Jurors in a New York state court heard vastly different characterizations yesterday of the alleged roles of three former executives who are facing criminal fraud charges related to the 2012 collapse of Dewey & LeBoeuf, the American Lawyer reported today. In the first day of what is expected to be a four-to-six-month trial, prosecutors portrayed the three defendants — former firm chair Steven Davis, onetime executive director Stephen DiCarmine and ex-chief financial officer Joel Sanders — as “[directing] a fraudulent scheme” that deceived Dewey & LeBeouf’s lenders and investors into thinking that the firm’s financial performance was healthier than it was. But defense counsel, in their own opening statements, pinned the blame for the accounting misconduct on their three clients’ subordinates. They also asserted that the firm's demise was triggered not by accounting fraud but by the recession and departure of key rainmakers in 2011 and 2012, as well as publicity surrounding a probe of the now-defunct firm by the New York County District Attorney’s Office.
