[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

Dewey & LeBoeuf's bankruptcy plan, 2 weeks away from confirmation, may be extended infinitely, if several former partners get their way.  Six onetime Dewey partners filed legal papers this week urging a judge to reject the plan, which outlines how the defunct firm intends to pay back its creditors. The filed complaint also accuses former management of fraudulent conduct.  Federal Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan's Bankruptcy Court, is scheduled to hear arguments on 2/27.

Joff Mitchell of the advisory firm Zolfo Cooper, who is leading Dewey's restructuring team, had reached what he thought was the final deal needed - with a group of retired partners.  Under the agreement, the retirees agreed to make a payment to fund what's owed to the firm’s creditors.

Currently, at issue are various complaints, including:

• Michael Fitzgerald, a former partner, objects to the outsized compensation packages Dewey’s management spent on poaching star lawyers from other firms - i.e., did Dewey leadership misrepresent its financial state when luring recruits? 

[C-I Note: Mr. Fitzgerald answers "yes" - he claims to have been "fraudulently induced" into joining the firm."]

• 2 former partners say the plan "was designed and conceived to perpetrate a fraud on the firm's former partners."
• 1 former partner who joined Dewey just 10 months before its collapse, objects to the "ill conceived" plan.
• 2 partners object, saying the plan is not in the "best interest" of creditors, who claim they're still owed $600Mn.

For his part, Mr. Mitchell remains "confident that Dewey’s plan of liquidation will be confirmed at the end of the month, despite the recent objections filed."

For further details, go to [Dealbook, 2/16/13].