A San Francisco landlord for defunct white shirt law firm Heller Ehrman won a key court ruling earlier this month that means bankruptcy is now possible. What this means is the landlord accelerated all future rent due and has tied the Heller Ehrman partner hands from a midnight move or fire sale of its assets.

A Superior Court granted the landlord, 333 Bush Associates, a writ of attachment for $48 million on Dec. 19. The move makes the landlord a secured creditor, freezes a portion of Heller’s assets for the landlord, and leaves other unsecured creditors at a disadvantage, essentially waiting in line behind the landlord for dibs on leftover assets. This is ultimate hardball and is a tactic available in Maricopa County Superior Court under certain circumstances.

“The fact that they have reached the point where the landlord has gotten a writ, has obtained legal process to take their money on this scale, means that it is very likely they will file bankruptcy or be forced into bankruptcy,” said William McGrane, of McGrane Greenfield, who represented the three landlords that forced Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison into bankruptcy in 2003. Who would ever hire a law firm who cannot even pay its rent? This is a shame. At the law firm of William A. Miller in Scottsdale, Arizona, we applaud the landlord for playing hard ball against a powerful law firm. We handle all landlord tenant matters and can be reached at 602-319-6899.

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