Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Howrey Owes Citibank $75M

You can read about it right here. My big concern is how Howrey will meet its payroll obligations and fund benefits during the WARN period now that Citibank is in the driver's seat.

15 comments:

  1. Once Citi takes control they will not approve anything not directly related to collections. No accrued vacation, no WARN payments for employees not on the winddown team. Trust me that's what they did with Thelen.

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  2. Interesting new article here with some details.
    http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2011/03/howrey-gilhuly-cunniff.html
    I am surprised that the media coverage continues to focus on just the last three years. Media points to the strong revenue in 2008, and then sees massive drop-off in 2009 and 2010, so assumes that something must have happened in 2009. But the media is missing that 2007 was also a bad year, and 2008 was looking to be terrible until a big contingency win put the firm back into the black late in 2008. The long-term trend from 2007-2010 was always moving down. 2008 was an aberration.

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  3. I actually thought it was a fair article. I'm still deeply saddened by the dissolution and wish my former co-workers well.

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  4. I'm not sure that the unchallenged account of Ruyak's counsel who was secretly retained in December 2010 is a "fair article," but it is interesting. I'm sure Ruyak is pleased that Judge Gilhuly has exonerated all involved from any culpability. The composition of the wind-down commitee is a riot. The only one missing from that crew is Ruyak's wife.

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  5. It's official--Boland & Co. to Baker Botts

    http://www.legalweek.com/legal-week/news/2034767/-strong-howrey-antitrust-team-opts-join-baker-botts-washington-dc

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  6. Interesting article on DC office space. Says that there are 7 years left on lease in DC, and that half of the lease value for those 7 years will be spent on retrofitting the space for different tenants.
    http://www.bisnow.com/washington_dc_commercial_real_estate_news_story.php?p=13352

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  7. 2008 was one of the best years in firm history - as was 2007...and a 35 mill contingency payment didnt do that.

    whine all you want about Ruyak, the man is a brilliant business man, made howrey infinitely more profitable than it was and then it fell apart because big partners wouldnt stay since they were used to making over 5 mill a year.

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  8. A brilliant businessman who sank tens of millions of dollars into a computer system his firm didn't need?

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  9. @9:28: UR are an idiot. 2007 was off budget by more than 10%. Nobody made as much money as you say, unless RR was skimming from the top. If you really believe that, you must RR his own self.

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  10. @9:28: You are wrong. 2007 was a terrible year. Here is the start of a LegalWeek article from February 2008: "Howrey hit by 17.5% tumble in profits. US firm Howrey has become the second major US firm to post disappointing financial results for last year, with the intellectual property specialist suffering a double-digit drop ..."

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  11. I got my last check just before WARN notices went out. I went straighrt to Citibank and cashed it. I'm out

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  12. Citibank will not authorize payroll for employees or partners beyond today March 31st. So much for the WARN notice!

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  13. Did people get paid today? I didn't get my direct deposit, but I left the firm during this pay period so I don't know if they cut the last check as a paper check or something.

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  14. Howrey employees can join the Blum Collins LLP class action mailing list by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/howrey1

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  15. Who the hell is going to pay me all my earned, accrued PTO?? Ruyak needs to come back from Hawaii and get his personal check book out to pay people for the money they've earned.

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