[ by Howard Haykin ]

They may not be much of a law firm anymore, but they still own the diamonds in New York's Central Park.  Of course, we're referring to the softball team fielded by Dewey & LeBoeuf for the Wednesday night Manhattan Lawyers Coed Softball League.  While the behemoth law firm went bankrupt this year, and all its attorneys scattered in and around Manhattan to land new jobs, this group of men and women stayed united. 

They are ballplayers, but in a sense, they are also ghosts - casualties of an immense corporate collapse.  And yes, they still wear jerseys with the name of their defunct former employer emblazoned on their torsos: "Dewey."  The curiosity of the situation was not lost on the opposing team, with one opposing batter, Dustin Mansoor, observing: "Guess they didn’t lose the jerseys in the liquidation.”

This year, amidst all the turmoil and tension in the office, the team managed to post a regular season record of 10 - 1.  Then again, Dewey is the reigning champions of the Lawyers Coed Softball League, and they're actually quite good  - for lawyers.  Their excellent record was all the more surprising because the season kicked off just about the time the law firm came apart at the seams. 

And the day before their first scheduled softball game, Michael Didriksen, one of the team’s co-captains, sent an e-mail to his players informing them that Dewey had declined to pay the team’s $1,600 league dues. The team chipped in to cover the fee themselves.   "We’ve had a lot of fun talking about whether to get T-shirts made: The Bankruptcy State of Dewey LeBoeuf,” said Chuck Burger, a 72-year-old LeBoeuf alumnus, now retired, who has been on some incarnation of the team for 49 seasons. 

Also, for the record, when Mr. Didriksen left Dewey for his new home as a partner at Baker Botts, he sneaked the 2011 championship trophy out of the office with him.
 

On Wednesday’s playoff game night, the team had an extra jolt of intensity. One of its stars, Jared Kanover, a Dewey alumnus who is now general counsel at a hedge fund, badly injured his left foot while rounding the bases.  “It’s broken,” he said with a smile after spending a few moments writhing on the ground.  Then he hobbled right back to the plate and hit a grand slam. 

But it was Mr. Didriksen, the man who spearheaded efforts to keep them playing, who got to be the hero. In the bottom of the seventh and final inning, Mr. Didriksen batted with the bases loaded and his team a run behind. He drove a double into left field. Dewey won the game, 14-13.

On Thursday, however, the story came to a close. The team lost to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, 6-4.  And with single eliminations in the playoffs, the season was over and Dewey & LeBoeuf would not repeat as champions..

What About 2013? Though the firm is not coming back, many of Dewey’s players would like to keep the team together next season. And like good lawyers, they have begun to strategize, looking for loopholes that might allow them to play.  Richard Alvarez, a lawyer in private practice and the league commissioner, said he was unlikely to stand in their way if the team wanted to stick together, although, he added, “I suppose at some point it becomes a bit silly.”     [NYTimes, 9/6/12]