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ST. LOUIS — A construction company founded by Sid Chakraverty, whose rental and development businesses with brother Vic Alston have drawn recent federal scrutiny, has hired one of the region’s top law firms to sue a former employee it says is falsely claiming it has engaged in illegal business practices.

Big Sur Construction last week sued former property manager Julie Frady, accusing her of contacting two former co-workers over the summer and encouraging them to resign from the company.

Frady, who began working for the company in early 2019 and left the company in January, told one of them in August that Chakraverty “had ‘definitely’ been involved in illegal business transactions,� which lawyers for the company called “a lie.�

Big Sur often builds projects for Lux Living, an apartment developer run by Chakraverty and Alston that has built hundreds of new units in several apartment buildings in recent years.

The brothers also own and manage hundreds more units in the region, making them one of St. Louis’ largest landlords.

But their tenants have complained for years of deferred maintenance and management problems at their properties. And, in September, the Post-Dispatch reported that federal investigators had subpoenaed records from the city development agency tied to one of Lux’s projects built by Big Sur north of Forest Park.

The new lawsuit from Big Sur is being handled by one of the region’s preeminent law firms, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, a change from the brothers’ usual reliance on attorney and Clayton Alderman Ira Berkowitz, who has experience in real estate, development and condominium law.

The Bryan Cave attorneys listed as attorneys in the suit — Reggie Harris, Ali Olszeski and Aaron Yuratovich — are all described by the firm as having experience in “white collar� criminal defense, investigations or disputes.

It isn’t the first time critics of the company have faced legal repercussions. A tenant of one of Lux’s properties that spoke to the Post-Dispatch two years ago was subpoenaed by the company in a lawsuit seeking all communication between tenants and the newspaper.

The lawsuit against Frady targets a relatively high-up former employee, who also held the title of “development manager� at Lux Living, according to the company’s website.

In the new lawsuit, Big Sur says Frady’s “misrepresentations and lies� have spread throughout the “company and community� and harmed Big Sur’s bargaining power with employees and subcontractors, delaying project timelines and increasing financing and labor costs. Big Sur says Frady has told subcontractors not to work with the firm, and it has had to pay one key employee $5,000 a month more to retain because of her.

Frady contacted another employee, the lawsuit says, and “probed for purportedly harmful information about the company and/or Mr. Chakraverty.�

The lawsuit also says Frady falsely claims the company was “liquidating� and accuses Frady of violating a noncompete agreement because she currently works for another multifamily housing developer in St. Louis now.

Companies tied to Alston and Chajkraverty recently sold the high-profile, vacant houses on South Kingshighway where they planned a new apartment building. And they put most of their downtown holdings on the market over the summer.

The lawsuit against the former employee comes as Chakraverty and Alston face increasing pressure from multiple fronts. The Missouri Real Estate Commission has sued them, accusing them of leasing apartments without a real estate license. A St. Louis judge recently ordered a downtown condo building they control be placed into receivership, though the receiver recently backed out of the arrangement. And city boards have consistently denied some of the company’s demolition requests to make way for new projects.

An attorney at Bryan Cave representing the brothers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Frady, who has not yet filed a response in the case, declined to comment.