A dispute over nearly $600,000 in legal fees between Whiteford Taylor & Preston and a former client will be litigated at the state level after a Pennsylvania federal judge on Monday remanded the case to Allegheny County court.

U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand's opinion said the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania lacked the jurisdiction to oversee Whiteford Taylor & Preston LLP's complaint against Albert's Capital Services LLC, or ACS, over $592,247. The case has been remanded to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, where the firm will continue its breach of contract claim against the bankruptcy administrator.

Judge Wiegand denied ACS' motion to move the complaint to federal court, saying the legal fee dispute was not sufficiently related to the underlying bankruptcy case that brought the two parties together.

According to court records, ACS was selected in April 2017 as the plan administrator for the liquidating trust created by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania to service H&P Inc.'s Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. ACS then retained attorneys from Whiteford Taylor & Preston to represent the company as it administered the bankruptcy plan.

The attorneys representing ACS in the plan left Whiteford Taylor & Preston in July 2024, court documents say, and took ACS with them as a client to the new firm. Whiteford Taylor & Preston then sent a bill for more than $590,000 in unpaid legal fees. ACS closed the bankruptcy case with their attorneys at their new firm and did not pay Whiteford Taylor & Preston the outstanding fees, according to court records.

The firm filed a breach of contract claim against ACS in Allegheny County Court, and the defendant filed a motion to move the case to federal court. Judge Wiegand said in her opinion denying the jurisdiction move that the outcome of the legal fee dispute will have no impact on the parties in the underlying bankruptcy case, including either the debtor or the creditors.

Judge Wiegand also noted that the claims raised by Whiteford Taylor & Preston are not exclusively complaints found in a bankruptcy proceeding, even though they happen to be connected to one. The dispute could arise in any context, giving the federal judge more reason to deny moving the case due to subject-matter jurisdiction.

Attorneys representing the parties could not be immediately reached for comment.

Whiteford Taylor & Preston is represented by Shawn P. McClure of Bernstein-Burkley PC and Todd M. Brooks of Whiteford Taylor & Preston.

Albert's Capital Services is represented by Joanna Studeny and Michael A. Shiner of Tucker Arensberg PC.

The case is Whiteford Taylor & Preston v. Albert's Capital Services, case no. 2:25-cv-00588-CCW, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.