The days following Monday’s advice from the Dewey management for partners to seek ‘alternative opportunities,’ things have been degrading fast at Dewey. Document and mailroom is apparently closed down and inoperative and copiers have been repossessed by the contractors. Associates are clueless about how to get the paperwork done.
The caterer has mailed office staff that the “client matter number” is no more valid for food and “Please provide cc#, expiration date and name on the card when placing a catering order.”
There is information that employees and others may be without comprehensive healthcare coverage at the moment as terms expired on first April, and payment for the fresh term has not been received yet by the insurance company. In a damage control exercise Jeff Nicholas, the Chief Operating Officer has sent a mail to employees claiming that Dewey is “actively working with the insurer to restore full coverage to partners and employees as soon as possible.”
Though partners are free to seek other alternatives, associates are up against the wall, and are being advised to focus on client work instead of searching for jobs. None want to be fired at such a stage, and the poor guys are not receiving either pay or health insurance.
Retired partners, for whom pensions constitute a major part of their earnings, are worried. Many belong to the old firms which had joined together to form Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Most people laid off from Dewey earlier this year are still looking for jobs and have no hopes of severance pay or packages.
The media including stalwarts like Thomson & Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Above the Law, and Bloomberg have been covering the events, including minor details like the art from office walls quietly disappearing.
There are rumors that after Memorial Day, Dewey & LeBoeuf would become memory.
It feels like hallucination to watch a law firm crumble like this crushing down those at the bottom, while those at the top have already jumped ship and are off to other destinations. The associates can’t leave and can’t stay, and can’t risk getting fired.