ALBANY – State Court of Appeals judges appeared skeptical Wednesday about concluding that lawyers are responsible to their former bankrupt firms for fees earned on uncompleted matters they take to their new firms.
The court heard arguments over the state’s “unfinished business” doctrine and its application to the work performed by lawyers who left Thelen and Coudert Brothers when the firms filed for bankruptcy. The lawyers then joined Jones Day, Seyfarth Shaw and other firms.
From left, Shay Dvoretsky of Jones Day, Michael Levinson of Seyfarth Shaw, and Joel Miller of Miller & Wrubel argued that bankrupt firms do not have a claim to fees earned by their former attorneys working at new firms. Tim Roske
