Horry law firm claims, an ex-employee, and competitor stole property files in lawsuit
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A law firm in Horry County says in a lawsuit an ex-employee and competitor stole the company’s private records to get one up on them and hurt their business.
Grand Strand Law Group LLC’s lawsuit names Kenneth Corbett, Corbett Law P.A. and Renee Macklen as defendants. Grand Strand Law Group, which handles real estate law, is owned by Angie Knight.
Macklen, who was a paralegal at GSLG starting in 2017, took files from the company and gave it to Corbett at his request, and he rewarded her for it, the lawsuit alleges.
When Knight asked Corbett about this, he told her he had hired Macklen to create documents for his firm and help with the company’s Qualia account, but he said he didn’t know about her stealing documents and information, according to the suit.
Qualia is a software used for real estate closings and settlements.
The suit claims Knight found Macklen’s flash drive after she was terminated that contained company property and discovered emails to Corbett’s employees, including messages to Ariana Petruzzelli, who was once a paralegal there before moving to Corbett Law.
The emails “purportedly providing them with GSLG’s proprietary data documents with Qualia customization codes, email templates with Qualia customization codes and other work product from GSLG without GSLG or Angie’s knowledge or authorization starting almost immediately after Petruzelli began working for Corbett Law,” the suit states.
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 17.
This story was originally published November 30, 2022 at 8:26 AM.