We have yet to hit the month of May and now 70 partners have left the law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf. The latest partner to leave exits from the Washington, D.C. office and worked in project finance. Gregory Smith has now joined the firm of Allen & Overy. Smith works with clients in the fields of development, financing, and privatization of infrastructure projects. Smith graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1993 and also works as an adjunct professor for George Washington University Law School.
Smith is the first partner from Dewey to leave the firm for Allen & Overy, which has offices in D.C., New York and 26 other countries. The firm opened in D.C. in June when it added three attorneys from O’Melveny & Myers. Last week there were 14 partners to leave Dewey for rival firms, including a team of five energy and infrastructure partners that left for Hunton & Williams in New York. Two partners left for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York while four partners left to join Dechert inLondon and Dubai. Other rival firms that hired Dewey partners include Cozen O’Connor
Out of the 70 partners to depart from Dewey this year, six were from the firm’s office in D.C., which included the former head of the D.C. office, Abraham Shashy. Shashy left Dewey to join King & Spalding in the early days of February. The D.C. office is now headed by Charles Landgraf, who is part of the office of the chairman at Dewey. There are rumors flying that Greenberg Traurig has discussed hiring an unspecified amount of lawyers from Dewey as financial problems continue to mount at Dewey. It has also been rumored that Dewey is considering a prepackaged bankruptcy. Some partners at Dewey have had their compensation deferred as a part of the financial problems at the firm.