Berge Setrakian, a corporate dealmaker at Dewey & LeBoeuf often cited as one of the firm’s top business generators, has signaled his intent to move to DLA Piper, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Joseph Tato, chair of Dewey’s global project finance and infrastructure finance practice group, will also join DLA, according to the source. Both will bring teams of lawyers and staff with them.
Calls to Setrakian, Tato, and DLA’s global corporate and finance chair Roger Meltzer were not immediately returned late Monday. DLA spokesman Josh Epstein said the firm had no comment.
Setrakian, a native of Lebanon, joined predecessor firm LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae in May 2005 from Winston & Strawn with fellow Winston partners Kevin Walsh and Margaret Civetta (Walsh, based in New York, and Civetta, in Paris and London, could not be reached at Dewey late Monday). An American Lawyer story written soon after Setrakian’s move pegged his book of business at between $15 million and $20 million, and added that he earned one of the largest salaries at the firm at the timea reported $3 million. His client roster, mostly international in focus, has included Spanish telecom giant Telefónica, S.A., Arab Bank plc, Bank Audi Group, and tobacco company Altadis, S.A.
The moves are the latest in a string of Dewey hires by DLA Piper. The firm announced on Monday that it was bringing on former Dewey corporate partner Paul Chen, who will be based in DLA’s Silicon Valley office but who will travel frequently to New York. Chen focuses on cross-border transactions in the United States and Asia. Earlier this year, DLA also grabbed a corporate team from Dewey led by New York partner John Altorelli.
Dewey partners are lining up jobs at other firms too. Also on Monday, Schiff Hardin announced the hire of Geoffrey Coll, a former Dewey litigation partner in Washington, D.C., who specializes in white-collar and civil enforcement cases.
Reached Monday at his new firm, Coll said he was attracted to Schiff because it is “a well-established firm” with a history of nearly a century and a half, and a focus on clients. Asked what he thinks of the state of Dewey, where he had worked since 1998, when he joined LeBoeuf Lamb, Coll said: “All I can say is I wish my former colleagues all the best as well.”
So far, more than 112 partners have left the beleaguered Dewey since January (see where they’ve all landed on our Dewey Departure Tracker).
On the executive side, Nicholas Jelf, Dewey’s chief operating office, resigned last week, according to a former partner. Calls to the firms New York office Monday confirmed he gave notice of his departure. Jelf did not return messages left with his Dewey e-mail and voicemail.
A former lawyer in England, Jelf ascended through the ranks at Dewey, starting in the human resources department of LeBoeuf Lamb’s London office in 2005. After the consummation of LeBoeuf’s merger with Dewey Ballantine, Jelf became head of human resources firmwide, often traveling to the U.S. and staying in an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that Dewey paid for, according to a person who used to work with him. He eventually moved permanently to the U.S. and became Dewey’s chief operating officer last year.
The latest losses come a week after Dewey management gave lawyers and staff a clear indication that the firm’s future may not be long. In a memo sent to the firm’s global partnership late last Monday, partners were told that they were under no obligation to stay and that they were “encouraged to seek out alternative opportunities for themselves or groups of partners.” A second memo, sent after East Coast business hours on Friday, put the firm’s U.S. employees on notice that they could be laid off, saying “it is possible that adverse developments could ultimately result in the closure of the firm.”
Even in the face of turmoil, William Brandt, a law firm consultant working with Dewey, says the firm is still exploring a variety of options with other law firms, including some firms hoping to increase their New York presence.
Brandt, president of Development Specialists Inc., a consulting firm that often advises bankrupt law firms and their estates, said Monday that Dewey hired his firm about a month ago to provide financial advice and consulting services to Dewey.
I dont expect a meltdown, says Brandt, who adds that at this point, the firm is still open and billing. We are not planning a bankruptcy right now.”
New York Law Journal reporter Christine Simmons contributed reporting.
