The Insurance Journal reports on one case that has been immediately affected, in which hundreds of victims of militant attacks in Israel have spent eight years pursuing litigation against a Jordanian Bank that allegedly had a hand in providing financial services to Hamas and other groups.

60-day reprieve

A group of Dewey lawyers represented the defendant, Arab Bank Group, but now – with partners and teams jumping ship to other firms – New York US District Judge Nina Gershon granted the bank a 60-day reprieve from several court deadlines.
Judge Gershon described the events at Dewey as ‘extraordinary’ after the bank’s defence team was ‘decimated’, according to the report.
Michael Elsner of South Carolina-based firm Motley Rice – one of the lead firms for the claimants – said that the Arab Bank litigation now includes more than 1,000 claims. He emphasised his clients’ interest in bringing the case to trial ‘as expeditiously as possible’.
Arab Bank’s lead lawyer, Kevin Walsh, left Winston & Strawn in 2005 to join LeBoeuf Lamb Greene & MacRae, which later merged with Dewey. Now Arab Bank’s legal team has fractured. Mr Walsh, who left Dewey for DLA Piper, is still lead counsel on the matter. But Arab Bank said that 17 Dewey lawyers were working on the case, and only five of them are joining DLA.

'Intensive discovery'

Mr Walsh must now assemble a new team, which, according to an Arab bank brief, ‘will face the enormous task of mastering the sprawling factual record generated by over eight years of intensive discovery’.
Douglas Mateyaschuk, a Dewey associate who has since left the firm, said in a court filing: ‘Thousands of former Dewey clients are now seeking new counsel, leaving hundreds of thousands of client records waiting to undergo this process.’
Some of Dewey’s major clients include Lloyd’s of London, Allstate Corp and eBay – all have declined to comment on the fall of the firm.