News Flash: Friends of the Barnes' Legal Case in Disarray UPDATED

This came in late yesterday from the Friends of the Barnes, the ad hoc group opposing the planned move of the Barnes Foundation from Merion to Philadelphia:

Today we sent our attorney, [Mark] Schwartz, an e-mail in which he was instructed to "discontinue any and all work in behalf of the Friends of the Barnes Foundation and other petitioners." We also informed him that "we are in process of finding another attorney to represent us." We expect to have the secured the services of new counsel in the next few days.

No word yet from the "Friends" about the reasons for this unfriendly falling out. (See UPDATE, below.) Schwartz asserts that "they wanted my work without paying for it." He had reportedly irritated the judge in an October court appearance.

Whatever the explanation for the split, the loss of a lawyer comes at an inopportune moment: Briefs in the case are due Dec. 31, after which Judge Stanley Ott of Montgomery County Orphan's Court is expected to hear oral arguments and then rule on whether the plaintiffs have legal standing to challenge the court's previous decision allowing the move.

Whatever happens to the Friends of the Barnes' case, attorney Carolyn Carluccio is forging ahead with Montgomery County's separate suit to keep the Barnes where founder Albert Barnes installed it.

UPDATE: Friends of the Barnes today would say only that they were "unhappy with our current representation, with whom we are having a fee dispute."