Over the last two months, we and our colleagues at the Daily Business Review have written several stories about recent events at Florida firm Ruden McClosky: about partners leaving the firm for a half-dozen other firms; about one Ruden lawyer labeling the firm’s management “morons”; about the firm asking partners to sign personal guarantees on its bank loans; about a drop in total head count from more than 175 lawyers to about 100; and, of course, about rumors that the firm may be on the brink of dissolution. Ruden has insisted that it will survive by cutting its overhead, reducing expenses and hiring key laterals.
Now, a new problem has arisen: An association devoted to the study and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease has filed a lawsuit accusing the firm and two former Ruden principals of misappropriating $1.1 million from the Alzheimer’s group and using the money, in part, to fund a startup run by the daughter of a former Ruden lawyer, according to this story in the Palm Beach Post.
