A wealthy wife is suing power New York law firm Fox Horan & Camerini — whose clients have included Shakira — for allegedly siding with her husband after she’d retained them in an $800 million divorce case.
Maria Margarita Herdocia — wife of former Citicorp investment banker and Costa Rica-based real estate mogul Jaime Javier Montealegre — has filed a suit in New York State Supreme Court that declares: “This is an action against disloyal lawyers . . . for breaches of fiduciary duty and the norms of professional conduct.”
Herdocia claims that she and Montealegre were jointly repped by Fox Horan & Camerini for 25 years — but that when the couple, living in Costa Rica, divorced “at the same time [Herdocia] was consulting with [Fox Horan] . . . partners in that firm had secretly chosen sides, and were actively helping [her] husband conceal and . . . transfer assets” from their accounts around the globe.
The suit filed Tuesday says, “unbeknownst to [Herdocia], Montealegre was seeking to circumvent the Costa Rican proceeding by filing for divorce in Nicaragua, claiming that there were no marital assets to be distributed.” And that, “On April 18, 2016, . . . Montealegre abandoned his home and office in Costa Rica and allegedly has relocated to Nicaragua,” where divorce laws would favor his side.
Attorneys at Fox Horan & Camerini did not get back to us.
Herdocia’s New York power attorney, William Zabel, said, “All Margarita wanted was an amicable negotiation, but she had to resort to litigation because of the traitorous behavior of her husband and her former law firm.”
Montealegre lived in New York for a decade while working at Citicorp.