Former Dewey City chief to co-manage Morgan Lewis's London base
Former Dewey & LeBoeuf London managing partner Peter Sharp has been appointed co-head of Morgan Lewis & Bockius’s City base.
Peter Sharp
Sharp, who joined the US firm during the collapse of Dewey’s UK LLP (3 May 2012), has taken over as co-managing partner of the London office alongside finance partner Christopher Harrison.
The duo have taken the reins from tax partner Charles Lubar, who launched the firm’s London base in 1981. A number of partners held the City chief position between then and 2009, when Lubar replaced Robert Goldspink in the senior role (24 September 2009). The role is appointed by the firm’s management rather than elected.
Sharp was one of a large number of Dewey partners and staff to join Morgan Lewis while the firm was in the process of closing and following the US bankruptcy filing and UK administration (29 May 2012).
He has come under pressure for leaving Dewey in April during the height of the crisis despite promising to stay until the end, but told The Lawyer that the US firm’s central management had ruined any hopes of keeping the London practice going by ignoring his business proposals (28 May 2012).
Readers' comments (9)
Anonymous | 11-Jun-2012 2:21 pm
It does make you wonder what kind of due diligence these firms undertake.
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Anonymous | 11-Jun-2012 2:49 pm
After the battering Sharp got for being first in the life boats I hardly think he would be high in the management stakes, He did not do too well last time did he?
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Anonymous | 11-Jun-2012 3:05 pm
Is Morgan Lewis & Bockius’s management totally blinkered? Have they really swallowed the "None of this is my fault, it's all the fault of the Americans" line? It beggars belief.
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Coolio | 11-Jun-2012 3:30 pm
How on earth is it Peters fault the ship sunk?
Yes he might have done some things better but he fought hard for the London staff, as much as he could.
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Lightning doesn’t strike twice ... | 11-Jun-2012 3:56 pm
ML are playing the laws of probability – he balls'd up once and by the laws of probability, he can’t balls up again..........can he.......no really ........can he ??
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Nik | 11-Jun-2012 5:23 pm
Coolio. Please see my argument below as to why he is at fault. I am going to ignore all the hearsay, stories and comments.
Dewey is in administration.
Peter Sharp was one of the Managing Partners of the above firm.
He is therefore guilty by default surely?
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Anonymous | 11-Jun-2012 10:16 pm
Coolio - don't swallow the PR - he fought hard for the London staff...? Yes for about 15 of them he did. The rest he did not even say goodbye to as he disappeared overnight.
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dragonfly | 13-Jun-2012 1:40 am
Staggering. It is like handing the keys to the bar to a confessed boozer. I can understand why firms might take partners from failed firms as they might be good lawyers but putting them in charge after screwing up so spectactularly is beyond comprehension. Would loved to have been at the interview.
"I know I have publicly buried my firm in a sea of debt due to poor juddgement and greed, but give us a chance to have another go." Clearly the ML lot are as deluded as the DB lot were.
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Anonymous | 13-Jun-2012 1:52 pm
The Morgan staff in the London office must be overjoyed
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