Law firm Mishcon settles UK lawsuit over $4 million fee dispute

LONDON (Reuters) - British law firm Mishcon de Reya has settled a lawsuit brought over 3.2 million pounds ($4 million) in legal fees which had been misappropriated by its former client.

Tonstate Group said the money Mishcon received from Edward Wojakovski ultimately belonged to the group, which had sued Wojakovski in 2018.

Tonstate was owned by Wojakovski and his former father-in-law Arthur Matyas, and brought that claim to recover around 13 million pounds which Wojakovski extracted from the group.

Wojakovski admitted taking the money from the company and his defence that Matyas had consented was rejected by a judge at London's High Court in 2019.

Tonstate then in 2021 sued Mishcon, which previously said that "any claims will be defended robustly".

However, Tonstate's lawyer Shlomo Rechtschaffen said in a statement on Friday that Mishcon had settled the lawsuit and agreed to pay 5.5 million pounds plus Tonstate's legal fees.

"We are delighted with the outcome, which provides a clear vindication to our clients and an important financial recovery," he said in a statement.

A Mishcon spokesperson declined to comment, but confirmed the fact of the settlement which was first reported by the Financial Times.

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Mark Potter)