The liquidation trustee for the bankrupt global law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf has sued to recover more than $205K paid to crisis PR firm Sitrick Brincko Group.
The trustee, Alan Jacobs, argued in a complaint filed April 17 in federal bankruptcy court in New York that the PR payments were made within 90 days of Dewey & LeBoeuf's Chapter 11 filing, time frame known as a "preference period." Jacobs contends that the payments enabled Sitrick to receive more funds than the firm would have been paid as part of an unsecured debt in bankruptcy.
D&L filed for bankruptcy on May 28, 2012, a high-profile collapse of a global firm that employed more than 1,000 lawyers. The firm hired Sitrick as media swarmed around its financial woes in March of 2012. D&L in June of that year petitioned the court to retain Sitrick through the Chapter 11 process to wind down the firm's operations.
The trustee, which included any additional PR payments that are found during discovery, said it sent a letter to Sitrick Brincko in September 2013 demanding return of the funds, which included payments in April 2012 of $38K and in May 2012 of $167K.
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