A GTA man has settled a dispute with his Toronto family lawyer four months after a Global News story about the case, saying the dispute resulted from a “miscommunication” and is retracting his previous statements about his lawyer.
Last fall, Asim Khan alleged that his lawyer, Tilda Roll, refused to release the balance of a $1 million divorce settlement until he paid her a “bonus” and later a “finder’s fee.”
“She had taken these funds in trust, held me hostage and said, ‘If you don’t follow this you won’t get the money,’” Khan said, adding he did not agree to any bonus or extra fees.
He said he had already paid the lawyer about $200,000 in legal fees, claiming there had been no discussion of a bonus.
When originally contacted by Global News, Roll denied she did anything improper.
“In my professional experience, it is not uncommon for clients, involved in high conflict legal disputes, to raise a fee issue with counsel after a successful result has been obtained on his/her behalf. This is in fact the case with Mr. Khan,” she wrote in an email.
Khan filed a complaint with the Law Society of Ontario, the body that regulates lawyers in the province.
Following the Global News report, the dispute went through a mediation process, which Khan said resulted in a confidential settlement.
“I … fully and completely retract all statements I made regarding Tilda Roll,” he wrote in an email.
“There was a miscommunication.”
Khan told Global News he withdrew the law society complaint; however, the law society does not comment on the status of complaints.
Contacted for comment, Roll declined an interview request. But she responded by email.
“From my end, I want to advise the public that I operated within my retainer and in accordance with my legal obligations at all material times,” she wrote.
According to the law society’s public record, Roll has no disciplinary history.
— With files by Megan King