Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn yesterday approved the liquidation plan for failed law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, setting the stage for the firm's many creditors to begin recovering some of the hundreds of millions they are owed from the largest law firm collapse in U.S. history, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Dewey sought chapter 11 protection on May 28 of last year, after an exodus of partners amid pay disputes and concern about the financial health of the debt-laden firm. In the ensuing nine months, the firm's bankruptcy advisers pressed clients to pay outstanding legal bills, sold off assets and art, and brokered a $71.5 settlement with former partners to help pay off the firm’s lenders, landlords and trade creditors, who have filed more than $550 million in claims. The liquidation plan had the backing of Dewey’s creditors, including lenders who hold liens on some $250 million in bank and bond debt and who have funded the bankruptcy proceedings thus far using their cash collateral.
