After Hectic Week at Dewey, Focus Turns to Unpaid $9.6M Bill of Partner's Brother
Former Dewey & LeBoeuf chairman Steven Davis isn’t the only partner at the troubled law firm subject to some finger-pointing.
Some Davis supporters are telling the Am Law Daily (reg. req.) about an unpaid legal bill racked up by the late brother of former Dewey vice chairman Morton Pierce. Pierce’s brother, Robert Pinkas, was a former Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner who went on to found an investment firm. Pinkas was represented by Dewey while under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the story says.
Pinkas died in March from complications from a double organ transplant. Former Dewey partners told the Am Law Daily that the law firm wrote off the $9.6 million legal bill because of insurance issues. Pierce refused to comment when contacted by the publication. He left the firm on Thursday to join White & Case.
Davis and the law firm are the subject of a preliminary investigation by the New York County District Attorney’s office. On Friday, Dewey warned U.S. employees that it’s possible the firm could close. On Wednesday, JPMorgan Chase Bank filed a Uniform Commercial Code lien against the firm, an action intended to protect the lender in case of a Dewey bankruptcy, the Am Law Daily says in a different article.
