NRA Seeks Arbitration With Former Law Firm Brewer

The National Rifle Association filed documents requesting arbitration with its former law firm Brewer Attorneys & Counselors. The Oct. 30 filing asserts that Brewer owes the Association $200 million in damages.

Longtime former legal counsel for the National Rifle Association, Brewer Attorneys & Counselors and William A. Brewer III (collectively referred to as Brewer here), were served arbitration documents. Brewer was involved in defending the Association during many high-profile cases dating back to 2018 and NRA alleges it should be on the hook for several of the legal fumbles. Arbitration is being sought before JAMS in Dallas, Texas per past NRA-Brewer service agreements.

JAMS, formerly known as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc., is a mediation and arbitration company. 

The NRA alleges that Brewer “systematically subordinated” the Association’s interests and “inflicted catastrophic financial and reputational harm.” In the seven-page document, the National Rifle Association lists ways in which it was injured via Brewer’s alleged “legal malpractice (professional negligence), breach of fiduciary duty, knowing participation in breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent misrepresentation.”

In its introduction, the Association claims that a “narrow engagement” with Brewer “metastasized, over more than six years.” The filing says the action turned “into a sprawling, nationwide representation that came within a breath of destroying the organization it was retained to defend.” NRA further accuses Brewer of exacerbating its issues rather than mitigating them.

Of the allegations made in the filing, NRA states that Brewer was aware of “executive misconduct” and they chose to “conceal and disregard that misconduct rather than cure it.” The filing specifically alleges that Brewer’s actions were to shield “NRA’s former leader Wayne LaPierre (‘LaPierre’) in order to further protect the Firm’s and Brewer’s own interests.”

The NRA was not available to field questions about the filing; however upon request, a representative gave Bearing Arms the following comment under the condition it remain unedited:

“The NRA has commenced arbitration before JAMS in Dallas, Texas against Brewer Attorneys & Counselors and William A. Brewer III, asserting causes of action for legal malpractice (professional negligence), breach of fiduciary duty, knowing participation in breach of fiduciary duty, and negligent misrepresentation. The NRA seeks compensatory and consequential damages, the forfeiture and disgorgement of fees paid to the Brewer Firm together with the imposition of a constructive trust, exemplary damages, interest, costs, and attorney’s fees. In the aggregate, the NRA seeks damages in excess of $200 million.  Additional information is in an Application in Support of Arbitration which was filed in the District Court, Dallas County, Texas.”

The NRA's statement of facts lists out — not limited to — five areas where it says Brewer’s actions “produced devastating results for the NRA.” Those conflicts include: 

1. Reconciling financial losses NRA incurred via failed litigation efforts with Ackerman McQueen
2. Repudiating “a former executive’s employment agreement and then litigated the resulting arbitration for nearly two years before entering a settlement agreement
3. Leading failed litigation against Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North
4. Having “engineered a secret Chapter 11 bankruptcy that the federal bankruptcy court dismissed as not filed in good faith and condemned as ‘shocking.’”
5. “Conflicted defense of the New York Attorney General’s enforcement action—including its refusal to advise the NRA to remove LaPierre or to resolve the matter.”

The Association estimates that it incurred more than $200 million in legal fees paid to Brewer and that's in part of what it's seeking.

Since the Association is seeking conflict resolution via agreed-upon arbitration, it’s not likely that a lot of information will be made publicly available. Will the Association be able to recover the $200 million or a portion of it they allege Brewer owes them? That remains to be seen.

This is a developing and breaking story and we’ll be covering updates as they become available.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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