LEGAL FACTS

February 23, 2022 – Law360 reports that the NRA filed a motion requesting that Dorsey & Whitney LLP, the law firm representing the NRA's former ad agency, Ackerman McQueen, be disqualified because of the firm's connection to a "side-switching" lawyer who previously worked for the NRA. 

 

According to the report, "The NRA claimed in a motion Monday that a privilege log recently revealed that Dorsey & Whitney LLP worked briefly with Virginia lawyer Mark Dycio, who had advised the association on matters relevant to the case."

 

"The incurable conflicts arising from Dycio's misconduct, which also taint Dorsey, could have been dealt with at the outset of this litigation," the motion said. "But they were not — because defendants concealed evidence of Dycio's involvement from their initial disclosures and document productions."

 

Reporting notes that, beginning in 2013, Dycio worked with the NRA and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre on matters including executive pay and corporate governance. However, when the NRA sued Ackerman McQueen in 2019, Dycio "switched sides" and represented the ad agency. 

"Although the NRA knew that Dycio was involved in preliminary stages of the litigation, the NRA claims that it did not know that he had been working directly with Dorsey & Whitney during that time," Law360 reports.

 

According to the report, "The NRA argued that the ordeal warrants not only a disqualification of the firm, but also a dismissal of all of Ackerman's counterclaims. If the judge rejects this request, the NRA asked that the court forbid the use of any confidential information Dorsey & Whitney obtained from Dycio."

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CLICK HERE to view a copy of the motion, dated February 21, 2022. CLICK HERE to read the Law360 report.