Rumors are swirling on the legal blog “Above the Law” about “ stealth layoffs” at Dechert, with several posters to the site claiming associate layoffs ranging from 13 to 80 and even more across several months since March.

But the firm’s chairman, Barton J. Winokur, has adamantly denied any layoffs took place and said the number of associates who have left the firm for any reason in the first nine months of the year was lower than in the same period in 2007.