A threat of eviction is off for the remnants of three-months-defunct Thelen, which has 22 employees working to wind down the firm’s operations at its 2nd Street office in San Francisco. The employees are settling accounts, taking collections and checking mail in a small fraction of the space formerly rented by the firm, which closed shop in early December.
The landlord had filed the first step to eviction, called an “unlawful detainer,” in San Francisco Superior Court in late November. The action was dismissed Tuesday after Thelen and the landlord reached a deal, according to Peter Gilhuly, a bankruptcy partner at Latham & Watkins who is representing the firm in its dissolution. Gilhuly would not give details of the accommodation reached, but said the wind-down team will be able to stay in the building “for a number of months.”
Gilhuly had said last week, “We’ve done everything we can to make the best of a bad situation with the landlords.”
As for the dissolution, Thelen’s main objective is to collect money and pay down Citibank, which was originally owed $60 million and has been paid $25 million. Partners have been “for the most part” cooperative in collecting money from clients, he said.
“We’ve paid down Citibank quite a good amount, but still have a ways to go,” Gilhuly said. “It’s going to be a few more months before we know the economics of the case. You don’t really know how the receivables are going to collect out until you get to the end of things.”
— Amanda Royal
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