(Reuters) - Seven more partners, including an executive committee member, have left Dewey & LeBoeuf, the New York-based law firm hobbled by attorney defections, debt and a criminal probe into its former chairman.
The most recent wave of departures comes amid disclosures by firm management that the Manhattan district attorney's office is investigating "allegations of wrongdoing" by former Dewey Chairman Steven Davis and that talks with rival Greenberg Traurig about a potential transaction have ended.
Dewey removed the partners' names from its website between Friday and Monday.
The firm has lost at least 82 of its 300 partners since the beginning of the year. It is on the hook for more than $75 million in loan debt, and is trying to convince lenders to extend a Monday deadline.
The seven partners include Gordon Warnke, the chairman of Dewey's tax department and a member of the firm's executive committee. Warnke, who joined Linklaters with partner Joseph Pari, could not be reached for comment Monday. A spokeswoman for Linklaters had no immediate comment.
Other newly departed partners are Marshall Stoddard Jr., a partner in New York and Los Angeles who was the U.S. head of the firm's bank and institutional finance practice group, and Charles Moore, a Houston lawyer who was the former general counsel of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Both joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius on Monday.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher separately announced Sunday that it had hired Peter Gray, a Dubai-based Dewey partner focused on international litigation and international arbitration.
"Gibson Dunn's unparalleled litigation platform and top-notch reputation locally and internationally is a tremendous foundation that will allow me to expand my practice," Gray said in a statement.
Gary Apfel, the Los Angeles co-chair of Dewey's consumer financial services group, left the firm on Wednesday, according to Dewey spokesman Duncan Miller. It was not clear what firm Apfel had joined.
Dewey separately removed New York corporate partner Linda Ramson from its website. Miller could not confirm that she had left the firm, and calls and e-mails to her office at Dewey went unreturned.
Miller declined to comment further on the departures.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Lisa Von Ahn)