september14–27, 2020| newyork 85
firm weighed in, filing affidavit after affi-
davit. The papers got very strange. “The
office stress is palpable,” one staff lawyer
wrote, adding that he hadn’t shown his
affidavit to either Cellino or Barnes; he
just wanted to tell the court what was
happening. “In my view, given the prom-
ises from both Ross and Steve, the
employees are not worried about their
jobs since all have been promised
employment,but the tensions between
RossandSteve spill over into the entire
office.Therumor mill grinds on a daily
basis—Stevebought a new 1-800 num-
ber—Rossisfilming new commercials
forhisfirm—Steve has rented out his
ownspaceand has new computer serv-
ers—itgoeson and on.”
Likea kind of legal Russian nesting
doll,thefight over dissolving the firm
gavebirthtoat least two other lawsuits.
First,AnnaMarie Cellino, who was an
attorneyandexecutive at a natural-gas
company,decided to hang out her own
shingleas,of course, a personal-injury
lawyer.Herpartners? Daughters Jeanna
andAnnmarie. The name? Cellino & Cel-
lino,LLP.Acoordinated action to get a
jumpstart on the breakup of Cellino &
Barnes?Ofcourse not, they insisted; it
wasjustanopportune time to enter the
market.Cellino himself would swear up
anddownhehad absolutely nothing to do
withthenewfirm.
SoCellino& Barnes, PC, filed a fed-
eraltrademark-infringement lawsuit
againstCellino & Cellino, LLP. The Cel-
linowomenhadn’t exactly been subtle
about thewhole thing, launching a
radio-adcampaign and putting up at
leastonebillboard. Future plans were
evenmoreexplicit. Where the classic
Cellino&Barnes ad featured the two
menonopposite sides of the question
“Injured?,”a proof for a planned Cellino
& Cellino ad used the phrase “Car
Crash?”over a nearly identical back-
drop.AfterBarnes launched his suit, the
Cellinoschanged their firm’s name to
theLawOffices of Anna Marie Cellino.
Afterthename change, Barnes lost and
didn’tpursueit further.
Separately,Sturm filed suit against Ross
Cellino,saying he had cut her out of her
shareofsettlement fees for a case she and
Barneshadlitigated together. The case
concerneda horrific accident involving a
teenageranda fuel called FireGel used in
ceramicfirepots. When the pot was lit, it
ledtoanexplosion; the young man died
eightyearslater after tremendous suffer-
ing.Thesuit,against Bed Bath & Beyond,
waseventually settled for what Barnes
sayswasanenormous amount, the largest
inthefirm’s history. Sturm’s suit accused
Cellino of withholding her compensation
for it, “in what can only be an act of petty
and vindictive retaliation.”
For Barnes, this was a true friendship-
breaker. “I didn’t think he needed to do
that,” he told me. “And he did it just to—it
was the old thing. How do you hurt the
man? You go after his woman. That was
too much. That created some bad blood, I
will admit that.”
The case was set to go to trial in Janu-
ary, but as almost always happens when
personal-injury lawyers weigh their pros-
pects in front of a jury, something gave.
Barnes told me he asked himself, “Are we
actually going to have a trial?” It didn’t
make sense. He and Cellino reached a
settlement to break up the firm, including
a deal on the Sturm case. In September,
the famous ads stopped. The jingle went
silent. The phone number will soon be
mothballed. The two men have agreed
not to disparage each other (mostly).
Two firms will take the place of Cellino
& Barnes: The Barnes Firm and Cellino
Law. The final step before separating was
for Cellino and Barnes to make offers to
the lawyers they wanted to take with them
and for the lawyers to choose sides. Slightly
more than half went with Cellino, with
most of the upstate lawyers sticking with
him and the NYC lawyers with Barnes.
Both men see glory days ahead, and each
wishes the other great success.
“I think we had a good partnership,”
says Cellino. “We got great results for our
clients, but I think we can do greater
things separated from each other.” After
the bruising court battle, Cellino decided
to buff his image, taking out billboards
and ads of himself next to fuzzy animals
to tout his initiatives with the local SPCA.
He made a gauzy promo video of himself
throwing a football with his grandkids
(and occasionally wearing smart-looking
glasses with no lenses). Cellino told me he
is signing a lease to expand to the Bronx.
He even reconciled with Mark Rappold,
and the two have lunch sometimes.
(David has improved considerably. He
can listen to TV and argue and tell his
brothers off.)
For his part, Barnes is pleased about his
consolidated coast-to-coast operation,
and he isn’t worried about competing
with his former partner. “I know Ross is
going to come out spending a ton of
money on advertising, but we both are,”
says Barnes. “It’s going to be a bit ridicu-
lous for starters, seeing both of our heads
up on billboards separately. But that’s
okay. People will get used to it.” Both law-
yers have already bought new 1-800 num-
bers to plaster on billboards. And don’t
worry—there will be new jingles, too. ■
Barnesrespondedlessthananhour
later:“Astothisbullshitaboutdrivinga
stake inyoursoul,yououghttothank
yourluckystarsthat youhadandhaveme
asa partnerinsteadofsomecocksucker
whomighthavetakena differentviewof
things.Andtherearea lotofcocksuckers
outthere,Ross.I didn’t hearyouobject-
ingtothewaythat I wasrunningthe
placeduringthe10+yearsthatbyyour
ownadmissionyouweredoingnothing.”
T
he followingyear,inMay
201 7, Cellinofiledtodissolvethe
firm.He announcedthedecision
withanemailblasttoemployees:
“As youmay know, my dadstartedthe
predecessortoCellino& Barnesin1958,”
hestarted,beforelistingeveryiterationof
thefirm’s namesincethat time.Allbut
theshort-livedBarnesFirmbeganwith
Cellino: Cellino& Likoudis;Cellino,Ber-
nstein & Cellino; Cellino, Dwyer &
Barnes.Heendedbydanglingtheques-
tion of who wouldbecome the next
BarnestohisCellino.“Cellino&???”His
follow-upnotetostaff lawyerswaseven
moreexplicit:“Pleasenowallowmethe
opportunity toexplainwhat I believeare
ouroptionsgoingforward:youcanjoin
mynew law firmorjoinSteve/Daryl.”
Barnestellsmethatevennowhestill
can’t quitebelieveCellinowoulddosuch
a thing.“Y oulookat themoney andyou
lookatwhat lawyersmake inthiscoun-
try andyoulookat twojamokesfrom
Buffalo who did not attend the Ivy
League,” hesays.“Andwegotourselvesin
the position wherewewere making
moneythat thehighest-paidpartnersof
SkaddenArpswouldbeextremelyjeal-
ousof.Why youwouldchoose,intention-
allychoose,toblowthatapart—that’s
why the wholedecisionwaskind of
mind-bogglingtome.”
Barnesmadeit clearthathewouldnot
letthefirmgo downwithouta fight.But
todothat,he’dhavetobothsavagehis
partnerincourt bysayingthat Cellino’s
complaintswereutterfictionsandprove
thatrelationsbetweenthetwomenwere
somehowreconcilable.
Asthecaseprogressed,lawyersat the
Cellino & Barnes
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