Report: Latham Bankruptcy Lawyer Is Running Howrey Meeting to Vote on Possible Dissolution
Although it hasn’t yet been officially confirmed by Howrey, the firm appears to be on the verge of deciding to dissolve in a meeting that, at last report, may still be ongoing tonight.
The Am Law Daily says a bankruptcy partner at Latham & Watkins is running a meeting today at Howrey at which partners are deciding whether to wind up the firm’s affairs.
And a It’s Howrey Doody Time blog post includes the text of what commenters say is a WARN (Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification) Act notice providing required 60-day advance word of a planned company shutdown.
Howrey Doody says the official closing date for the firm will be May 9, 2011 (61 days from tomorrow, when the notices are to be delivered by overnight mail to workers, according to the post), but the Am Law Daily says the firm will close as of March 15 if partners approve the dissolution.
Both posts rely on information from unidentified sources. A Howrey spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the ABA Journal.
Meanwhile the Howrey partner exodus continues. In addition to the announcement earlier this week that four patent litigation partners are joining Perkins Coie, there is news that corporate partner Maria Tan Pedersen will move from the firm’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to the Hong Kong office of K&L Gates and former securities partner Fiona Philip has jumped to Sidley Austin as counsel.
The Am Law Daily also reports that Dewey & LeBoeuf says it expects several unidentified Howrey partners to join its firm.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “2 Howrey Partners Say They Waited As Long As They Could Before Heading for the Exits”
Wall Street Journal (sub. req.): “Law Firms Feel Pinch”
Wall Street Journal Law Blog: “CEO Ruyak Partly Blames Contingency-Fees, Discovery Vendors, for Howrey’s Fall”
Updated at 7:46 p.m. to link to WSJ Law Blog post.
