Law Firms

A potential bidding war is brewing for Furniture Brands International Inc., the big furniture manufacturer that filed for Chapter 11 earlier this week with a plan to sell most of its assets to Oaktree Capital Management. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article via The Wall Street Journal.

Against criticism from the U.S. government’s executive-bonus watchdog, attorneys for American Airlines’ parent company defended the $20 million severance payment promised to departing Chief Executive Tom Horton, arguing the bill would be paid once the company merges with US Airways Group Inc. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.

More than two years after Howrey LLP’s dissolution and bankruptcy, the lawyers tasked with cleaning up the law firm’s messy demise are still picking up the pieces.

In a four-month span, bankruptcy trustee Allan Diamond has sued 16 of the 70 some law firms that hired some of the 200-plus partners who once practiced at Howrey. The lawsuits seek to claim Howrey’s share of the profits from the ongoing work the partners brought with them to their new firms. Any money recovered from the lawsuits will go the firm’s creditors. Let’s see where the litigation stands, shall we?

A federal bankruptcy judge Tuesday ruled that repurchase agreements don’t qualify for “customer status” in a failed brokerage business, a blow to a group of banks that had sought equal footing with customers in the liquidation of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s broker-dealer. Read the Daily Bankruptcy Review article here.