Dechert embarrassed by vulture fund demo
26 February 2010
Demonstrators launched a protest against Dechert this week in a bid to shame the firm out of acting for vulture funds. By, err, selling cakes outside the firm's London offices.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign is trying to stop vulture funds buying up debt on the cheap, and then using the British courts to sue impoverished nations. Last November Dechert won a $20million award against Liberia on behalf of two vulture funds, and has also brought cases against Peru, the Republic of Congo and Argentina. The Jubliee Debt Campaign reckon that this is inconsistent with the firm's professed desire to be socially responsible, and the protesters made the point via the international language of baking.

This is what was on offer at Queen Victoria Street on Wednesday:


Nick Dearden, director of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said that firms "cannot claim on the one hand to be socially responsible and on the other hand to be assisting vulture funds profiting from the misery and poverty of those living in the poorest countries on earth. Vulture funds are anathema to anyone interested in fighting global poverty, and making money from vulture cases is shameful behaviour".

A spokesman for Dechert said that the firm had no comment as he wiped the crumbs from his chin.