Reuters: Mergers News: Refile-New York prosecutors probe law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf

Reuters: Mergers News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

Refile-New York prosecutors probe law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf Apr 27th 2012, 19:46 Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:46pm EDT By Karen Freifeld and Joseph Ax NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters) - New York prosecutors are looking into possible financial mismanagement at Dewey & LeBoeuf after lawyers at the law firm requested an investigation, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Dewey & LeBoeuf, a major U.S. law firm, has lost some 70 of its 300 partners since the beginning of the year. The defections, coupled with debt, have left the firm struggling to stay afloat. The Manhattan District Attorney's office is investigating whether Dewey leadership made misleading statements about payments due to partners, according to one person who did not want to be identified because the probe is not public. Another person, who also did not want to be identified, said lawyers from the firm had asked Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to examine "financial irregularities" at the firm. Both sources said the investigation is in preliminary stages. Erin Duggan, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, declined comment. Martin Bienenstock, a member of the firm's five-person executive committee, declined to comment. Representatives of Dewey did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The request for an investigation was first reported on Friday by Law360, a specialized news service for lawyers. It comes just days before Dewey faces a deadline to renegotiate the terms of a $100 million line of credit. The deadline was revealed earlier this week by another source familiar with Dewey's troubles. The firm owes roughly $75 million to a bank group led by JPMorgan Chase that also includes Citi Private Bank , Bank of America Corp and HSBC Holdings PLC . Dewey has retained a bankruptcy attorney to consider restructuring options. One possibility is a prepackaged bankruptcy that would involve merging with another firm. Greenberg Traurig LLP has said it had "preliminary discussions" related to Dewey but has not elaborated. Last year, Dewey hired a number of high-profile, highly compensated attorneys but has been unable to pay many of its long-tenured partners full compensation in recent months, according to two partners who have left. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions