• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 24, 2013

A New York Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell.

Sorrell was slapped with the suit last August by the law firm then representing New Delhi Television, Sabharwal & Finkel, and its principals, Adam Finkel and Rohit Sabharwal.

The pair claimed that Sorrell had libeled and slandered them in interviews with an Indian business publication after their client sued WPP and Nielsen in connection with their joint venture ratings service in India. (The ratings-related suit was dismissed in March; NDTV filed an appeal last week against Nielsen but not WPP.)

In the defamation case, Finkel and Sabharwal cited a number of Sorrell quotes they deemed damaging to their reputations and their firm, including an assertion by the WPP chief that they were trying to “extort” money in the form of a settlement on behalf of NDTV.

The plaintiffs also took exception to Sorrell’s suggestion that they handled the NDTV suit in an “inexpert” way.

In a decision filed last week, however, New York State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Kern ruled that none of the statements cited by the plaintiffs constituted any form of defamation and dismissed the suit in its entirety.

Kern ruled: “No reasonable reader would conclude that a law firm or lawyers are incompetent, unfit or unethical,” after reading Sorrell's remarks in the business publication.

As to the comment about the firm’s attempted extortion, Kern wrote, “a reasonable reader or listener would understand that defendant’s statement was an opinion about the merits of the lawsuit.”

WPP declined to comment on the decision. Sabharwal & Finkel did not return a call seeking comment.