Dewey trainee facing deportation over visa issues
A former London trainee at Dewey & LeBoeuf is at risk of being deported to his home country because he has not found another firm to sponsor his visa.
The American citizen, who is due to qualify this summer, could have just six weeks to secure a new job before the deadline approaches.
His final chance for finding a new employer is 60 days after the curtailment of his leave to remain, with the clock starting to tick at the point at which the UK Border Agency (UKBA) issued the curtailment notice following his redundancy.
The redundancy occurred on 28 May, the day the UK LLP filed for administration (29 May 2012), although it is unclear whether Dewey fulfilled its obligation of informing the UKBA within ten days of the filing.
If the US firm did fulfil this obligation and the trainee was given notice of curtailment by the UKBA immediately, his deadline for securing a new job and preventing deportation to the US will be around 6 August.
The individual, whose name has not been disclosed, is one of two trainees to have been under threat of deportation, with a Canadian trainee - also set to qualify this summer - already finding a job at US rival Vinson & Elkins’ City base.
Meanwhile, all other Dewey London trainees out of the 20 on its books have now found new homes, with firms including Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Ropes & Gray taking some on (17 May 2012).
However, roughly 30 to 40 London support staff are still without new posts, with a group considering consulting counsel to establish whether they can make a claim against the defunct firm’s estate. A Facebook group called Dewey & LeBoeuf London has been set up by City staff to help colleagues out.
A former Dewey City partner commented: “It’s a horrible market. You’ll find there’s a much bigger number in New York [without jobs].”
Separately, it has emerged that Dewey London legal HR manager Katharyn White has taken on a position as HR manager at SNR Denton. She was closely involved in helping Dewey legal staff in the capital find new roles (28 May 2012).
Dewey director of administration Karen Morrissey declined to comment. UKBA was not immediately available for comment. The trainee could not be contacted.
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Readers' comments (12)
Good move | 28-Jun-2012 8:36 am
@'Dewey London legal HR manager Katharyn White has [joined] SNR Denton. She was involved in helping Dewey legal staff find new roles'
Excellent news, she'll be able to help all those SNR Denton lawyers find new jobs too when their firm collapses too.
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Anonymous | 28-Jun-2012 11:13 am
is this news?
i sometimes wonder at the whingeing middle-class sense of entitlement which is expressed in some of the comments to these articles. Isn't this the real world of private enterprise. Businesses fail as well as succeed. Just because its a trainee or a lawyer who have their comfortable world shaken by a bout of unemployment it doesn't make their pain necessarily special as compared with others who god for bid cleaned the place or worked in the Dewey post-room.
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Anonymous | 28-Jun-2012 2:36 pm
But surely cleaning the place and working in the post-room are core duties of every trainee?
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George Bush | 28-Jun-2012 2:55 pm
How tragic. I can just see how sympathetically the Yanks would treat a young Brit in similar circumstances in New York. Something like "getoutta here you limey ****" springs to mind?
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Anonymous | 28-Jun-2012 3:19 pm
No, it doesn't make the pain worse, but it makes the 6 years of uni, law school and training pretty meaningless when you can't qualify.
Nothing to do with entitlement, but basic human empathy. What a creature you are.
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bob diamond | 28-Jun-2012 4:25 pm
Anonymous | 28-Jun-2012 11:13 am
bit easier to find a new job cleaning crappers and pushing a post trolley (no offence intended to those who do such jobs), than finding a new training contract., so keep your left-wing socialist diatribe to yourself.
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Anonymous | 28-Jun-2012 4:30 pm
The British immigration system has been successful because it keeps uneducated undesireables like this trainee out of the country.
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Anonymous | 29-Jun-2012 8:40 am
Could not Peter Sharp be deported instead?
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Anonymous | 29-Jun-2012 1:29 pm
It is warming how former Dewey trainees have been picked up by other firms.
It is far harder for trainess at high street firms that go pop.
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Anonymous | 3-Jul-2012 4:49 pm
Anonymous posting at 4.30pm:
Does that include uneducated undesirables who can't spell undesirable, and who display political tendencies bordering on fascist?
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