Mr Togut -- managing partner of New York-based bankruptcy specialists Togut Segal & Segal – is instructed to work with at least one member of Dewey’s new management team, the news agency Reuters reports.

Devastating month

Mr Togut and his firm have been involved with several high-profile chapter 11 bankruptcy cases, including General Motors, Chrysler Automotive, Delphi and Enron, according to The Lawyer newspaper in London.
The development adds to what has been a devastating month for Dewey. Only six days ago the firm was hit by eight partner losses -- which included a five-strong infrastructure team – taking practice’s overall partnership losses this year to more than 60.
Virginia-based firm Hunton & Williams were the chief benefactors of Dewey’s despair in that instance, although partners have seemingly been jumping at any opportunity to leave in recent months with some 20 firms around the world picking up those lawyers bailing out.

Downwards spiral

On 16 April, Dewey’s London-based private equity team jumped ship to the London office of rival US firm McDermott will & Emery. Only three days earlier David Smith -- a partner in Dewey’s Los Angeles office who acted form some of the firm’s largest clients -- including Ebay, Goldman Sachs and Walt Disney -- left to join Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth in Santa Monica.
For a firm that only a few months ago counted more than 1,000 lawyers in its ranks, including 305 partners, there appears to be no end in sight to the downwards spiral. In a long expose on the firm’s plight published in a recent issue of The Lawyer, there were suggestions that the hasty merger five years ago between then Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae created problems. ‘The partners from the LeBoeuf side of the combined firm are the ones leaving in their droves,’ says the report.