Skadden Arps’ Jennifer Voss “Committed a Serious Breach of Ethics” in Attempting to Silence Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, TransPerfect Lawyers Say in Recently Filed Court Documents

CITIZENS FOR A PRO-BUSINESS DELAWARE PLEDGES TO SPEND $500,000 IN 2020 HIGHLIGHTING THE FAILURES IN DELAWARE’S COURTS, IN ADDITION TO FORMING A POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

May 7, 2020

WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Following a series of recent filings in the Delaware Court of Chancery, new facts were released publicly that Jennifer Voss, a partner in Skadden Arps’ Wilmington office, was purported to act on behalf of the Delaware Judiciary when she attempted to silence the advocacy group, Citizens for Pro-Business Delaware (CPBD). CPBD, a grassroots organization founded by TransPerfect employees, advocates for transparency, accountability and diversity in the Delaware Judiciary has been subject to threats and hate mail from some of Delaware's elite law firms.

During a heated exchange of attorney correspondence, Voss is alleged to have publicly posted privileged settlement communications between attorneys representing TransPerfect and Skadden Arps in violation of ethical canons. The substance of the emails revealed that Voss sought to silence the CPBD movement by disallowing any public discourse that casts a negative light on Custodian Robert Pincus, Skadden Arps, the Chancery Court system, and the State of Delaware.

Said Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey, “Our organization is made up of more than 5,000 Delawareans working to increase accountability, transparency, and diversity not just in the state’s judiciary, but the entire government. The First Amendment clearly protects our right to call out injustice where we see it. It’s unfortunate that Skadden would try to dictate the actions of our members without actually talking to us directly. But what we want to see happen should come as no surprise to anyone, as we have relentlessly advocated for our platform for increased judicial transparency, accountability, and diversity for the better part of a year. To demonstrate our commitment to stay in Delaware for the long haul, we will be spending over $500,000 this year to highlight the failures of transparency and diversity in Delaware’s courts and advocating for reforms to fix the broken status quo, and we’re planning to declare a political action committee dedicated to electing candidates at every level of the state government who support our cause.

“If Voss and Skadden would like to engage in a meaningful conversation about how to end corporate corruption and cronyism, and the overwhelming lack of diversity in the Delaware Chancery Court, we’ll meet them anytime and anywhere – we’re in this fight for the long haul.”

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware fight for commonsense and modern-day reforms to the archaic Chancery Court system, and for more diverse representation in courts, and government and in law. It supports the following legislative initiatives:

1. Establishing an independent Office of Inspector General with a degree of jurisdiction over the Chancery Court, which would ensure a rigorous and regular review process for auditing the Chancery Court’s decisions.

2. Ensuring that Delaware’s courts reflect the ‘broad diversity’ of Delaware’s citizenry.

3. Introducing transparency to the judicial nomination process by making public the members of the judicial nominating commission and the names of the candidates they put forward to the Governor.

4. Building awareness of the lack of diversity in Delaware’s legal industry and advocating for a diverse pipeline to Delaware’s elite law firms.

5. Ensuring that appointed Members of Courts can’t serve on the Court of Judiciary, which has the power of judicial review.

6. Ensuring that if a Justice of the Chancery Court appoints a custodian or a receiver to any Firm, Corporation or Officer of the Court for whom they were previously employed or shared business interests with, this conflict must be disclosed and consented to by both parties.

7. Requiring that any custodian or receiver appointed by the Delaware Chancery Court itemize and make public a complete list of costs incurred because of acting in that capacity.

8. Allowing a camera in the Chancery Court to ensure that a public record exists of the Court’s actions, allowing citizens and good government groups to audit the Court’s actions and deliberations to make sure they honor justice and transparency.

9. Requiring ‘wheel spin’ in the Chancery Court so that Chancery Court Chancellors cannot select cases based on their own self-interest.

10. Requiring financial disclosure by Delaware’s judges so the public can see the income they receive outside their judicial salaries, including investments, business and charitable affiliations and gifts.

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 5,000 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect, as well as concerned Delaware residents, business executives and others. They formed in April of 2016 to focus on raising awareness with Delaware residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders about the issue. While their primary goal of saving the company has been accomplished, they continue their efforts to fight for more transparency in the Delaware Chancery Court. For more information on Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware or to join the cause, visit DelawareForBusiness.org.

1,000 TransPerfect Employees Pen Letter to DE Governor Carney Demanding Inquiry into Chancery Court-Skadden Arps Relationship

Wilmington, DE, April 10 – Today, a letter co-signed by more than 1,000 TransPerfect Global, Inc. employees was sent to Delaware Governor John Carney, demanding an inquiry into the close, mutually-beneficial relationship between Delaware’s beleaguered Court of Chancery and the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. 

The letter comes following several recent motions filed by TransPerfect in the Delaware Court of Chancery alleging that the law firm of Skadden Arps has billed the translation services company for upwards of $14 million in undisclosed legal fees since being appointed the company’s custodian, causing significant financial harm to the company’s employees.

According to recent court documents, in the over two years since the TransPerfect sale process was complete, the company’s Chancery Court-Appointed custodian, Skadden Partner Robert Pincus, has continued to bill the company every month for undisclosed services, including his own $1,475 an hour fee. According to one recent motion by TransPerfect, Pincus’ responsibilities remain unclear, and any efforts to ascertain the substance of his work on behalf of TransPerfect have been met with silence. The Chancery Court has kept all invoices and description of services under seal – allegedly to protect the sale process, which ended over two years ago.

In their call to action for Delaware Governor John Carney, the employees wrote, the “actions of Robert Pincus and his Skadden partner, Jennifer Voss, have hurt TransPerfect. For the first time ever, this spring we will not receive raises. Even worse, many of us who work hourly have had our hours reduced or been furloughed entirely. We are asking for your office to open an inquiry to scrutinize both the cozy relationship between Chancellor Bouchard and his former firm, as well as the Chancery Courts complete lack of transparency and Skadden’s questionable billing practices. These actions and to end this Court-sanctioned looting of TransPerfect. It’s hurting us in irreparable ways. Enough is enough, we need you to step up and investigate this matter immediately.”

Said Chris Coffey, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware's Campaign Manager, “From day one of being appointed TransPerfect's custodian, Robert Pincus and Skadden Arps have been taking advantage of the company and its thousands of employees by billing them millions of dollars without saying why or what for. These Skaddenomics are so shady, it’s become increasingly clear that Governor Carney needs to step in and scrutinize Chancellor Bouchard, who has been violating his own court's rules and effectively funneling over $14 million dollars to friends at his old law firm. We’ve called on the Court to put an end to the secrecy, and we’ve called on the state legislature to advance the bill before them that would create a fairer and more transparent Chancery Court by requiring all custodian's fees to be disclosed. Now we’re calling on the governor to open an inquiry. These thousand employees and our members deserve to have their voices heard. Enough is enough.”

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Sends Mailer to 115,000 Households Slamming Skadden Arps and Chancery Court for Lack of Transparency

Wilmington, DE, April 7 – Following a new development in the TransPerfect Global, Inc. case that showed the extraordinary lengths to which Chancellor Andre Bouchard’s Chancery Court and Chancery Court-appointed custodian Robert Pincus have gone to protect Skadden Arps from un-redacting documents related to requests to open up the firm’s secretive billing practices, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware announced a new mailer would be sent to 115,00 households in the state condemning the Court’s lack of transparency. 

Per a new motion filed by counsel for TransPerfect Global, Inc. and CEO Phil Shawe last week, the Chancery Court had extended the already “unprecedented confidentiality” offered to court-appointed custodian Robert Pincus and Partner Jennifer Voss from Skadden Arps for their billing practices to now include every single word from any objections made to those bills. According to the motion, “a compelling public interest is created when a Court-appointed, quasi-judicial, State actor with absolute and sweeping judicial immunity, uses his control of the company he was appointed to oversee to direct payment to his own firm for upwards of $10 million without ever presenting any invoices for the work allegedly performed to the Court or to the Company.”

Said Chris Coffey, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware's Campaign Manager, “Chancellor Andre Bouchard’s repeated refusal to implement transparency measures regarding disclosure of Skadden’s billing practices in this case is an affront to all standards of judicial integrity and ethics. From day one as TransPerfect's custodian, Robert Pincus and Skadden Arps have been taking advantage of the company and its thousands of employees by billing them millions of dollars without saying why or what for. By consistently blocking attempts by TransPerfect to see what their money is going towards, Chancellor Bouchard is enabling behavior tantamount to burglary from the company’s thousands of employees. The people of Delaware deserve to know why their courts are allowing custodians to take indiscriminately from the companies under their jurisdiction.”