More than two years have passed since Dewey & LeBoeuf’s stunning collapse, but the storms surrounding the largest law firm bankruptcy in history show no sign of abating. A range of actions are pending in U.S. courts, including a criminal case against former Dewey leaders, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s parallel civil suit, and the bankruptcy estate’s clawback actions to recover compensation from former partners.
Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, a series of suits filed by U.K.-based Barclays plc over loans that the bank made to Dewey partners—ostensibly to cover the attorneys’ capital contributions—is moving through English courts. Although this litigation has remained largely out of the spotlight, it reveals new aspects of the Dewey debacle, including the perilous state of Dewey’s finances as early as 2009. Court filings, interviews with two former partners who are not involved in the litigation and internal documents related to the loans raise troubling questions about what Dewey leaders did or didn’t do to prevent the faltering giant from failing.
