2015 Year in Review No. 8: Lawing sues Cavner for contract breach

SPRINGFIELD, APRIL 15—Overland Park, Kan.-based Lawing Financial Inc. filed suit April 15 against once-prominent financial adviser Nadia Cavner for breach of contract kicking off a yet-unresolved string of countersuits and employee departures throughout 2015.

Lawing Financial, which purchased Nadia Cavner Group in January 2014, alleges Cavner broke an agreement with the firm by continuing to contact and pursue its clients after being permanently barred from acting as a broker or selling securities by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in May 2014.

According to the suit, Cavner allegedly did not stop, instead encouraging clients to disregard Lawing’s advice. Cavner allegedly met with Lawing clients, monitored the Lawing office and its staff, and sent text messages to former clients and Lawing staff about each other.

The suit asks the court return the $1 million already paid toward the 2014 purchase of Nadia Cavner Group and to free the firm from its additional $2 million debt. The $3 million deal scheduled payments to Cavner for the next four years.

In August, Cavner countersued. In the civil suit, Cavner said Lawing Financial has no grounds to claim she overvalued her financial services company or interfered with its business. Cavner is asking for at least $500,000 from the company for her consulting work and at least $75,000 in damages, plus attorneys’ fees. She also wants Lawing Financial to make good on the final $2 million owed her.

By November, the ongoing legal battle resulted in another motion when Lawing Financial claimed former employee Andrew Denney conspired with Cavner. Denney resigned as a financial adviser in the Springfield office in October, establishing his own firm, Prosperity Financial Group, and taking two other Lawing employees with him. According to court documents, Denney allegedly set up Prosperity Financial Group to steal some $200 million in assets under management from Lawing.

In the motion, Lawing Financial claims Denney aided Cavner in interfering with Lawing’s client relationships, harassing its financial advisers and staff, and providing financial advice to former clients.