Most of Dewey's Bonus Plan Wins Court Approval
A bankruptcy judge in Manhattan has approved most of a plan to pay nearly $700,000 in bonuses to Dewey & LeBoeuf employees assisting in the wind down of the law firm.
Judge Martin Glenn disagreed with just one part of the plan: a proposal to set aside up to $100,000 to pay discretionary bonuses. The Am Law Daily and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog have stories.
The U.S. trustee had objected to the bonuses and called for more information. The firm’s chief restructuring officer provided further details.
Up to $250,000 of the bonus money would be used for contingency payments to three Dewey employees working on collections. Other money would be paid based on additional weeks of service.
Glenn cited the need to retain employees. “The cost of the retention plan is reasonable in light of the possible consequences the debtor would face if it were unable to stop more employees from leaving,” Glenn wrote. “Currently, employees are engaged in a very wide range of tasks such as the collection of receivables, disposing of boxes of former client files, sorting through the debtor’s fixtures, furniture, and equipment located throughout the country and in various other countries throughout the world, mining financial data about the debtor, complying with statutory reporting requirements, administering the debtor’s claims process, and identifying causes of action and claims that the estate may have against third parties.”
