Former Dewey rainmaker who earned $6M in 2011 files for bankruptcy
Former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner John Altorelli has moved on to DLA Piper, where he is co-chair of its U.S. finance practice. But that move hasn’t ended his financial troubles.
Altorelli, 57, filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 25, the New York Times reports. A rainmaker at Dewey, he earned $6 million in 2011. But he gave up most of his compensation in 2012 in “valiant efforts to save the firm,” according to the Times.
Altorelli faces a $12.9 million suit by Dewey’s bankruptcy trustee after refusing a $1.4 million settlement offer in a suit over alleging bad management contributed to the firm’s collapse. The settlement did not include a separate clawback claim for $2 million, the story says. Meanwhile, the IRS is seeking taxes on canceled debt, and a $1.8 million loan for Altorelli’s capital contribution to Dewey is still outstanding.
Altorelli’s rainmaking may have suffered a hit when the press learned of his relationship with a woman who turned out to be an alleged Russian spy. The woman, Anna Chapman, was arrested in June 2010 and deported the next month. Days after Altorelli left Dewey in 2012, someone leaked to the press that Altorelli had been dating the woman. Altorelli says he knew nothing about the spying.
The Times also sees other reasons for Altorelli’s financial troubles. “Mr. Altorelli, the proverbial grasshopper in Aesop’s fable, didn’t exactly save for a rainy day,” the story says. “The very qualities that made him such an effective rainmaker — generosity, gregariousness, his tireless socializing — contributed to his current predicament.”
