The Dewey & LeBoeuf estate has failed in its effort to squelch a proposed class action that claims the firm gave 550 employees inadequate notice before terminating them weeks before filing for chapter 11 protection on May 28, 2012, Am Law Daily reported today. In a ruling issued on Monday, Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn denied the Dewey estate's motion to dismiss the suit, which seeks 60 days of wages and benefits for those affected by the layoffs. Vittoria Conn, a former Dewey staff member employed in the firm's documents department, filed the suit in New York federal court May 10, 2012—three days after she was terminated and about two weeks before the firm filed for bankruptcy. The suit, which is based on state and federal laws related to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) was transferred to bankruptcy court on May 29 as an adversary proceeding. In allowing the case to continue, Judge Glenn disagreed with the two primary arguments offered by lawyers for the Dewey estate: that the former employees' grievances should be brought as part of the regular bankruptcy claims process rather than as an adversary proceeding, and that there is no basis for a WARN suit to qualify as a class action.
