United States – 28 firms object to legal threat from Dewey estate

A host of firms including Linklaters, Allen & Overy, and Baker & McKenzie have filed a collective objection against Dewey & LeBoeuf’s estate over its attempt to win compensation for client work originated at the defunct firm. 

The estate is threatening legal action over matters allegedly transferred to the firms when former Dewey partners left following its collapse last year.The group of 28 law firms asked a New York bankruptcy court to deny an application by Dewey’s estate to unearth financial and proprietary information relating to the firms and various clients. 

In a July filing, Dewey’s estate argued it was owed compensation for matters that originated or were carried out before the firm filed for bankruptcy in May last year. Citing separate pending judgments in the US Court of Appeals, the firms said the move by Dewey’s estate was “premature and inappropriate” and asked Judge Martin Glenn to deny or postpone a ruling on the application. The firms also argued that releasing copies of client engagement letters, billing and invoice information, firm revenue, profitability information and partner compensation data, would be “entirely inappropriate”. 

In another objection, the firms state that the named partners left prior to the firm’s collapse, and that this means claims of “unfinished business” do not apply. Other firms to have joined the objection – which is being co-ordinated by Wilkie Farr & Gallagher restructuring partners John Longmire and Stephen Greiner – include Shearman & Sterling, Latham & Watkins, DLA Piper and Weil Gotshal & Manges.Nine firms named in the July filing – including Eversheds, Sidley Austin and auditor KPMG – are not listed as parties in the objecting group. 

Many of the 82 former Dewey partners named in the document are now at other major law firms, including Linklaters global tax head Gordon Warnke, A&O Washington DC finance partner Gregory Smith, Eversheds Beijing managing partner Ingrid Zhu-Clark and DLA US finance co-chair John Altorelli.