Some of the funds may come from the 70 law firms where former Howrey lawyers are now working, according to the Washington Post.
Last week, a request by Allan Diamond – a Houston lawyer representing creditors in the bankruptcy case – to subpoena 70 firms that had taken on some 211 ex-Howrey partners was approved. The move came slightly more than a year after the 500-plus-lawyer firm – which had 16 offices and an annual revenue figure of nearly $575 million in 2009 –filed for bankruptcy.

Fiduciary duty

Under the subpoena, the firms will be required to provide invoices, contracts and other documents detailing client matters brought to them by former Howrey lawyers. The revenue generated from business that originated at Howrey could then be used to repay the bankrupt firm’s creditors.
Said Mr Diamond: ‘When a lawyer leaves a law firm and goes to successor firm and takes cases and files and business that is unfinished with him or her, and that work is worked on at the new firm ... the departing lawyers have a fiduciary duty to take all the profits from the unfinished business and deliver them back to their old law firm in bankruptcy, Howrey, for the benefit of Howrey’s creditors.’
The firms have 21 days after receiving the subpoenas to respond, with the outcome of the matter potentially having ramifications for the demise this spring of fellow US global law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf.