White Oak Global Advisors, the San Francisco private credit firm with more than $5 billion under management, has expanded its $1 billion legal malpractice lawsuit to add a second major law firm as a defendant, alleging that lawyers who once represented the company secretly worked to help a former executive seize control of its healthcare lending business. The amended complaint now names Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, known as HSF Kramer, alongside original defendant King & Spalding LLP.
White Oak alleges that lawyers at both firms worked to take ownership of its healthcare-based fund, according to Reuters. At the center of the claim is former partner Terry Novetsky, who White Oak says secretly helped former White Oak Healthcare CEO Isaac Soleimani while Novetsky was representing White Oak. The company alleges Novetsky and the law firms colluded with Soleimani to help him control White Oak Healthcare, and that the two communicated through personal Gmail accounts, per the same report.
The dispute traces back to Soleimani's September 2023 termination as CEO of White Oak Healthcare, a lending platform he helped establish in 2015 when he partnered with White Oak Global Advisors and held an 18% equity interest, according to background compiled by Justia Law. After his firing, Soleimani challenged his removal as manager of White Oak Healthcare Finance LLC in the Delaware Court of Chancery against White Oak co-founder Andre Hakkak and other principals, a fight that eventually reached the Delaware Supreme Court in 2024.
A Web of Litigation Across Multiple Courts
Soleimani also separately sued White Oak in federal court over post-termination payments he claimed he was owed, but U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho dismissed that case in July 2025 after finding the underlying agreement bound a subsidiary rather than the investment advisor parent, per Justia Law. Soleimani was represented in that dispute by Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, the Reuters report notes. Soleimani himself is not named as a defendant in the current malpractice lawsuit.
White Oak originally filed the malpractice case against King & Spalding in New York County Supreme Court under Index No. 650651/2026, according to Docket Alarm. The lawsuit was expanded this week to bring in HSF Kramer, the firm that absorbed Novetsky's former employer, Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, when Kramer Levin merged with Herbert Smith Freehills in June 2025. Novetsky had joined Kramer Levin in early 2023 and retired from HSF Kramer in January 2026, per Reuters.
Firms Push Back on Damages Claim
White Oak is seeking at least $1 billion in damages plus at least $500 million in punitive damages, and says King & Spalding and Kramer Levin worked on dozens of corporate matters for the company, according to the Reuters report. A spokesperson for Kasowitz LLP, which represents White Oak, said the alleged misconduct went beyond ordinary malpractice and that the firms planned to damage White Oak's interests and facilitate a hostile takeover of their own client.
King & Spalding, which is represented by Steptoe, said the vast majority of White Oak's allegations have nothing to do with the firm, per the same report. King & Spalding also said White Oak's claim that the alleged malpractice prevented two multi-billion-dollar healthcare funds from launching was speculative. HSF Kramer said White Oak's claims are without merit and that it expects to prevail in court.
Part of a Wider BigLaw Reckoning
The case adds to a broader wave of nine-figure and billion-dollar malpractice actions targeting elite international law firms that has surged through commercial courts in 2026. A $1.2 billion malpractice suit against Holland & Knight in Miami and a $100 million patent malpractice suit against Norton Rose Fulbright in Chicago have marked similar high-stakes filings this year, a trend that historically was rare given mandatory arbitration clauses and confidential settlements common in BigLaw client relationships.
Founded in 1884 in Atlanta, King & Spalding operates 26 offices worldwide and represents nearly half of the Fortune Global 100, with its London office alone reporting $148.2 million in revenue in 2025. HSF Kramer, formed from the combination of UK-based Herbert Smith Freehills and Kramer Levin, reported $2.407 billion in total revenue for its first full financial year following the merger, with equity partner profits reaching £1.53 million, according to Above the Law. Neither firm's financial scale has any bearing on the merits of White Oak's claims, which remain contested and unresolved in New York County Supreme Court.
