White & Case has bagged its second Dewey Ballantine department head in a week with the hire of New York-based head of restructuring Alan Gover.

Gover, who will join the New York office as a partner in the financial restructuring and insolvency practice, had led Dewey's restructuring practice since 2001.

His hire follows that of Dewey's global head of energy, Earle O'Donnell, who has defected to White & Case's Washington DC arm along with energy partner Donna Attanasio.

O'Donnell focuses on a broad spectrum of energy-related work including M&A and state and federal regulatory matters affecting the electric utilities industry. He will head up White & Case's energy practice.

The news comes as Dewey moves into the final stages of its merger negotiations with West Coast giant Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, which is set to create a firm with almost 1,500 lawyers and revenues of just less than $1bn (£535m).

The prospect of two such large practices merging has led to predictions that both firms will suffer fall-out in the form of partner losses.