Heller Highwater (hellerdrone.wordpress.com)
Last Modified: September 14, 2008
- Don't be a dill weed.
- Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
- Ladies and children first.
- This is a rescue, not a bitch session.
- Help don't harm.
- Save the snarks for the attorneys and
Above The Law.
Heller Highwater is not:
- a place to practice viscious and vindictive "whisper down the lane" rumour-mongering;
- a place to bad mouth co-workers;
- a place for diatribes against specific people or specific incidents;
- a place to heap pity on poor Heller Ehrman staff by outsiders;
- a place that discriminates or sets margins noting who is outside and who is inside - we even welcome supportive Heller Ehrman attorneys!;
- meant to further the demise of Heller Ehrman, LLP.
Heller Highwater is:
- a place for support, a place of empowerment, a place of passion;
- a place to learn about job leads, resume preparation, skill building, training, new opportunities, and how to succeed in a new workplace;
- a place to keep up on the latest news as to how Heller Ehrman management intends to treat its support staff as it winds down its operations - will it be every woman for herself? or will it be "let me hold the door for you and is there anything else I can do for you"?
- a place of refuge.
Note: in no way, shape or form is
Heller Highwater sanctioned, supported or even recognized, (but it is very likely monitored) by the management of
Heller Erhman, LLP. The opinions represented here and on each and every page of Heller Highwater do not constitute the opinions of Heller Ehrman, LLP or its shareholders or its management. In addition, the comments left by visitors do not reflect the opinions of Heller Highwater.
This leaves the former incomings in a bad spot. The amounts promised them were contractual; they are entitled to them. But these amounts would not appear to qualify for Cal. DLSE enforcement procedures. They could sue, but would not be able to enforce any judgment against assets (such as AR’s) until the bank lien is satisfied first.
About the best I can think of for them would be a class action suit, aiming to get summary judgment (since the liability doesn’t even seem to be denied, or deniable). But not attempting to enforce the judgment until it can be determined that bank lien is out of the way. (Don’t hire Nichols Kaster, IMHO. There are excellent plaintiff – labor attorneys in S.F.)
Someone among the former incomings would have to take the lead to contact the others, line up counsel, etc. It would be work, and it would be a while before any results were obtained. But in the DC’s letter they essentially admit these amounts are owed the former incomings and would be paid but for the bank lien. So taking legal action might not be met by much resistance from the DC, though the bank would almost certainly step in to prevent any early enforcement of a judgment.
If I were a former incoming, I would hate to see the firm get away without paying these amounts. And legally it is not entitled to avoid these claims.
Other thoughts?
I was a litigator, and don’t have any knowledge of LLCs beyond the bar exam, but I would love to see the former partners held liable for all of the money owed to former employees and the shafted incoming associates. Has anyone done any research to see if this might be a possibility?
Are there any attorneys who would even consider taking this kind of case pro bono? If not, there may be a few incoming associates who have the money to hire an attorney, but not me.
Also, the $10,000 stipend would be extremely helpful (as would the $7500 move coverage), but best case scenario, we win–how much would any one of us see after all the time and effort of putting together a lawsuit? The struggle that I have is that that time would be better spent job searching. Not that I have been successful yet, so who’s to say the time has been better spent?
As for a class action lawsuit, would we even have enough people to constitute a class? And would only the named plaintiffs receive any decent amount of money?
After all the lawsuits, is there going to be any money left for us? Because if there isn’t enough to go around, as much as I would like for Heller to have kept their word, the employees who have earned their wages and vacation pay deserve it a lot more.
Just some thoughts….