In Heller Ehrman LLP v. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, the Supreme Court today holds that a dissolved law firm does not retain a property interest in legal matters that are in progress, but not completed, at the time of dissolution. The court’s unanimous opinion starts in a high-brow — and depressing — manner, quoting from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”: “Like ‘cloud-capp’d towers,’ ‘gorgeous palaces,’ and perhaps someday even ‘the great globe itself,’ many arrangements endure for some time but eventually dissolve. So too with certain law partnerships.” Not surprisingly, the opinion’s author is Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, who last summer referenced Homer’s “The Odyssey” in writing a tax decision.
The court disapproves a 1993 opinion by the Second District, Division Five, Court of Appeal.
The law firm finance question was before the court at the Ninth Circuit’s request. The federal appellate panel probably wasn’t expecting Shakespeare; especially when “Annie Hall” would have done just as well.