In the months before TCW [see profile] fired Jeffrey Gundlach in December 2009, Barbara VanEvery searched for new office space for Gundlach's team and Gundlach himself met with Goldman Sachs to talk strategy, VanEvery testified yesterday, Reuters' Mary Slosson reports. That's the latest development in the Los Angeles trial of the fight between Gundlach and his former employers [see transcript].

To read the rest of the story of the fight between Gundlach and TCW, click here.

Bloomberg's Edvard Pettersson also covered VanEvery's testimony. And Bloomberg offers a brief video clip from VanEvery's testimony here.

VanEvery, who testified that she was Gundlach's girlfriend at the time, told the jury she expected Gundlach and the team to be fired by or negotiate a separation from TCW, so she hired a real estate broker in September 2009. Meanwhile, she claimed that Gundlach and two colleagues met with Goldman in November to talk about negotiating a better deal with TCW or forming a new company, yet Goldman told Gundlach to talk to TCW and declined to get involved.

"I was under the impression that something was going to happen by December," VanEvery, now communications director for Gundlach's DoubleLine Capital [see profile], reportedly testified yesterday. "It was coming to a head. I felt there was going to be some kind of separation."

Gundlach had served as chief investment officer for Los Angeles-based TCW, a subsidiary of Societe Generale, overseeing $70 billion in assets. TCW fired Gundlach and his team in December 2009, while simultaneously unveiling a deal to buy rival MetWest to take Gundlach's team's spot. Later that month Gundlach and his team launched their own firm, DoubleLine. TCW now manages about $120 billion, while DoubleLine works with $13 billion.

TCW sued Gundlach in January 2010, accusing him and others at DoubleLine of stealing trade secrets, and Gundlach countersued by accusing TCW of firing him to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fees. The jury trial of both TCW's suit and Gundlach's cross-claim started last week in Los Angeles. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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