A GROUP of partners in top legal firm Lee, Hishammuddin, Allen and Gledhill (LHAG) has obtained an injunction order from Kuala Lumpur High Court to stop a breakaway group of partners from dissolving the firm.

The injunction application was filed by 12 partners against five others in tandem with an originating summons over the firm’s dissolution.

The issue on hand is a dispute over revenue and tax.

Last Friday, three senior partners had emailed a notice to the entire firm at 5pm dissolving the firm immediately, citing “Notices of Dissolution”.

However, yesterday, the LHAG partners committee issued a statement to say the firm has not been dissolved.

The firm said “there are disputes between the partners, which should have been resolved in the agreed dispute resolution process: mediation and arbitration.

“Unfortunately, three partners – Saravana Kumar, Rosli Dahlan and Ong Eu Jin – chose to ignore those agreed dispute resolution process.”

In the injunction application today, these three partners are named. Also named is the firm’s senior tax lawyer DP Naban, who has been appointed to prosecute former prime minister Najib Razak in his tax case, and Ooi Bee Hong.

The order, approved in chambers by Justice Ahmad Bache today, stopped these five partners from acting on the three notices of dissolution of the firm.

The order also stops them from seeking a declaration that the firm has been, or in the process of being dissolved.

They also can’t appoint a receiver, manager or third party from taking control of the assets of the firm.

Apart from that, these five partners are also prohibited from preventing other partners, associates and pupils from practicing using the firm’s name, and to disrupt operations and day-to-day management of the firm.

The law firm, which began as Allen & Gledhill in Singapore in 1902, formed a Malayan branch in 1959, which merged with Lee and Hishammuddin in 2005. The partnership has more than 200 lawyers and staff on its payroll.

The injunction will be in place pending the disposal of the originating summons filed by the majority of the partners against the five. – February 10, 2020.