Dewey leadership duo quit in latest exits; 23 partners head for Winston
Two members of Dewey & LeBoeuf's four-strong leadership team are set to leave as Winston & Strawn and O'Melveny & Myers become the latest firms to benefit from the fallout at the embattled firm.
May 10, 2012 at 05:07 AM
3 minute read
Two members of Dewey & LeBoeuf's four-strong leadership team are set to leave as Winston & Strawn and O'Melveny & Myers become the latest firms to benefit from the fallout at the embattled firm.
The departure of Richard Shutran and Jeffrey Kessler to O'Melveny and Winston respectively leaves Charles Landgraf and Martin Bienenstock as the only two remaining members of Dewey's office of the chairman, reports the Am Law Daily.
Shutran, the co-chair of Dewey's corporate department and the chair of its global finance practice, is joining O'Melveny along with tax chair Arthur Hazlitt, renewable and clean energy practice co-chair Junaid Chida, and partners Dev Sen and Mark Caterini, all of whom are based in New York.
Shutran was considered the primary liaison at Dewey with the firm's banks. He helped Dewey orchestrate a nearly $150m (£93m) bond offering in 2010 designed to refinance the firm's existing bank debt. Payments on that bond were due to begin next year.
Meanwhile, a Kessler-led team of roughly 60 lawyers – 23 of them partners – prepared to leave Dewey for Winston. In addition to belonging to Dewey's office of the chairman, Kessler was also global litigation chair and the co-chair of the firm's prominent sports litigation group.
Winston chairman Dan Webb said that his firm had been in "intense negotiations" over the past week to bring a "significant number of litigators" from Dewey's offices in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, DC. Webb said that the bulk of the hires will be in New York, where Winston has wanted to bolster its presence in recent years.
"We've really wanted to build up our national litigation profile, and you can't do that without expanding on the East Coast," he commented.
Kessler's group, in addition to negotiating with Winston, had also held talks with Greenberg Traurig, King & Spalding, and Morrison & Foerster. US website Above the Law first reported on Wednesday morning that Kessler and his group were headed to Winston, which is also poised to pick up Dewey energy and project finance partner Elias Farrah in Washington DC along with an associate and paralegal from the ailing firm.
Winston will also take on dozens of other associates and an undetermined number of administrative staff from Dewey, with most of the new hires to join Winston as soon as Monday.
Other key partners joining Winston include sports litigation practice co-chair David Feher and long-time Dewey litigators Harvey Kurzweil and Seth Farber, the latter two of which were conducting an internal inquiry into the business practices of former Dewey chairman Steven Davis, who is also under investigation by the district attorney's office in Manhattan.
Dewey's remaining partners have yet to schedule a vote on a dissolution of the firm, although Dewey is expected to shut its doors by 5 May, a date on which the firm's California offices are scheduled to close. Some US associates at the firm have been told layoffs could also begin sometime in the next few days.
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
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllClaus von Wobeser: Mexico's ‘Godfather of Arbitration’ Becomes Firm’s Honorary Chair
Slaughter and May Leads As Government Buys Back £6 Billion of Military Homes
2 minute readLatAm Moves: DLA Piper Chile, Brazil’s Demarest Build Out Disputes Muscle
Kingsley Napley and Lord Pannick Spearhead Private Schools' Challenge to Government VAT Policy
Trending Stories
- 1Trump Administration Faces Legal Challenge Over EO Impacting Federal Workers
- 2Supreme Court Considers Reviving Lawsuit Over Fatal Traffic Stop Shooting
- 3Long Hours and Lack Of Boundaries: Associates In India Are Leaving Their Firms
- 4Goodwin Procter Relocates to Renewable-Powered Office in San Francisco’s Financial District
- 5'Didn't Notice Patient Wasn't Breathing': $13.7M Verdict Against Anesthesiologists
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250