Dewey Pay Guarantees May Be Worth a Dime on the Dollar

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP partners whose guaranteed contracts undermined the firm may get about a dime on the dollar for what they’re owed, no better than the janitors who cleaned their offices, bankruptcy specialists said.

Vendor claims against Dewey, also known as trade paper, are currently quoted at 10 cents to 12 cents on the dollar, said Joseph Sarachek, managing director of claims trading at CRT Capital Group LLC, which buys and sells distressed debt. The firm’s partners may even rank below trade and other general unsecured creditors, said Stephen Lubben, a bankruptcy law professor at Seton Hall University in Newark, New Jersey.