NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Dewey & LeBoeuf has dismissed
its executive director and he has retained a prominent criminal
defense lawyer, a source close to the matter said, as the New
York law firm suffered even more defections from its overseas
offices.
Stephen DiCarmine, until recently one of the highest ranking
executives at the firm, was terminated within the last week, the
source said. Last week, the firm informed its partners that the
New York District Attorney launched an investigation into
allegations of wrongdoing by former Chairman Steven Davis.
No allegations of wrongdoing have been brought against
DiCarmine. The reasons for his termination couldn't be
determined. Davis has denied any wrongdoing and DiCarmine did
not return phone calls seeking comment.
DiCarmine has hired Edward Little, a former federal
prosecutor in Manhattan, according to the source, who declined
to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. Little, a
partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, declined to comment
on whether he had been hired in connection with the DA probe.
The firing of DiCarmine is just the latest sign of the
turmoil at Dewey & LeBoeuf, until recently among the top 20
largest law firms in the United States. Since January, the firm
has lost some 120 of its 300 partners amid a mounting debt
crisis. To date, the struggling firm has tried and failed to
find a merger partner.
Defections from the firm spread oversees Friday, with a wave
of departures in the UK, Germany, Kazakhstan, UAE and Russia.
DiCarmine, who the source said has been given about two
weeks to leave the firm, has a long working history with former
firm Chairman Davis. Before his role as executive director at
Dewey, he had the same title at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae
where Davis was chairman before that firm merged with Dewey
Ballantine in 2007.
On Friday, DiCarmine's name did not appear on the firm's
website.
(Reporting by Andrew Longstreth and Karen Freifeld; Additional
reporting by Nate Raymond)
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