Dewey Docket Roundup: It Takes a Village, Part II

By Jennifer Smith

As the liquidation of defunct law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP grinds on, it appears that Law Blog isn’t the only one wondering how many professionals it takes to wind down a law firm.

Late last week, U.S. trustee Tracy Hope Davis, the Justice Department’s watchdog for the proceedings, filed a whopping 56-page objection to the Dewey estate’s proposal to hire a raft of bankruptcy advisers,  consultants and lawyers on the case, as noted by the AmLaw Daily and Reuters.

Chief among the trustee’s objections: the potential for costly duplication of services, and “serious concerns” that the retention of Proskauer Rose LLP as employment counsel to the estate involves several likely conflicts and could put Proskauer at odds with interests of the 63 former Dewey partners, lawyers and staff who joined the firm in May.

The Dewey estate wants to retain three law firms, two insolvency advisers, a public relations firm, a collection agent and a special consultant on clawbacks of money paid to partners as the firm headed for bankruptcy.

Many of those professionals are already working on the wind-down and were paid retainers before the firm filed for Chapter 11 protection. For instance, Dewey paid its bankruptcy lawyers at Togut, Segal & Segal LLP $406,052 for services rendered through April 30—plus a $1 million retainer, according to court records.

Keep reading at Law Blog.