Marc Dreier’s career went into a deep trough when he left Fulbright & Jaworski. He worked briefly at a Cravath, Swaine & Moore spin-off called Duker & Barrett, which in those days was enjoying considerable success. (Its founding partner William Duker would later plead guilty to four counts of fraud in what prosecutors at the time called “one of the most serious cases of legal fraud” ever prosecuted.) Dreier lasted less than a year at Duker & Barrett. In 1996 he joined up with a Florida lawyer named Neil Baritz, who had a small corporate and securities practice, to found a firm called Dreier & Baritz.
But Dreier was still searching for a niche. New York state Supreme Court and Manhattan federal district court records show him making appearances in the late 1990s as counsel to both plaintiffs and defendants, most of them small businesses. Sometimes Dreier’s firm is listed as Dreier & Baritz; at other times, beginning as early as 1999, the name Dreier LLP also turns up. (Baritz didn’t return calls for this story.)
