Replacing Your Attorney for PR Value?

One interesting story in financial and legal circles this week is that the wife of hedge fund mogul Steven Cohen has replaced the attorney in her divorce case, just weeks after the case was filed. As The New York Times reported on Sunday (here):

Ms. Cohen approached Ms. Kachroo soon after her case was filed in mid-December in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. “She felt her case wasn’t getting the attention it required,” said Ms. Kachroo, who is not a litigator but is a corporate lawyer with her own practice.

After reviewing the documents and learning of new facts that were not included in the original lawsuit, Ms. Kachroo said she decided to accept the case. “I think we have a very strong case, especially in light of the facts that we’ve uncovered,” she said. She declined to elaborate on those facts, but said they would be included in a new or amended complaint.

From the reporting (along with my experience in these sorts of cases), I suspect Ms. Cohen was more unhappy with the public attention the divorce proceedings have garnered thus far.

While the case garnered publicity, some of it was quite skeptical over Ms Cohen's motives and the veracity of her claims. The New York Observer, for example, called the RICO allegations in her filing a "bizarre racketeering suit." And The New York Times reported:

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Ms. Cohen claims her ex-husband hid millions of dollars from her — a common enough complaint as big-money divorces go.

But here the story takes an odd turn. Some of those millions, Ms. Cohen claims in her suit, were reaped through insider trading in the 1980s.

***

If Ms. Cohen’s claims are shocking, her motive is perhaps less so. She wants money — lots of it

And consider this, from the Business Insider, in a post titled "Patricia Cohen Probably Hired The New Lawyer To Scare Steve Cohen":

Kachroo, a corporate lawyer who specialized in emerging markets in India and Southeast Asia, seems an odd choice. But, thanks to her experience with Markopolis, she now has a reputation as a fighter against financial fraud and plenty of media experience. If the strategy is to uncomfortably increase public scrutiny of the intensely private hedge fund manager, this might be a perfect hire.

With that in mind, two thoughts: first, replacing your attorney just because you don't like the first round of publicity is, to put it lightly, not ideal. All litigants feel aggrieved, and this is particularly true in divorce cases, where emotions run high to begin with. But looking for a knockout punch in the first round is a good way to get floored. Successfully bringing your case to the public is a nuanced undertaking, and sometimes emotion can cloud strategic thinking. Or as a well-known litigator puts it in the new edition of my book In The Court of Public Opinion: "Trying to be your client's media consultant is serious business and I suspect malpractice insurance doesn't cover it. So it's probably good to have someone in the room who knows how to operate heavy machinery."

That said, in many of these high-profile divorce cases where one of the parties holds most (if not all) of the power, public attention is all you have to fight with. And as a general matter, it's not a great strategy to file a high-profile lawsuit in the midst of the holiday season if you want a full review of the facts. Assuming there are no legal limitations, better to wait until after the New Year.