Jurors on Tuesday heard radically different characterizations of the alleged roles of three former executives who are facing criminal fraud charges in the 2012 collapse of Dewey & LeBoeuf.

In the first day of what is expected to be a four- to six-month trial, prosecutors portrayed the three leaders—one-time firm chair Steven Davis, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and ex-chief financial officer Joel Sanders—as “[directing] a fraudulent scheme” that painted a far healthier picture of the firm's financial performance for its lenders and investors than the reality.

But defense counsel, in their opening statements, pinned the blame for the accounting misconduct on subordinates. They also asserted that the firm's demise was triggered not by accounting fraud but by the recession, the departure of key rainmakers in 2011 and 2012, as well as the publicity surrounding the Manhattan District Attorney's office's probe of the firm.