Moye White is going out fighting.
The longtime Denver law firm, which has stopped providing legal services but still exists as an entity, has countersued a LoDo landlord that claimed in February to be owed nearly $4 million.
In the suit, Moye White claims its landlord at 16 Market Square, the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois, failed to follow correct procedure when it booted the law firm and its subtenants last year.
The landlord, Moye White believes, was in a rush to sign a new lease with a desirable new tenant: the newly public tech firm Ibotta.
By missing key steps, the law firm claims, its landlord “placed itself in a legal conundrum where it has two tenants who both might have a right to possess the same space.”
A move to RiNo and a decision to dissolve
Moye White’s real estate, and its final months of operation, are a bit complicated.
The firm originally leased space at 16 Market Square, at 1400 16th St. in Denver, in 2007. Moye White expanded multiple times, ultimately taking 52,304 square feet through June 2026.
In January 2022, however, Moye White announced it would become the first major law firm to relocate to RiNo. It moved into 42,500 square feet in The Current at 3615 Delgany St. in 2023.
The LoDo lease was still in effect. Moye White subleased the space to Revenir Energy and INEOS, two oil and gas firms. Revenir took 17,500 square feet, while INEOS took 34,500 square feet, according to Moye White’s countersuit.
But those firms didn’t pay as much as Moye White had been paying, leaving the law firm responsible for covering the difference — about $60,000 a month in base rent, according to 16 Market Square.
Then came a big announcement. On April 1, 2024, Moye White announced that nearly all its employees, including its managing partner, would be joining Fennemore, a Phoenix-based law firm. The few attorneys who didn’t go to Fennemore landed at firms including Lewis Roca and Frost Brown Todd. Moye White ceased providing legal services that April 15.
Because Moye White wasn’t acquired, no one took over its leases, resulting in an unusual situation. A deal was worked out last summer on the RiNo real estate, owned by Seattle-based Schnitzer West, when Fennemore agreed to lease the majority of Moye White’s onetime space.
Payments stop and Ibotta signs
But things went less smoothly in LoDo. At the same time the firm stopped providing legal services, Moye White acknowledges, it stopped paying the difference in what its subtenants paid and what its lease required.
The firm says in its countersuit it did so “so that it could treat all of its creditors fairly” — and that its landlord was originally OK with it.
“Until Ibotta entered the picture, 16 Market Square did not object to this approach, and worked cooperatively with Moye White,” the law firm wrote.
In May and July of 2024, 16 Market Square sent notices of default to Moye White, which says it rejected the first notice “because no accounting had been provided.” Nevertheless, according to the firm, it pledged its wind-down consultant, Thomas Kim of R2 Advisors, would continue to communicate about the matter.
In October of last year, both sides agree, 16 Market Square sent a letter terminating possession of the premises for Moye White and its subtenants while keeping the lease in place.
Moye White says it didn’t respond. Revenir worked out a deal with the landlord to stay in the space one extra month, until the end of November, according to the law firm. INEOS did the same but stayed through the end of the year.
Moye White says its landlord “acted in hostility.”
“Moye White had not abandoned its space, Moye White had a contractually-guaranteed income stream from its subtenants for the remainder of the term of the Moye White Lease, and 16 Market Square unlawfully terminated this income stream without due process and in breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” the company’s countersuit states.
Moye White’s lawsuit says it subsequently made payments to Revenir and INEOS to resolve claims related to the subtenants being kicked out early. The firm did not specify the amounts.
On Nov. 17, less than a month after the possession termination letter, 16 Market Square signed the lease with Ibotta. The rebate app took nearly 97,000 square feet, which included Moye White’s footprint and additional space.
“Upon information and belief, 16 Market Square had to move other tenants or terminate other leases on the 4th and 5th floors of 16 Market Square to accommodate the Ibotta Lease,” the firm wrote.
Ibotta agreed to pay a starting annual base rent of $34.95 a square foot, according to its lease made public in filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That rate is less than what just Moye White’s subtenants were paying, according to the firm’s countersuit.
Ibotta is not a party to the litigation between Moye White and its landlord, and neither side alleges any wrongdoing by the company.
Proper process not followed, law firm says
In its countersuit, Moye White says that its landlord failed to abide by a specific clause in its lease. That clause specifies that, if Moye White’s possession was terminated by the landlord, the landlord could relet its space “for the account of Tenant.”
But Moye White alleges that 16 Market Square’s actions were undertaken “for its own account” — the landlord’s, not Moye White’s.
Moye White also alleges its landlord was required by Colorado law to get a court order to take possession of the firm’s space and to send a letter specifically stating that Moye White had three days to pay rent or deliver possession of the premises. Neither of those things occurred, the law firm claims.
Moye White also states that the $3.93 million 16 Market Square claimed in February to be owed is inflated, because its landlord failed to “reduce this amount by ‘the then present value of the then aggregate fair rental value of the Premises for the balance of the term,’” the firm wrote, quoting its lease.
“Because 16 Market Square skipped these requirements, it did not have legal possession of the Moye White Space when it signed the Ibotta Lease,” Moye White’s countersuit concludes.
Attorneys George H. Singer and Timothy W. Gordon of Holland & Hart are representing Moye White.
Landlord’s attorney: Haven’t heard this before
Brandee Caswell, an attorney at Davis Graham & Stubbs representing the landlord, told BusinessDen that proper procedure was followed, and she was surprised to read Moye White’s allegations.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever heard those assertions,” she said.
Moye White defaulted on its lease when it stopped covering the difference between its rent and what its subtenants paid, Caswell said. That “put those subtenants in a really difficult position,” she said — and they technically could have left 16 Market Square at any time.
“Moye’s default to its landlord was also a default to its subtenants, and Moye could not enforce its sublease,” she said.
Caswell said 16 Market Square took possession of Moye White’s space when it did to mitigate its damages by marketing to companies such as Ibotta and INEOS, which for a time was interested in potentially signing a direct lease. (INEOS, which did not respond to requests for comment, ultimately leased about 37,000 square feet at 2001 16th St., according to a report from the brokerage Savills.)
And if Moye White believes the amount it owes is unreasonable, she said, the firm could have done something different.
“If they had not gone into a state of default, this claim would have been a lot less — $1.6 million,” Caswell said.
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