Bankruptcy, Biglaw, Dewey & LeBoeuf, Dissolution, Sports

And The Softball Team Played On: Dewey's Softball Team

Let Dewey play... softball. Not law, we're not crazy...

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Aww… it’s like a Biglaw version of a sports movie. Firm makes a lawyer softball team. Firm dissolves in an embarrassing mess. Softball team plays on, overcoming hardships to win.

Apparently, that storyline is really happening for the Dewey & LeBoeuf softball team. The scrappy outfit made up of former Dewey lawyers who have been scattered to the wind went 10 – 1 in the Lawyers Coed Softball League.

How did they do it? Do they have a lot of ringers and/or the highest percentage of UVA Law graduates? Maybe they’re just really pissed off that their firm went under?

The New York Times has the story about Dewey’s softball all-stars:

Dewey’s partners, associates and staff members have scattered; many have found new homes at other firms, while others are still looking for work. The same goes for members of its softball team, and yet, out they come about once a week. And with a regular season record of 10 and 1, the reigning champions of the Lawyers Coed Softball League are actually quite good — at least for a bunch of lawyers. “We’ve had a lot of fun talking about whether to get T-shirts made: The Bankruptcy State [sic] of Dewey LeBoeuf,” said Chuck Burger, a 72-year-old LeBoeuf alumnus, now retired, who has been on some incarnation of the team for 49 seasons.

There have been technical difficulties of playing for a dissolving firm during the hurried exodus from the sinking ship: the team’s equipment bag was temporarily misplaced, leaving the players with neither bases nor bats. But Mr. Burger said the season’s travails had given the team a competitive edge.

“I think a lot of them loaded a lot of their frustrations onto this softball team,” he said.

Oh, I’m sure that we can come up with some better team names for these guys to consider for their T-shirts:

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I really respect these lawyers. When they learned that the flaming carcass of their firm would not be paying the league entry fee, all the lawyers chipped in and covered it themselves.

Dewey’s season finally came to an end Thursday against Cadwalader. Yeah, Cadwalader, where nice things go to die. But the bigger question is whether these members of the Dewey diaspora will get to come together next year:

Though the firm is not coming back, many of Dewey’s players would like to keep the team together next season. And like good lawyers, they have begun to strategize, looking for loopholes that might allow them to play.

Richard I. Alvarez, a lawyer in private practice and the league commissioner, said he was unlikely to stand in their way if the team wanted to stick together, although, he added, “I suppose at some point it becomes a bit silly.”

I think we all know how this post is going to end.

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Defunct Law Firm Keeps Its Troubles Off the Softball Field [New York Times]

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