Morgan & Finnegan Files for Bankruptcy, Lists Multiple Partners Owed Capital

Morgan & Finnegan filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, as news reports emerged that its bank accounts had been frozen and its severance checks were bouncing.

The bankruptcy filing for the dissolved intellectual property boutique listed $6.37 million in assets and $10 million in liabilities, the American Lawyer reports. The court papers list “multiple former partners” as unsecured creditors owed capital totaling $3.9 million, according to the story.

Above the Law, the first to report the bankruptcy news, posted the filing (PDF).

The firm says it is owed money from two former partners whose draws exceeded their capital accounts: Day Pitney partner Keith McWha and Cadwalader special counsel Tod Melgar, the story reports.

The firm’s revenues dropped by nearly a half last year as it lost partners to law firms such as Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Dickstein Shapiro. The firm earned $36.99 million in revenue in 2008, compared to $60.63 million the year before, according to the court documents. In February, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell hired 30 of the firm’s lawyers, including 13 out of 17 remaining partners.

JPMorgan Chase, the firm's lender, is suing Morgan & Finnegan for more than $4 million.