Late last week, we mentioned various potential partner defections from Dewey. Here is one that is actual. Greg Smith, who had been a project finance and infrastructure partner in the D.C. office of Dewey, has moved over to Allen & Overy.
In response to an inquiry from Above the Law, A&O issued this statement:
Allen & Overy can confirm that Greg Smith has resigned from Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he was a Project Finance partner, and joined Allen & Overy’s Washington, D.C. office on Friday, April 20.
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We understand that Smith may be joined by one or more associates from Dewey.
Finally, over at Am Law Daily, Sara Randazzo considers the fate of incoming associates and summer associates at Dewey. With respect to the summers:
As of Friday, Dewey had not yet canceled its summer 2012 program. But the head of one law school career office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Dewey representatives have been candid with him and with his students about the firm’s uncertain future.
“They haven’t said you should be looking for a job, but they haven’t said you have a job either,” says this career counselor, adding that he has been impressed with how well Dewey has handled what he describes as a difficult situation.
If you are (or were?) a Dewey summer associate for this year, look back at the comments to this post. There is an interesting debate in the comments about how you should handle the situation (besides freaking out, which is not productive).
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As for incoming associates:
Dewey leaders have, however, decided that they won’t need new first-year associates come fall. The firm told members of the incoming associate class in an April 3 e-mail that their start dates are being deferred until January 2013, according to a recipient of the e-mail who spoke to The Am Law Daily on the condition of anonymity. (Above the Law first reported on the deferrals earlier this week.)
The e-mail, according to the former summer associate who received it, did not offer an explanation for the deferral, and no one from Dewey has been in touch with this associate to elaborate. “I haven’t had any contact [with the firm] in the last few weeks,” this individual said. “I don’t feel like I should burden them, they have enough on their plate.”
You can say that again. Just keep reading Above the Law, and we’ll keep you posted on Dewey developments, with both original reporting and aggregation from other sources around the web.
Dewey had 29 summer associates last year, according to The American Lawyer’s Summer Hiring Survey, down from 51 in 2010. The firm did not employ summer associates in its Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago offices last year, according to a June 2010 post on Above the Law.
Interesting. In hindsight, was the “pausing” of the summer associate program in selected offices like the canary in the coal mine with respect to Dewey’s current troubles?
Of course, as they say, hindsight is 20/20. Our first major post on troubles at Dewey went up on February 27 of this year (well before other news outlets started covering the doings at Dewey — except for the Daily Journal, which had a story up on the same day). It’s shocking and sad to see how quickly the situation has deteriorated, in less than two months.
If you haven’t already seen it, click through to the next page to read the latest Dewey firm-wide memo on the firm’s future. We’ve also collected links to other stories about Dewey from around the web — including Brian Baxter’s detailed Am Law Daily story, in which he discusses the vague and conflicting reports about the possible roles that noted bankruptcy lawyers Al Togut and Peter Gilhuly might (or might not) be playing in L’Affaire Dewey.