[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ] Dewey & LeBoeuf, with only a handful of personnel left in New York, and no further use for its office leases worldwide, except for a sublease in New York, took the next step in winding up its affairs after filing for Chapter 11 protection last month.  Dewey began the process of terminating 25 of its office leases. Shedding Assets. To date, Dewey's leases include 14 offices in the U.S., as well as overseas offices in cities including Beijing and Abu Dhabi, according to papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.  The firm's trustee requested that the U.S. Bankruptcy judge, Martin Glenn, date the leases' rejection retroactively to May 28, the day it filed for bankruptcy.

"Simply put, because the leases are not necessary for the wind down of [Dewey's] business, they offer no benefit to the estate." -- Dewey, in court papers.

Chances of Rejection. Current bankruptcy laws make it hard for landlords to challenge a bankrupt company's decision to reject leases.  Nevertheless, they could object to Dewey's request to make the rejection retroactive to the day of its bankruptcy filing.  This scenario would clear the fallen New York law firm of the rent it would theoretically owe as a result of its May 28 bankruptcy filing.  The filing bars landlords from levying a claim for that money – though landlords could argue that they could have used that time to try to secure a new tenant. Case in Point: Paramount Group, which owns Dewey's New York office space at 1301 Avenues of the Americas, in Manhattan, filed a claim for nearly $4 million, to make it the 2nd-largest unsecured creditor.  That amount includes property taxes and the firm's May rent, according to the firm's bankruptcy petition. In Washington, the landlord Property Group Partners sued Dewey for $830,000 over unpaid rent, before Dewey filed for bankruptcy. [Reuters, 6/20/12]