As part of the firm’s break-up, Wood agreed in a March 2020 agreement to pay his ex-partners an undisclosed amount of what he would receive from Sandmann’s settlements. But now, the plaintiffs in the case say Wood was already scheming behind the scenes to dupe them out of the settlement money.

Around 3 a.m. one day in February 2020, the ex-partners allege, Wood sent two emails to Todd McMurtry, his co-counsel on the Sandmann cases. In the emails, entitled “A good idea!” and “Taylor, Jonathan, and Nicole,” Wood purportedly pressed McMurtry to work with the “Disputed Client” to sign an agreement that would take advantage of a Georgia legal rule about payments by objecting to the three other lawyers receiving any money from the Sandmann cases.

“In short, I need your help and the help of [Disputed Client] to nip this nonsense in the bud quickly and quietly… Will you help me?” Wood wrote, according to one court filing.

If genuine, the emails show Wood plotting, in detail, to make sure that his ex-partners wouldn’t receive money from Sandmann’s cases, even as he moved closer to signing an agreement with them to share the funds.