perhaps -- to grease the skids?

How about one of those emails that promises an up-front retainer and lots of work to bill against it?

Or one that gives your firm the privilege of holding the new client's big money with no strings other than that you'll receive a fee of X percent for your fabulous help?

Believe it or not, some folks fall for that sort of thing.  And Blawgletter today feels a perverse joy in knowing that, per the Second Circuit, the law will not rescue them from their folly.

The case involved a firm that for some reason received and deposited into its account a check for $225,351, which the firm seemed to regard as partial payment of a debt to a "new client" of the firm.  Shockingly, before the check officially cleared, the new client asked for almost all of the funds.  The firm's bank reported the funds as "available".  And, per the new client's requests, the firm wired $182,780 and $27,895 to, er, South Korea and Canada.  

On the day of the second wire, the Federal Reserve Bank returned the check for $225,351, deeming it a fake.  The bank charged the firm for the total plus -- and we think this hurt the most -- a $10 fee for handling the return of the bad check.

The law firm sued the bank for breach of contract.  It alleged that the bank should not have called the proceeds of the fake check "available" before the check had in fact cleared.  But the district court granted summary judgment to the bank.  The Second Circuit affirmed, noting:

The obvious flaw with [the firm's] argument is that Citibank did not advise F&M that the funds were "available for withdrawal as of right."  Rather, CItibank advised only that the funds were "available," without representing that the Check had cleared or that the funds had been collected or that settlement had become final.  "Available" is different from "available as of right."

Fisher & Mandell LLP v. Citibank, N.A., No. 10-2155-cv, slip op. at 15 (2d Cir. Feb. 3, 2011).

Comments

[scott]

I get those every week. Usually from a Hong Kong business looking for a "reputable law firm" to collect moneys owed. Sometimes from a "widow" in an African country whose husband had millions.

They put out a million hooks. All they need to catch is one fish.

[Lois]

S U K K A !!!!!

[Jeffrey M. Rich, Esq.]

I received the same scam. We are lawyers and need to be smart enough to realize that if it seems too good to be true it probably is. I went so far as to receive the "certified" check drawn on jpmorgan chase bank. Bank confirmed it was bogus, which I already knew. Lawyers need to be astute to these scams. Perhaps someone should go to the FBI? Especially when the scammers press you to deposit the check after you realize you've been taken for a ride. At this point almost every lawyer I known has gotten many such scams by email and the unsuspecting few who haven't need to be alert. Remember, there's no such thing as a free lunch and as tempting as those scams are especially to the small firm practitioner when cash flow is at issue, we as attorneys need to be astute.