Attorneys for consulting giant McKinsey & Co. are asking a federal judge to dismiss what they say is a baseless lawsuit against the firm filed by one of its largest competitors.  

As ABL Advisor reported in May, Jay Alix, founder of the turnaround firm, AlixPartners, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York accusing McKinsey   of engaging in unfair business practices and multiple criminal violations that resulted in significant losses to his firm.

Alix alleges that between 2001 and the present, McKinsey’s Recovery & Transformation Services concealed its connections to “Interested Parties” identified in bankruptcy proceedings “in order to avoid revealing numerous disqualifying conflicts of interest that would preclude it from being hired as a bankruptcy professional in those proceedings.”

The plaintiff asserts that McKinsey's allegedly unfair business practices cost his firm millions in potential fee revenue.

In a motion filed Monday before U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman, lawyers for McKinsey said the lawsuit is "the litigation equivalent of a thermonuclear device."

"The arguments in McKinsey's motion are borderline delusional," said Alix's attorney, Sean O'Shea, a partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner, said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

Alix has until August 20 to file a response to the motion in the from of an amended complaint, according to court filings.