Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former New York landlord has some potentially chilling news for the bankrupt firm’s former partners: They may be personally liable for $45 million related to the lease on the firm’s midtown Manhattan headquarters—and liability waivers included as a part of a recently approved $71.5 million settlement deal with Dewey’s estate won’t protect them.
The lease in question dates to 1989, a period during which major law firms were structured as general partnerships, meaning anyone hoping to become an owner of the operation would have to agree to back the firm’s debts in exchange for the opportunity to share in the profits. That was the case for Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood—which later shortened its name to Dewey Ballantine and became Dewey & LeBoeuf through its 2007 merger with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae—when it entered into a 20-year lease with Tishman Speyer Trammell Crow, the then-owner of 1301 Avenue of the Americas.
