Judges Seem Skeptical of Howrey Trustee in Big Law Fee Fight (1)

Jones Day’s Shay Dvoretzky argued on behalf of eight big law firms at the D.C. Court of Appeals today that the dissolved firm Howrey doesn’t have a property interest in cases that weren’t finished at the time it dissolved.

A three-judge panel peppered both Dvoretzky and the opposing counsel representing Howrey’s bankrupcty trustee with questions, but appeared to struggle more with the trustee’s arguments that the firm’s estate should get a cut of former Howrey lawyers’ work.

Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby at one point called the trustee’s arguments “a bit far-reaching.”

A law firm partnership has contractual rights in ongoing ...