Former Dewey Leader Fires Lawyers to Represent Himself

With a retrial looming in the fraud case against two former leaders of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, one of the defendants – ex executive director Stephen DiCarmine – has asked to represent himself. The original trial, which charged DiCarmine, former Dewey CFO Joel Sanders and others of scheming to defraud Dewey’s lenders and creditors ahead of its 2012 collapse, ended in a deadlocked jury. Two other defendants have cut deals with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to free them from retrial. DiCarmine said at a hearing last week that he’d like to drop his lawyer, Bryan Cave’s Austin Campriello, and represent himself. “The consequences are very severe in this case,” Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Stolz told DiCarmine. “You could go to state prison if convicted. You may feel you know what this case is all about having been through it once, but I assure you it will be a different jury. It will be a different presentation from the people.”