PHILADELPHIA – A Pennsylvania lawyer profiled overseas as “jet-setting” and “high-flying” is suing The Daily Mail for publishing photographs of his vacations in articles he says contain false information.
Harris Pogust of Pogust Goodhead in Conshohocken sued The Daily Mail and Microsoft Dec. 4 in Philadelphia federal court over articles that began in April 2024. The first took a look at the “jet-set life of crusading global law firm Pogust Goodhead.
Photos include Pogust lying in a pool, the large home he had purchased and his dog on a private jet. They were taken from social media accounts, and the articles were written at the direction of one of his opponents in court, Pogust says.
“Accordingly, it is clear that the only purpose of this article was to cause pain and suffering, cause damage to Plaintiff’s reputation and financial and emotional harm to Plaintiff as they offered no legitimate purpose and the photographs and the plaintiffs’ likeness were used and appropriated without their consent for a commercial purpose by the defendants,” the suit says.
Pogust Goodhead is pursuing massive litigation in England on behalf of Brazilians whose lives were affected by the failure of the Mariana dam, which killed 19 people and released water containing mining waste in November 2015.
Pogust says the articles and photos were in retaliation for filing suit. On Nov. 4, The Daily Mail reported he had been “ousted from his own firm” for using its money on private jets and parties – a claim he says is 100% false.
He had never had an ownership stake in the English office and was negotiating an exit to only work from his Conshohocken office, the suit says. And he spent his money on philanthropic efforts, like $100,000 for a school in Ghana, it adds.
He seeks damages for invasion of privacy.
“(T)he defendants intentionally intruded upon the solitude and seclusion of the plaintiffs’ private affairs or concerns (their vacations, their personal home, shirtless photos) which was highly offensive to the plaintiffs, and would be to a reasonable person,” the suit says.
