Providence-based attorney Max Wistow speaks at a press conference April 5, 2024. To his left is Jonathan Savage, a top public sector litigator who specializes in construction law. Both were tapped by Gov. Dan McKee to lead the state’s legal effort in the ongoing Washington Bridge saga. (Christopher Shea/Rhode Island Current)
One of the lead attorneys behind the state’s lawsuit against the 13 companies that worked on the westbound Washington Bridge is no longer on the case — just one day after firms requested the lawsuit be dismissed.
Max Wistow, the Providence attorney hired by Gov. Dan McKee’s administration in April to make the case, withdrew due to “professional reasons,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronah’s office announced Friday.
Wistow’s firm has been replaced with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, a Washington, D.C. firm that secured over $650 million from defendants in the water quality crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Savage Law Partners, which was also contracted by the state in April, remains on the case.
“It would have been our preference that he remain as part of the litigation team, but we respect his decision and are grateful that he agreed to remain in the case until we secured replacement counsel,” office spokesperson Timothy Rondeau said of Wistow in a statement Friday.
“My administration is grateful to Max Wistow for the groundwork he has already put in place, and we look forward to this work continuing with Cohen Milstein law firm,” McKee said in a statement Monday.
Wistow led the state’s effort to recover approximately $61 million from the now-defunct 38 Studios, run by former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. The ill-fated video game company accepted $75 million in loans from the state of Rhode Island in 2010 to relocate from Massachusetts, only to lay off all its employees and declare bankruptcy two years later.
Wistow, along with Providence attorney Jonathan Savage, set the groundwork for the Washington Bridge case from April through early August, before Neronha’s office took the lead role.
The lawsuit was officially filed Aug. 16 and alleges a sweeping set of contract breaches and negligence on the part of contractors the state claimed for decades failed to detect or report structural problems ahead of the bridge’s sudden closure last December.
The announcement of Wistow’s departure occurred one day after the contractors named as defendants asked the Providence Superior Court to throw out the state’s case, claiming McKee’s administration is using the case to shift blame.
“The State’s blame game is political and without a supportable legal basis,” the filing from the Barletta/Aetna joint venture states.
Responses to the motion have not been filed as of Monday.
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