Another day, another round of departures from Dewey & LeBoeuf. Most recently, a four-person mergers and acquisitions group has left the struggling firm for the greener pastures of DLA Piper.
The group’s leader, John Altorelli, will serve as co-chairman of DLA Piper’s U.S. finance practice. Former Dewey partner Alexander Fraser, and Gerald Francese and Patrick Costello, both formerly of counsel, will join DLA Piper’s corporate and finance practice as partners.
These latest defections—which come in the wake of last week’s management shakeup—bring the total number of partners who have departed this year to 40. The mass exodus is reportedly the result of financial trouble and compensation disputes.
In more bad news for the firm, The American Lawyer magazine revised its previously published 2010 and 2011 Dewey financial results. The firm initially reported 2011 revenues of $935 million, but a current and former Dewey partner told Bloomberg that the figure was closer to $780 million. The magazine also downgraded Dewey’s 2010 gross revenues—from $910 million to $759.5 million.
Dewey GC Janis Meyer told the magazine that "the methodology used for internal and financial accounting purposes is different from that used in submitting our numbers to you, which we assume is the case for every law firm that participates in your survey."
