Will it take a Miracle for Dewey’s Former Partners to Regain their Capital?

Now that most of Dewey’s partners have left, as the law firm spirals to certain doom, what can they expect about getting back their capital contribution? This contribution, which can range upwards to $100,000 to $250,000, is what a hired in partner is expected to pay to invest in the firm; he may take a loan to pay it. Now that Dewey is pretty much bankrupt — it seems immanent that they will soon file — defective partners are naturally wondering what is to become of their share?

It is no idle question. As AM Law reported Andy Ness to say, who was a partner with LeBoeuf before they partnered up with Dewey, “I did not see a dime of capital returned and I don’t expect to see a dime.”

In fact, most of the partners that left LeBoeuf before they merged with Dewey still haven’t received their capital. Apparently Dewy went deadbeat back in 2008 when it stopped paying back the capital former partners had put into Dewey.

In 2011, Dewey assured those partners in a quarterly statement that the owed money was being put into a bank account for them, only for those partners to inquire Barclays and to be told that no payments had been paid at all in 2011. Janis Meyer, Dewey’s general counsel, attributed to the error the formality of the statements, which did not leave them space to explain the situation. They also promised to pay interest on the belated payments.