In the latest round of defections to hit Dewey & LeBoeuf, three litigation partners from the crumbling firm’s depleted London outpost, including the office’s managing partner, are jumping to the London office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, that firm announced early Thursday. Separately, Jones Day announced that it has hired a top New York–based Dewey private equity partner.

The losses—which come days after Dewey management told the remaining partners via memo that they are free to pursue other options and not obligated to stick with the ailing firm as it tries to save itself in some form—push the number of partners to flee since the start of the year to nearly 90. The fresh defections also come as Dewey’s standing with its lender banks—to which it owes a reported $75 million—and, in turn, its ability to meet payroll and pay other bills continues to weaken. While firm leaders insist a bankruptcy filing is not in their plans, they have not yet identified a viable alternative.

The three Dewey partners bound for Morgan Lewis—all of whom focus their practice on litigation and international arbitration—include London office managing partner Peter Sharp, Nick Greenwood, and David Waldron. Waldron served as overseas cochair of  Dewey’s litigation department and as cochair of its oil, gas, and energy dispute resolution group. Greenwood focuses on dispute resolution in the private equity, banking, insurance, property development, and shipping sectors.

“This team’s substantive background in international commercial disputes, arbitration, insurance recovery, and white-collar investigations overseas complements our strengths in U.S. litigation,” Jami McKeon, leader of Morgan Lewis’s litigation practice, said in a prepared statement. “Their arrival augments our geographic reach, particularly on cutting-edge issues ranging from complex international disputes and fraud investigations to the U.K. Bribery Act.”

(Reuters reported separately that Nabil Khodadad, who coheaded Dewey’s project finance and infrastructure practice, has joined Vinson & Elkins in London.)

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]