By Pete Brush

Law360, New York (September 1, 2020, 5:31 PM EDT ) A Manhattan federal judge on Monday scrapped a plan to hold a 2020 jury trial for David Joffe, the former King & Spalding LLP associate who claims the firm unlawfully fired him for raising ethics concerns, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who has declined to let the 1,200-lawyer firm off the hook in the three-year-old case — but who also has chided Joffe for demanding in-person depositions despite the virus and for feuding with his former counsel — ordered the sides to propose a trial date in the first quarter of 2021.

"Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions on the conduct of jury trials in the foreseeable future, the court will not be conducting jury trials this fall," the judge said, putting Joffe's day in court on the back burner again.

Joffe claims he was fired in 2016 not long after he raised ethical concerns that two King & Spalding partners, one of whom has since retired, allegedly made false statements in 2014 on behalf of then-client ZTE Corp. in a contract breach case. The firm denies the allegations and claims Joffe was an active player in the litigation that gave rise to the alleged breaches.

But the track to trial in Joffe's case got even more attenuated Monday as the Southern District of New York works to schedule trials in a limited number of courtrooms equipped to protect jurors from COVID-19, with a backlog of criminal trials taking priority over civil cases.

King & Spalding's counsel had no comment Tuesday. Nor did Joffe, who in the morning appeared in the Second Circuit in an effort to keep a portion of any recovery he gets away from his former counsel, Andrew Moskowitz of Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins PC.

Moskowitz withdrew in 2018 over differences about terms on which Joffe should settle, among other things. Last year, Judge Caproni took Joffe to task in an order denying his request to block Moskowitz from getting a share.

She held that Javerbaum Wurgaft had good cause to withdraw "based on Joffe being an unreasonably difficult client, who repeatedly fired off demeaning remarks, failed to make timely payments, questioned JW's competence, disagreed on strategy while doggedly micromanaging the case, and dangled termination as a threat."

Joffe appealed that ruling to the circuit, where he was greeted by fresh a round of chiding from Circuit Judge Robert A. Katzmann during telephone arguments .

"You don't pay your bills. You insult the lawyer you're working with. You repeatedly invite the firm to withdraw [and] if they finally do they don't get anything. How is that equitable?" asked Judge Katzmann, who heard Joffe's appeal along with Circuit Judges John M. Walker Jr. and Raymond J. Lohier Jr.

Joffe, who has accused his former lawyer of viewing him as a "walking dollar sign," argued that Moskowitz improperly tried to control the settlement process and should therefore be denied a charging lien for some two years of legal work.

"He was happy to work with me so long as it involved a quick settlement," Joffe told the appellate panel.

But Moskowitz told the circuit that Joffe cursed at him and engaged in other personal attacks.

"There's no question that there were irreconcilable differences and he would not let me do my job," Moskowitz said.

With Judge Lohier also seeing evidence of irreconcilable differences, it seemed unlikely that the panel would overturn Judge Caproni, who ruled that Javerbaum Wurgaft be afforded a cut after a recommendation that she should do so by Manhattan U.S. Magistrate Judge Stewart D. Aaron.

Joffe represents himself.

King & Spalding is represented by Joseph Baumgarten and Pinchos Goldberg of Proskauer Rose LLP.

The case is Joffe v. King & Spalding LLP, case number 1:17-cv-03392, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

--Editing by Michael Watanabe.

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