Zaid Ibrahim sues the law firm he founded to stop them from using his name

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — Former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has filed a lawsuit against the law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co which he founded to prevent them from continuing to use his name, and to return the use of the name to him to enable him to set up a new law firm.

In his lawsuit filed on November 18 at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, Zaid is seeking for an injunction to stop Zaid Ibrahim & Co from using his personal name “Zaid Ibrahim” in any form and style as the name of the firm, as well as a court order to hand over all materials such as letterhead, notepaper, invoices or brochures that carry Zaid Ibrahim’s name.

Zaid is also seeking for compensation to be paid to him over the alleged wrongful use of his name by the law firm.

In Zaid’s statement of claim that was sighted by Malay Mail, Zaid spoke of the chain of events that led to him filing the lawsuit, beginning from 1987 when he set up the law firm as a sole proprietorship under his own name with the firm being Zaid Ibrahim & Co.

Zaid said he had obtained substantial goodwill in the firm’s name over the years as it became a panel law firm for financial institutions and government-linked companies, noting that he continued to be sole equity partner until 2008 as the law firm expanded gradually to include salaried partners such as Chew Seng Kok and Nik Norzrul Thani.

Zaid said he left Zaid Ibrahim & Co in 2008 to serve as a minister in the federal government with Chew and Nik Norzrul then taking up the positions of managing partner and chairman of the law firm.

Zaid said that he had some time from 2018 onwards wanted to return to practising as a lawyer, and that he had then requested Zaid Ibrahim & Co to stop using his name and to return the name to him to enable to set up his own law practice, but said the law firm had failed to stop using his name.

Zaid said he had through his lawyers Suflan TH Liew & Partners then issued a letter of demand on September 24, 2020 to Zaid Ibrahim & Co to ask that they stop using his name, with the latter then responding on September 29, 2020 to say that they would like to resolve the issue and the law firm’s partners would have to confer on the matter.

Zaid said Zaid Ibrahim & Co had on October 5 resolved the issue by requesting him to rejoin the law firm as an existing equity partner and to lead the firm again as chairman, noting that he was ready to accept this offer as he would not have to start afresh and was willing to allow the firm to continue using his name and continue deriving goodwill from the name as he would be part of the firm as its chairman.

In the same statement of claim, Zaid said he then rejoined Zaid Ibrahim & Co as an equity partner and chairman on November 1, but said the law firm had on November 9 abruptly served him a notice of the termination of all his positions within the law firm with immediate effect.

Zaid said the termination notice had cited alleged unilateral “unauthorised acts” by him, but said the notice did not specify the precise nature of such actions, further claiming that this termination of his positions as equity partner and chairman was wrongful.

Among other things, Zaid Ibrahim said the law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co had in the decades of management by him in the past built up substantial goodwill in the legal profession and legal services industry, and that the law firm has continued to benefit from the goodwill associated with the use of his name as the law firm’s name.

By the continued use of his personal name, Zaid claimed that the law firm Zaid Ibrahim & Co is misrepresenting itself to the public that it is either his law firm or closely linked or economically related to him.

Zaid said the alleged wrongful use of his name by the law firm has deprived him of the use of his own name to set up his own firm, and said he has suffered or will suffer substantial damage.

He also argued that the law firm’s continued use of his name is in breach of rules of professional practice, particularly a provision in the Bar Council’s ruling 2.01 which states that no partner may continue to practise under the name of a dissolved partnership or dissolved law firm, unless the firm name is the name of one of the partners who is continuing legal practice or unless all partners agree to this, subject however to any provision to the contrary in the partnership agreement.

Noting that he had been terminated from the law firm from November 9, Zaid said this meant that he is no longer a partner or member of Zaid Ibrahim & Co.

“With the termination of the plaintiff, the partnership was effectively dissolved and the defendant continued its practice thereafter as a newly constituted firm without the plaintiff,” he said, referring to himself as the plaintiff and Zaid Ibrahim & Co as the defendant.

Zaid then argued that this meant that the law firm “is not entitled as a matter of law or professional requirements” to continue to use his name as the law firm’s name.

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