Partners
Brobeck Bankruptcy Trustee Sues 10 Former Partners, Two Law Firms
Posted Apr 11, 2008, 06:05 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Ten former partners of the bankrupt law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison and the two new firms they joined are facing lawsuits by a bankruptcy trustee.
Ronald Greenspan filed two lawsuits on March 28 against the partners and their firms, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Dorsey & Whitney, the Recorder reports. He is seeking to recover money for about 1,145 creditors who have filed claims in the case.
Greenspan contends the lawyers and firms owe money for work they took with them from Brobeck to the new firms. "When a partner disassociates from a partnership or the partnership dissolves, the net income from all partnership opportunities remains the property of the partnership," he wrote in the lawsuit.
Bankruptcy expert Michael Cooper said other law firms that hired Brobeck partners could also face lawsuits. "If a firm took a Brobeck partner and a Brobeck partner took a Brobeck case ... it's the same footprint as the complaint that [the trustee is] alleging," he told the Recorder.
Two other law firms that hired Brobeck partners settled similar claims in 2004. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius paid $10.2 million and Clifford Chance paid $3.75 million in settlements. About 200 former Brobeck partners have also paid an estimated $24 million to settle various claims, but the Recorder said it wasn’t clear if they were for Brobeck work they took with them.
One of the former partners sued in the new lawsuit, Jeffery Hermann of Orrick, said he already had settled previous claims with Greenspan. "This is totally different," he told the publication.
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