Altheimer flogs its chattels to help pay off $30m debt

Roll up! Roll up! The great Altheimer & Gray sale has begun and there are bargains galore for everyone.
The sale of the century kicked off last week, when the contents of the collapsed Chicago firm at 10 South Wacker Drive were posted on liquidator and auctioneer Hilco Industrial's website.
Up for grabs is a vast array of office furniture and equipment, from huge conference tables to beautiful leather seats to massive plasma screens - just the thing for those lawyers for whom size really does matter.
If any lawyers are worried about the weight they have gained over the holidays, look no further than Altheimer's 'complete fitness centre', bur-sting with brand new equip
ment, purchased just this year.
There's also a swathe of books on sale from the extensive library, although so far no one has plumped for the firm's copy of What Every Successful Lawyer Needs to Know About Accounting.
Altheimer announced plans to close in June, after it was found to be buckling under its $30m (£18.7m) debt. It is not clear just how much the liquidation sale will raise. Offers end on 21 August.
Whatever can be raised will go towards funding the series of claims Altheimer is now facing. These include legal action by its landlord Equity Office (which incidentally also leased space to another collapsed firm, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison) and from Alps Construction for alleged non-payment of $1m (£623,500) of work.
The most recently issued claim comes from former partner John Morrison, who is seeking thousands of pounds worth of retirement benefits, which stopped being paid shortly after Altheimer announced its plans to close.
If the lawsuits become too much for Altheimer, it can always fall back on its large collection of modern art to top up the coffers. Its extensive collection is said to include four Andy Warhols and a Marc Chagall lithograph, as well as work by a US artist who liked to depict blue dogs.