SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco seems ready to tear down a controversial bankruptcy doctrine wielded against law firms that hire partners away from collapsing competitors.
At a lively hearing Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer appeared to side with a swarm of law firms arguing that they should not have to pay the Heller Ehrman estate for the partners they hired away after its 2008 demise. As in other law firm bankruptcies, lawyers for Heller Ehrman are pursuing clawback actions under Jewel v. Boxer, a decades-old case permitting a failed firm to recover profits from business that partners take with them to new employers.
