The criminal case arising out of Dewey & LeBoeuf's dramatic spiral into bankruptcy five years ago led to a somewhat less dramatic verdict on Monday, when a Manhattan jury found the firm's former chief financial officer guilty of fraud and conspiracy, while acquitting its former executive director on all counts.

The retrial conviction of former Dewey & LeBoeuf CFO Joel Sanders stands in contrast to a much more ambitious start to the case in 2014, when the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. sought to put four people on trial for hundreds of charges.

“It's always problematic when prosecutors take a high-profile business failure and try to fit it within the framework of the criminal law,” Roger Stavis, head of Gallet Dreyer & Berkey's white-collar defense practice and a former state prosecutor, said of the Dewey & LeBoeuf case.