Weinstein Company bankruptcy filing reveals nearly $20m in unpaid bills to big law firms

Debevoise & Plimpton, O'Melveny & Myers and Boies Schiller Flexner are among a raft of law firms revealed to be owed money by the Weinstein Company as the film studio formerly led by disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein filed for bankruptcy. The Chapter 11 filing, which comes weeks after a $500m deal to sell itself fell through amid questions about undisclosed additional debts, states that the company has both assets and liabilities of $500m-$1bn, and that it owes nearly $20m to half a dozen law firms. The company, which has turned to Cravath Swaine & Moore and Delaware law firm Richards Layton & Finger to represent it in bankruptcy court, has also entered into a stalking horse agreement with Lantern Capital Partners for the Dallas-based private equity firm and turnaround specialist to acquire all of its assets. The company’s board of directors said in a statement that its proposed bankruptcy sale is “an important step toward justice for any victims who have been silenced by Harvey Weinstein.” As part of that effort, the company also announced that it would void all of its non-disclosure agreements as part of its negotiations with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, whose office filed suit in late February against the company and its two founders, brothers Harvey and Robert Weinstein. Several large law firms appear on a list of the company's 30 largest unsecured creditors. Boies Schiller Flexner, a firm whose work on behalf of Harvey Weinstein has come under intense scrutiny for tactics allegedly used against both his alleged victims and journalists looking into Weinstein’s purported misconduct, is listed twice on the listing of largest unsecured creditors. Boies Schiller is cited as being owed nearly $5.7mas a “film participant vendor,” a possible reference to its Boies/Schiller Film Group unit, which has done business with the Weinstein Company, as well as nearly $4.5m for “professional services” rendered to the debtor. A spokesman for Boies Schiller, which was accused in court papers in December of helping cover up widespread sexual misconduct at the company, did not immediately return a request for comment on the matter. O’Melveny, a firm known for its entertainment industry prowess and reportedly retained by the Weinstein Company last November when it first began mulling a potential bankruptcy filing, is owed another $3.2m, while Los Angeles law firm Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger is owed $1.82m. Name partner and high-profile Hollywood litigator Bertram Fields dropped the company as a client in December as a result of unpaid legal bills. Debevoise, where litigation co-chair John Kiernan led a team of lawyers retained by the company last autumn to conduct an internal investigation into the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, is owed nearly $1.44m, while Seyfarth Shaw, a firm where employment partner Gerald Maatman was hired to help ward off sexual harassment suits, is owed another $1.11m. Barnes & Thornburg is the last unsecured creditor on the company's top 30 list. The firm, whose contact is civil litigation and compliance of counsel Leasa Woods Anderson in Washington DC, is owed $859,000. The company also notes another $2m as being owed to a client trust maintained by Lavely & Singer, a well-regarded entertainment litigation firm in Los Angeles whose name partner Martin Singer is known for advising prominent individuals in Hollywood. Cravath, a firm that former Harvey Weinstein consigliere David Boies left in 1997 to start Boies Schiller, previously represented the Weinstein Company in litigation over box office releases and a dispute with its namesake. Paul Zumbro, head of Cravath’s financial restructuring and reorganisation practice, is working with corporate department managing partner George Zobitz and litigation department managing partner Karin DeMasi on the bankrputcy.