Days after the March 10 crash of a Kenya-bound Ethiopian Airlines' Boeing jet that killed all 157 people on board, strangers began calling or visiting bereaved families, saying they represented US law firms.

Mourners lay flowers for victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX crash that killed 157 people one month prior to a memorial service for UN and NGO personnel that died in the crash at the UN Economic Commission for Africa building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on April 10. Photo: AFP

They showed up uninvited at memorials and at homes full of weeping relatives. They cold called. They left brochures. In one case a grieving husband was offered money for an appointment. One woman offered counseling and another said she was creating an emotional support group, without disclosing they were working for lawyers.

Reuters interviewed 37 relatives of the victims, or their representatives, and found that 31 complained of inappropriate approaches by those saying they represented US law firms.

In some instances, the behavior may have been illegal or unethical under US laws and rules barring solicitation and deceptive practices, several legal ethics experts said.

Six firms were particularly aggressive in courting prospective clients after the Boeing plane nosedived into an Ethiopian field: Ribbeck Law Chartered and Global Aviation Law Group (GALG) of Chicago; The Witherspoon Law Group and Ramji Law Group from Texas; and Wheeler & Franks Law Firm PC and Eaves Law Firm of Mississippi.

Witherspoon, Wheeler and Eaves denied any wrongdoing. Ribbeck, GALG and Ramji did not respond to requests for comment.

Ribbeck Law and GALG have jointly filed two lawsuits against Boeing seeking "all damages available under the law" without being specific about the size of the claims. Three suits filed by Ramji have been dismissed. The other firms haven't filed any suits.

By December 19, there were 114 cases filed against Boeing in Chicago federal court on behalf of 112 crash victims, according to lead counsel for the plaintiffs, Robert Clifford. More than three dozen law firms are representing them. No trial date has been set.

Boeing has said it is "cooperating fully with the investigating authorities" and said that safety is its highest priority.

It has acknowledged errors in failing to give pilots more information on 737 MAX software involved in a Lion Air crash that killed 189 in Indonesia in October 2018 and the Ethiopian crash five months later, but Boeing has not admitted any fault in how it developed the aircraft. The 737 MAX is currently grounded.

Boeing declined to comment on the lawsuits.

Uninvited guest 

An uninvited stranger turned up at Paul Njoroge's family home in Kenya just hours after a memorial service for his wife, his three small children, and his mother-in-law, who all died in the crash.

Njoroge said the visitor gave him promotional materials for the law firm Wheeler and Franks.

"I said, I don't know who directed you to this place. Everyone here is praying," Njoroge told Reuters.

Two other families said they received visits around the time of memorial services from Wheeler's lawyers or people who said they represented the firm.

James Ndeda, who Wheeler represented after he was injured in the 1998 embassy bombing in Kenya, said he visited Njoroge. The firm's partners, Bill Wheeler and Jamie Franks, asked Ndeda to help the firm connect with crash victims' families, Ndeda said. Wheeler sent him literature featuring his firm and another Mississippi firm, Eaves Law Firm.

Ndeda said he went to visit victims' families either by himself, sent employees or accompanied Bill Wheeler or Jamie Franks, and sometimes Leo Jackson, an investigator with Eaves. Jackson declined to comment.

Wheeler and Franks, and Eaves, said in a joint emailed statement they only met families if invited. "The story you have been told is completely wrong," they wrote. "We contacted no families without an invitation."

They declined to answer further questions.

Many overtures 

Ethiopian Bayihe Demissie, whose flight attendant wife Elsabet was a victim, told Reuters a man who said he was from The Witherspoon Law Group called him three days after the crash. Bayihe said he was too upset to speak.

People saying they represented more than 30 firms contacted him over the next few months, including Witherspoon again, and GALG, said Bayihe. The constant calls about compensation hurt because it felt like people were suggesting he could benefit from his wife's death, he said.

Witherspoon denied the allegations.

"This firm does not solicit or engage in any illegal practices. We do not represent any of the families involved in the tragic crash," Witherspoon's founder Nuru Witherspoon said in an email.

Rejected approaches 

A woman named Mihret Girma sent a Kenyan victim's family a message in August, inviting them to attend a meeting with a grief counsellor and the Law Society of Kenya.

At that time, she did not reveal she had ties to the firms GALG and Ribbeck, according to the family, who shared messages received from Mihret.

Mihret was in a WhatsApp group with GALG staff and US lawyers Manuel Ribbeck and Monica Ribbeck Kelly within three weeks of the March crash, other messages reviewed by Reuters show. Dozens of the messages show GALG staff and the Ribbecks discussing how to reach bereaved families.

Mihret did not return calls or messages seeking comment.

The Illinois state disciplinary commission censured Monica Ribbeck in 2014 for filing an aviation accident suit on behalf of someone who had already terminated her.

In 2015, the commission's hearing board recommended she be suspended for 60 days for filing what it alleged was a frivolous action for legal discovery over the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines' Flight 370. That was overturned after a review.

This year, the Ribbecks set up a new entity, GALG, according to messages between GALG and the Ribbecks that have been viewed by Reuters. GALG staff directed clients to the Ribbecks, messages and emails shared by several bereaved families show.