MMWKM Advisors, LLC, and Kenneth Moraif v Joseph Dowdall

An arbitration panel awarded $3.4 million to AZA client, MMWKM Advisors, which does business as Retirement Planners of America (RPOA), a Plano-based investment advisory firm, from former employee Joseph Dowdall, a Plano-based financial planner.

The three-arbitrator panel for the American Arbitration Association found that Mr. Dowdall breached his contractual and fiduciary duties to RPOA when he took confidential information and accepted client relationships in violation of his contract when he left to go to a competitor. The panel denied Mr. Dowdall’s counterclaims and found that he destroyed texts and other evidence after he became aware of this litigation.

MMWKM was awarded $2.7 million in damages and attorneys’ fees, plus pre-judgment interest and arbitration fees. The case was in arbitration per the Investment Advisor Representation Agreement the parties signed in 2013.  

AZA Lawyers: Ryan Hackney

Case Type: Arbitration