WARNing Thelen's partners

Remember Thelen and Reid? That mismatched couple who never fully reconciled after a nasty honeymoon tiff and succumbed to an economic ?juxtaposition of circumstances? last fall? Well, they?re back?in the news. And not in a good way. Thelen apparently failed to pay its former employees accrued vacation pay or provide 60 days? notice prior to employment severance, as required under the federal WARN Act. Meanwhile, former partners continued to collect from clients to pay down the roughly $35 million the firm owed Citigroup upon dissolution. Logically, this rubbed the laid-off staffers the wrong way, and they filed state and federal class actions? turning in the latter case to the same attorney repping former Heller Ehrman employees in a similar suit (a salting-the-wound twist: The guy is a former Heller attorney).

As reported by The Recorder?s Amanda Royal, Thelen?s former partnership responded to the state suit last week through its Latham attorney, pleading for an exception to applicable WARN provisions in the following ultra-lawyerly manner:

What the filing said: "Thelen's performance was made impracticable without fault of Thelen by the occurrence of an event the nonoccurrence of which was a basic assumption on which the contract was made.?

What it meant: ?This thing came out of nowhere, and we can?t pay these people.?

According to a Daily Journal piece (via , an online forum created for and by former Hellerites and absolutely not an objective source), the stance of Heller?s partnership seemed as much ?we won?t? as ?we can?t.? Now Thelen?s recently ?separated? are going after their former partners? pocketbooks?including those belonging to dozens of attorneys who have demonstrably found a way to replace their lost income.

-posted by ben fuchs