- a few years ago, the previous head-of-staff ('christel') became an employee of Andrew Lee's company
- sometime last year they left the company and also stopped being active as a staff member
- the rest of the staff elected a new head ('tomaw')
- Andrew Lee didn't recognise tomaw as christel's successor (and maybe tried to appoint his own choice of successor)
So I think it isn't so much about anything Lee has done, so much as the fact that he's no longer taking a hands-off role, as (the staff apparently think) he promised.
Also perhaps that his claim to be in a position to take charge is based more on his ability to pay for lawyers than a solid legal foundation (it's clear that he bought something, but not so clear what, and not clear that it was the seller's to sell).
I think the underlying problem is that freenode's previous parent organisation was dissolved in 2013, apparently without setting up an official successor.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130322063238/http://blog.freen...