[ By Howard Haykin] Another day at Dewey & LeBoeuf, and another 6 or so partners defected, bringing the year-to-date total to over 120.  But today's defecting partners were not just any partners, they were among the top producers, and when they left, the common sentiment was, "there goes the franchise." Richard E. Climan, a leading M&A lawyer in Silicon Valley, and Berge Setrakian, a corporate lawyer in New York with a large international practice, were perhaps the move closely watched partners in the firm, among several other top producers.  But the legal literati knew that if either of them left, Dewey would be in real trouble.  Well, today Tuesday, both Mr. Climan and Mr. Setrakian left Dewey &LeBoeuf - they each came in just to wrap up some final details before moving on - Climan to Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and  Setrakian to DLA Piper.  Each will take with them several trusted partners and associates, further depleting the corps. Mr. Climan reportedly is bring Keith Flaum and 3 other partners and four associates.  This is the second lateral move in less than 3 years for the Climan group;  Dewey had poached them from Cooley in 2009.  Weil, the beneficiary, gets a pre-eminent West Coast M&A practice. Mr. Climan and his team recently advised Dell on 2 acquisitions, and they handled the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers out of bankruptcy. Mr. Setrakian is heading to DLA Piper and bringing a number of Dewey partners with him.  DLA Piper, with more than 4,000 lawyers, is the world’s largest law firm.  It has aggressively grown by hiring star lawyers from other firms with the promise of lucrative pay guarantees. Morgan Lewis & Bockius actively scooped up defecting partners from Dewey. This week they finalized the hiring of Dewey’s 31-lawyer Moscow office, and earlier had brought on about 65 lawyers from Dewey, including 18 in London. Akin Gump announced on Tuesday morning that it had added 3 Dewey energy industry lawyers to its partnership ranks, including John C. LaMaster, who was chairman of Dewey’s global oil and natural gas group and is based in London. Dewey’s employees have been warned that the firm could shut down.  On Monday, secretaries were told that Friday would be their last day.  As of last week, the firm’s leadership said there were no plans to file for bankruptcy. For further details, go to:  [Dealbook, 5/8/12].