Curling Up on Heller's S.O.F.A.

Heller Ehrman filed a statement of financial affairs on Monday, affectionately known as the SOFA filing (.pdf). The juicy little document (80 pages) tells us in minute detail each payment Heller made to its creditors over the last 90 days, including fees to members of the dissolution committee and to Greenberg Traurig, the firm that first represented it in its dissolution and its Dec. 28 bankruptcy petition.

One of the more intriguing points is the dissolved firm’s assertion that it only owes its creditors $1.8 million. We wondered what Bank of America would think of that assertion, but their lawyer, Pillsbury’s Dave Minnick, didn’t return a late call. Heller’s attorneys have said they owed the banks (BofA and CitiBank) about $7 million when it filed for bankruptcy, but that’s only if they lose their bid to get the banks kicked off the secured creditors ranks for their clerical error, in which case they are hoping to get $50 million back.

Employees claims, lawyers fees and more documents, after the jump.

Or how about the 1,000 employees who are guaranteed at least $10,000 each in a bankruptcy (yes, that’s $10 million). Or how about the landlords, one of whom was on the verge of getting $48 million because of writ attachment it was granted by a San Francisco court. That’s only half of what it claimed it was owed when it sued Heller for rent.

In another filing, the summary of schedules (.pdf), Heller says it’s got $132 million in assets (that includes $2.3 million in artwork), and expects to collect $70 million in accounts receivable WIP (work in process, i.e.: ain’t got it yet, but we sure hope we do.) FYI: Heller’s dissolution plan (.pdf) aimed to collected $124 million in receivables, that means they’ve ticked off about $50 million.

Other points of interest from the SOFA:

1. $645,000 was paid to Greenberg Traurig (off the case now, but still retained as special counsel)
2. $200,000 paid to new bankruptcy counsel Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones
3. $170,000 to Peter Benvenutti for his work on the dissolution committee
4. $200,000 to committee member Jonathan Hayden
5. $93,000 to committee member Lynn Loacker

Heller collected $334 million in 2008, a 32 percent drop over what it collected in 2007, the SOFA filing shows. RIP: We don’t think AmLaw will be adding that to its chart this year …

— Amanda Royal

Comments

[Observer]

Heller may get $50 million back from the banks (assuming debtor wins on the UCC termination issue, as I think it should). But then banks' claims in the bankruptcy are increased by that $50 million. The overall effect would be: assets increase to $132MM + $50MM = $182MM, while claims increase $41MM + $50MM = $91MM.

Assuming AR's are all collected, the net result is the banks would get the $50MM back again in the end anyway.