The top three former executives at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, the defunct law firm, filed objections to aspects of the proposed settlements with about 400 partners designed to bring in $71 million, Bloomberg News reported today. Steven Davis, the former chairman; Stephen DiCarmine, the former executive director, and Joel Sanders, the ex-chief financial officer, said last week that it is improper that releases under the settlements end up making them solely liable for the firm's failure. The law does not permit the settlements to eliminate their rights to have liability for only their "proportionate share" of damages, the three former executives said in a court filing. They also object to making secret the identities of the settling partners, saying that they need to know who settled in preparing their defenses.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-09-17/former-dewey-leaders-see…
In related news, Citibank N.A. is forcefully denying allegations by a former lawyer with the now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf that the bank conspired with leaders of the firm to woo lateral partners with a Ponzi-like scheme aimed at paying off Dewey's debts to the bank through a steady flow of capital contribution payments, the American Law Daily reported on Saturday. In court filing submitted on Wednesday, Citi asserts that partners should have done their own research into the firm's financial condition and that it was not the bank's responsibility to warn them. Citi also lays out why it believes it deserves repayment of a loan it extended to former Dewey partner Steven Otillar, who borrowed $207,000 from the bank in 2011. Citi's filing comes in response to Otillar's allegations that the bank conspired with former Dewey leaders to fraudulently induce partners to join the firm and his claims that Citi should have cautioned him of Dewey's financial troubles when he took out the loan.
http://www.americanlawyer.com/PubArticleALD.jsp?id=1202571459496&slretu…