The Dewey & LeBoeuf estate has failed in its effort to squelch a proposed class action that claims the firm gave 550 employees inadequate notice before terminating them weeks before filing for Chapter 11 protection on May 28, 2012.
In a ruling issued Monday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn denied the Dewey estate’s motion to dismiss the suit, which seeks 60 days of wages and benefits for those affected by the layoffs. Vittoria Conn, a former Dewey staff member employed in the firm’s documents department, filed the suit in New York federal court May 10, 2012—three days after she was terminated and about two weeks before the firm filed for bankruptcy. The suit, which is based on state and federal laws related to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act, was transferred to bankruptcy court on May 29 as a so-called adversary proceeding.
