DECEMBER 6, 2004

McLaren and Williams to sue legal firms

The legal firms Linklaters and Baker & McKenzie are facing claims of negligence from McLaren and Williams, resulting from a deal in 1998 between the two teams and Bernie Ecclestone. The two firms were retained by the teams to deal with the legal aspects of a deal with Ecclestone which was designed to give them a share of the commercial rights of F1 if the business was sold. In exchange they agreed to sign the Concorde Agreement. However when Ecclestone sold 75% of the business the two teams got nothing because, they claim, the legal documents involved related to the wrong companies, which allowed Ecclestone and his family's trust companies to escape without having to pay the teams.

The two claim this was the fault of the legal firms involved and say that they "acted negligently and in breach of their contractual and/or tortious duties, with the result that when the Trusts disposed of the commercial rights in 1999-2001 the teams were not entitled to and/or did not receive any share in the relevant proceeds".