Francis Canellas, the finance director of now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf, testified Monday that he and the firm's chief financial officer Joel Sanders met twice in late 2008 to brainstorm how to make the firm appear as if it could meet its obligations to its lenders.

Canellas' testimony against Dewey's former executives has long been anticipated in the trial of Sanders, former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and former chairman Steven Davis. In prior witness accounts, he has appeared to be the link between the defendants and the firm's finance administrators, seven of whom have pleaded guilty to falsifying accounting records.

On Monday, Canellas told the jury about the firm's financial struggles at year-end 2008, the first full year of operation for Dewey & LeBoeuf, which had formed when legacy firms LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae and Dewey Ballantine merged in 2007.