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Midwest law firm Kopka, which has an office in Carmel, has sued a Florida-based law firm, alleging that it conspired to orchestrate a mass exodus of Kopka employees, shareholders and staff last year.
Attorneys Gabriel Hawkins and Michael McBride with CohenMalad LLP in Indianapolis filed the lawsuit on behalf of Kopka, an Illinois-based defense firm, in Marion County Superior Court earlier this month, arguing that Quintairos illegally lured more than 100 of its attorneys and staff in August.
The complaint alleges Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., a Miami-based litigation firm with offices across the country, including in Indianapolis, conspired to encourage Kopka’s shareholders to breach their fiduciary duties. And it alleges Quintairos and a former Kopka employee stole Kopka’s property and trade secrets to take Kopka clients for itself.
Donna Markus, chief operating officer for Kopka, told The Indiana Lawyer that it no comment on the case.
Quintairos Marketing Director Devin Leonardi told The Lawyer on Tuesday: “We committed no wrongdoing, and the case is already resolved.” He declined to elaborate, and the case remains pending in MyCase, the state’s online docket system. The most recent actions in MyCase are the filing of the complaint and a notice of eligibility for commercial court, both dated Feb. 9.
According to the complaint, in the first half of 2025, two key Kopka Pinkus Dolan shareholders – managing partners Gene Pinkus and Mark Dolin – made plans to leave the firm and join Quintaros. By August, Pinkus and Dolin resigned, as had nearly 60 KPD attorneys and more than 40 KPD staff members.
Before the departures, the firm had about 110 attorneys and 127 staff members across offices in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin, according to the complaint. The complaint further alleges the mass resignation of employees caused KPD to lose out on several million dollars in revenue.
The allegations
According to the lawsuit, Robert Kopka, the founder of KPD, approached Dolin and Pinkus in 2021 with a succession plan to account for Kopka’s retirement, planned for 2027. In the plan, Kopka proposed to divest his 1,200 shares back to the firm, with payments over the 80 months to compensate him for his equity in KPD.
Ultimately, Kopka did not move forward with his proposed succession plan but began divesting his shares back to the firm in 2023. According to the complaint, Kopka sold about 118 of his shares back to the firm between 2023 and 2025 while also reducing his annual salary to $100,000.
“Apparently unhappy with having to pay Kopka for his equity interest in the firm, Dolin and Pinkus discussed among themselves how they could remove Kopka from KPD without paying for his interest in the firm,” the complaint states.
Kopka contends that in July 2025, Pinkus, Dolin and Quintairos “plotted to organize a simultaneous mass resignation of shareholders and employees so that KPD would effectively be immediately destroyed upon the resignation and KPD’s clients would have little choice but to end their business relationship with KPD and seek a new relationship with Quintairos.”
The complaint states Pinkus and Dolin accomplished this by telling KPD shareholders that Kopka was divesting his shares at inflated prices, that certain leaders at KPD were overpaid, that the firm was financially failing and that Kopka himself was suffering from dementia.
Quintairos’ involvement
Quintaros announced the Kopka hirings an in an Aug. 4 press release. Managing Partner Eric Boyer said in the release that the moves represented the firm’s largest-ever expansion, calling it “more than a lateral expansion, it’s a strategic alignment of values.”
Quintairos was not a “passive member” of the conspiracy, KPD argues in its complaint. Rather, the lawsuit said, Quintairos’ managing partner spoke with KPD shareholders and non-shareholders who were being solicited by Pinkus and Dolin to ensure positions with the firm if they left KPD, the firm alleges.
Kopka also alleges that in the moves, the defendants stole firm property by secretly transferring confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets to their personal computers and emails.
One instrumental player in that effort, the complaint asserts, was a former non-shareholder employee who worked with Pinkus, an Indiana resident, in KPD’s Crown Point, Indiana, office.
Kopka alleges that employee stole full downloads of emails via Personal Storage Table, or .pst, files; current case lists; status reports; an Excel file called “2025 Clients to Grow” and numerous encrypted files.
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 11 counts, including conspiracy to breach fiduciary duty, theft and defamation. KPD demands a jury trial and damages “sufficient to compensate Kopka and KPD for their respective losses” and punitive damages to compensate for what the suit called theft, conversion, receipt of stolen property and computer trespass.
The case is Robert J. Kopka and Kopka Pinkus Dolin, P.C. v. Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., and Patricia A. Batiewicz (49D01-2602-CE-006808).
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