Just a week thrashing out a deal to absolve ex Dewey & LeBoeuf partners of financial liability, the plan has been thrown into crisis when it was revealed that large
numbers of the partners may refuse to sign up.
And it seems members of the UK partnership are being the most truculent.
It had previously been proposed that, in return for a one-off payment of up to $3 million, Dewey partners would be free from liability in relation to the failed firm. Only the very highfalutin partners would pay that top amount, with everyone else charged according to their seniority. Those who had been recently promoted could pay as little as $25,000.
According to insiders quizzed by Legal Week, some at this lower end will be stumping up the cash. But plenty of others will not be taking part. Partly because members of the UK LLP are somewhat protected by their own limited liability umbrella - and partly because it's thought the deal won't protect them if they take unfinished work to a new firm (and most having already been snapped up on the cheap by other City firms).
The Wall
Street Journal suggests that there have been dark mutterings from US creditors about the low sums
involved. The firm, before it was run into the
ground, had paid some of its most senior partners $6 million a year (and a couple $12 million). So it seems a bit unfair that the guys who broke the bank - the firm's management committee - can escape sanction for what is a relatively low premium (even if the firm's former chairman Steven "Interesting" Davies has been excluded).
The size of the payments previously promised to top partners are illustrated by the case brought by former leading Dewey light Mort Pierce, who has claimed the defunct firm owes him $61 million. $3 million probably isn't that much to him.
Tip Off ROF
It had previously been proposed that, in return for a one-off payment of up to $3 million, Dewey partners would be free from liability in relation to the failed firm. Only the very highfalutin partners would pay that top amount, with everyone else charged according to their seniority. Those who had been recently promoted could pay as little as $25,000.
According to insiders quizzed by Legal Week, some at this lower end will be stumping up the cash. But plenty of others will not be taking part. Partly because members of the UK LLP are somewhat protected by their own limited liability umbrella - and partly because it's thought the deal won't protect them if they take unfinished work to a new firm (and most having already been snapped up on the cheap by other City firms).
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The Redcoats are not coming. |
The size of the payments previously promised to top partners are illustrated by the case brought by former leading Dewey light Mort Pierce, who has claimed the defunct firm owes him $61 million. $3 million probably isn't that much to him.