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Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP was a global law firm headquartered in New York City, United States. Some of the firm's leaders were indicted for fraud for their role in allegedly cooking the company's books to obtain loans while hiding the firm's financial plight.[2] The firm was formed in 2007 through the merger of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. Dewey & LeBoeuf was known for its corporate, insurance, litigation, tax, and restructuring practices. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, it employed over 1,000 lawyers in 26 offices around the world.[3]
In 2012, the firm's financial difficulties and indebtedness became public. In the same period, many partners departed,[4] and the Manhattan District Attorney's office began to investigate alleged false statements by firm chairman Steven Davis.[5] As a result of these difficulties, Dewey & LeBoeuf filed for bankruptcy in New York on May 28, 2012.[6]
On March 6, 2014, the former chairman, chief financial officer, and the executive director of Dewey & LeBoeuf were indicted on charges of grand larceny by the Manhattan District Attorney.[7]
Thomas Mullikin, former controller, agreed to pay $8,635.78 in disgorgement and interest costs.[8]
The law firm that would be known for years as the Root Clark firm, and thereafter as Dewey Ballantine, began in 1909. In that year, three recent graduates of Harvard Law School, Grenville Clark, Francis W. Bird, and Elihu Root Jr., established a law partnership on Wall Street, named Root, Clark & Bird. Bird soon left the firm, and it became known as Root & Clark; family connections led to a thriving practice in high financial circles.[9] In 1913, Root & Clark merged with the firm of Buckner & Howland, the practice of Emory R. Buckner and Silas W. Howland, to form Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland.[9]
In 1919, Arthur A. Ballantine joined the firm, becoming a named partner in 1925.[9] Also in 1925, Buckner left to become the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and the firm was now known as Root, Clark, Howland & Ballantine.[9]
Dewey Ballantine's principal office at the Calyon Building, New York City.
In 1946, four Root, Clark partners, including George E. Cleary, Leo Gottlieb, Henry Friendly, and Melvin C. Steen departed and along with Hugh Cox and Fowler Hamilton founded Cleary, Gottlieb, Friendly & Cox, the predecessor of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.[9][10]
In 1955, politician Thomas E. Dewey became a partner at the firm, which was renamed Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood. Under Dewey and Ballantine's leadership, the firm attracted new clients, such as General Motors, Morgan Stanley, and Mobil Oil.
From its beginnings in 1929, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae was known for its representation of energy and public utility companies, and from 1965, when it was selected as U.S. counsel for Lloyd's of London, it became a preeminent law firm advising insurance companies. It was this that led to the opening of the London office in 1978.
The firm was founded by Randall J. LeBoeuf Jr., who was born in Albany, New York, in 1897. While still in solo practice in 1929, LeBoeuf became general counsel to the Niagara Hudson Power Company and the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA). As his workload increased, LeBoeuf recruited his friend Bill Winston from an Albany law firm to form the partnership LeBoeuf & Winston on October 7, 1929, just before the U.S. stock market collapsed. Within six months, the new partnership had established itself at 15 Broad Street, New York City, where it shared offices with Niagara Hudson Power.
Horace Lamb joined the partnership in 1934 to enhance its expertise in a wider variety of legal matters. Characterized as an aggressive litigator, Lamb came to the firm after working for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice as well as in private practice. Lamb soon became a named partner at the firm.
In 1952 Adrian C. Leiby, joined, bringing experience in corporate securities and finances. The firm was renamed LeBoeuf, Lamb & Leiby.
Anticipating the creation of the Atomic Energy Commission to regulate the new civilian use of fission plants, LeBoeuf opened its first branch office in 1952 in Washington, D.C. to help utilities license nuclear plants.
Cameron F. MacRae Jr., a top public utility lawyer, joined in 1958. In 1959, Randall LeBoeuf became the special assistant attorney general representing New York in a water rights dispute.
The firm lost three of its named partners in short succession in the 1970s: Randall LeBoeuf in 1975, Adrian Leiby in 1976, and Horace Lamb in 1977. Cameron MacRae, who had been formally installed as presiding partner in 1970, remained at the firm, which had become known as LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae.
The firm developed an ambitious growth strategy in the 1970s through the 1990s. As a result, it expanded to become an international law firm with offices not only in the U.S. but also in London, Paris, Moscow, Riyadh, Beijing, and Hong Kong. By early 2007, LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae had approximately 650 attorneys in 19 offices around the world. On October 1, 2007, the firm merged with Dewey Ballantine.[12]
Financial difficulties and bankruptcy
Dewey & LeBoeuf originally reported a revenue increase for 2011 to $935 million, up 25 million from a reported figure of $910 million for 2010.[13] In early 2012, Richard Shutran, a senior partner at the firm, admitted in interviews that the revenue numbers publicly reported used a "different" method acknowledging the controversy, stating, "They’re just not comparable numbers. That’s something people like to pick on."[14]
This statement resulted in a downward revision of Dewey's revenue numbers over the previous two years in The American Lawyer.[15][16][17] The firm then retained bankruptcy counsel,[18] and began to consider a pre-packaged bankruptcy filing.[19]
In conjunction with the financial problems, a large number of partners had been leaving in 2012. Of the approximate 1,100 lawyers in the firm, about 190 were considered equity partners.[20] In 2012 through May 12, approximately 200 of the 300 total partners had left the firm.[21]
On April 27, the firm announced that it would cancel its 2012 summer associate program.[22] On April 30, the firm's leadership advised partners to seek employment elsewhere.[23]
On May 4, the firm sent "conditional advance notice" to all US employees under the Federal WARN Act that their employment may be terminated. The letter advised all employees of their rights under Federal and New York State law in the event of termination. The letter provided the firm's first formal acknowledgement to employees that the firm could ultimately close.[24]
The five members of Dewey's office of the chairman committee left by mid-May.[25] In bankruptcy, corporate restructuring company Zolfo Cooper managed the firm's New York office,[26] and accounting firm BDO International administered the London office.[27]
On August 18, 2014, the firm made a settlement worth $4.5 million for a class action suit alleging the firm laid off workers in the final days without the notice required under the New York state and federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Acts. There were no objections to the settlement since it was disseminated following the judge's preliminary approval in June 2014, according to the attorneys of the 425-member class and for the firm.[28]
On October 19, 2015, following 21 days of deliberation, a deadlocked jury in Manhattan declared a mistrial in the case against three former senior attorneys, Steven H. Davis, Stephen DiCarmine, and Joel Sanders, who had been accused of conspiring to manipulate financial records with a purpose to defraud various financial institutions during the financial crisis.[29] A jury ultimately convicted Sanders on three counts relating to the accusations in a 2017 retrial against Sanders and DiCarmine; however, DiCarmine was acquitted of the same charges.[30]
Pro bono activities
Dewey & LeBoeuf maintained a strong commitment to pro bono service, and its attorneys devoted tens of thousands of hours every year to public service projects around the world across a range of areas, including housing, civil rights, voting rights, education, criminal trials and appeals, entertainment and the arts, family law and domestic violence, immigration and asylum, not-for-profit and small business advice, and animal rights.
In September 2009, Dewey & LeBoeuf agreed to act on a pro bono basis for Caster Semenya, the South African track athlete, to protect her civil and human rights in connection with the controversial gender testing to which she was subjected.
In September 2009, Dewey & LeBoeuf advised on two major M&A transactions. The firm played a leading role on Walt Disney's $4 billion cash and stock acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, a deal that gives Disney the rights to more than 5,000 Marvel characters, including Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. A team of Dewey & LeBoeuf lawyers also advised eBay in the company's agreement to sell a 65 percent stake of its Skype communications unit to a group of private investors, led by the Silicon Valley private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, in a deal valuing the business at $2.75 billion. The firm has also represented billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban against the Securities and Exchange Commission's accusations of insider trading.
Notable alumni
This list primarily represents alumni of predecessor firms.
Thurman Wesley Arnold was an American lawyer best known for his trust-busting campaign as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Department of Justice from 1938 to 1943. He later served as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Before coming to Washington in 1938, Arnold was the mayor of Laramie, Wyoming and a professor at Yale Law School, where he took part in the legal realism movement and published two books: The Symbols of Government (1935) and The Folklore of Capitalism (1937). He also published The Bottlenecks of Business (1940).
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide.
Donald Hiss, also known as "Donie" and "Donnie", was the younger brother of Alger Hiss. Donald Hiss's name was mentioned during the 1948 hearings wherein his more famous and older brother, Alger, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union, and two years later convicted of perjury before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).
Henry Jacob Friendly was an American jurist who served as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 until his death in 1986. Friendly was one of the most prominent U.S. federal judges of the 20th century.
LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP was an international law firm of about 700 attorneys headquartered in New York City. The firm had specialities in energy, public utilities, and insurance. It was founded by Randall LeBoeuf Jr. In 2007, it merged with Dewey Ballantine to form Dewey & LeBoeuf, which went bankrupt in 2012.
Dewey Ballantine LLP was a corporate law firm headquartered in New York City. In 2007, Dewey Ballantine merged with LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae to form Dewey & LeBoeuf. Dewey Ballantine underwent numerous name changes throughout its history as partners left to serve in government positions or form new firms.
Grenville Clark was a 20th-century American Wall Street lawyer, co-founder of Root Clark & Bird, member of the Harvard Corporation, co-author of the book World Peace Through World Law, and nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Emory Roy Buckner was a prominent U.S. lawyer who served as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he gained a reputation as one of the greatest prosecutors in American history. During his time at Root, Clark & Bird, he was also one of the architects of modern Wall Street's legal culture.
Frederick Bernard Lacey was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.
An associate attorney is a lawyer and an employee of a law firm who does not hold an ownership interest as a partner.
Thomas William Greelish was an American lawyer who served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1985 to 1987.
Jeffrey L. Kessler is a partner at the international law firm Winston & Strawn, where he also serves as Co-Executive Chairman and Co-Chair of the firm's Antitrust/Competition Practice and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Until May 2012, he was the global litigation chair at the international law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, where he was also the co-chair of the sports litigation practice group and served on the firm's executive and leadership committees. His major clients include the Panasonic Corporation, National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), William Morris Endeavor, Activision Blizzard, Avanci, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), United States Women’s National Team (USWNT) soccer players, NTN Corporation, Relevent Sports, and Actors' Equity Association.
Evan Anderson Davis is a New York City attorney with the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and a former president of the New York City Bar Association.
Melvin C. Steen was an American attorney and founding partner of the New York law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Steen graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School, where the Melvin C. Steen Professorship, currently held by Gregory Shaffer, is named in his honor. His survivors included his son Gordon of Owings Mills, Maryland.
David M. Becker is an American lawyer and a partner of Cleary Gottlieb. He was twice General Counsel and Senior Policy Director of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Joon Hyun Kim is an American attorney who served as the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from March 2017 to January 2018. He was Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from July 2015 to March 2017 after serving as the chief of the criminal division since July 2014. From April 2013 to July 2014, Kim was the chief counsel to the U.S. Attorney. In March 2021, Kim was chosen by New York Attorney General Letitia James as independent counsel, along with Anne L. Clark, to co-lead the investigation into sexual harassment claims made against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
John H. Ferguson (1915–1970) was a 20th-Century American lawyer who became the fifth U.S. ambassador to Morocco.
Arthur A. Ballantine (1883–1960) was a 20th-century American lawyer, tax specialist, who became the first solicitor of the Internal Revenue Service and Undersecretary of the Treasury under U.S. President Herbert Hoover and later partner in what became the Dewey Ballantine law firm.
Leo Gottlieb was an American lawyer. He worked for Root, Clark, Buckner & Howland from 1920 to 1946, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton from 1946 to 1974. He was the president of the New York Lawyers' Association in the early 1960s.
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