In a case of “turf warfare” in which former JP Morgan Chase & Co executive Patrik Edsparr is suing the bank for $2.3 million over an unpaid bonus, lawyers are the real winners, Jo Keddie, head of employment law at Dawsons LLP in London said. 

“The people who really win are the lawyers, but if the bonus is big enough and you can afford the legal fees, it’s worth pursuing,” she told Bloomberg News. 

The dispute is the latest involving a group of senior managers who quite JPMorgan to join Citadel Investment Group. 

Edsparr, 43, said in a lawsuit filed in London that the firm refused to pay the deferred bonus after he left for Citadel last year. He claims JPMorgan first halved, and then refused to pay an expected $5 million bonus that vested in January 2007 for payment this year. 

Edsparr resigned in March 2008 to become global fixed- income head and European CEO of Citadel.