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The vultures are circling Bear Stearns - this time with human flesh in mind.

The prospect of losing some of Bear’s top human capital undoubtedly helped inject extra passion into the performance by Jamie Dimon on Wednesday night, as he made a plea to Bear Stearn’ 500-odd - undoubtedly slightly shell-shocked - senior bankers, urging them to consider staying with the enlarged firm.

The FT reports that JPM, with an eye on its predatory rivals, is moving quickly to retain Bear’s top-performing bankers and brokers, even before it gains shareholder approval for its takeover of the beleaguered investment bank. The move would seem to underscore the bank’s belief that no other rival bidder will emerge to trump its agreed deal.

JPMorgan, which agreed to buy Bear for $2 per share to save it from a bankruptcy filing, is preparing retention package offers for top Bear employees as soon as Thursday.

In a packed auditorium on Wednesday, Dimon flanked by his senior lieutenants and Alan Schwartz, Bear’s chief executive, expressed sadness at the brokerage’s fate and urged its bankers to “give JPMorgan a chance”.

The retention payments will come out of the $6bn JPMorgan set aside to cover litigation and other costs related to its acquisition of Bear, according to the FT, which adds that on top of bonus and other payments, JPMorgan has been making loans and offering other financial assistance to Bear’s employees who saw much of their net worth evaporate with the collapse in the bank’s shares.

But these efforts have apparently angered some JPMorgan executives, who argue that their agreement to buy Bear was done in large part to protect the financial system and bail out other Wall Street banks that were big counterparties to the failing bank (not, in other words, to come up with lucrative packages for top staff in the failed investment bank).

Lex, however, says Bear’s failure could lead to a “cut-rate hiring pageant”, similar to that which followed Drexel Burnham’s collapse. Many Bear employees “may be more desperate for the promise of a job in today’s rough market than for outsized pay packages”, it adds.

Bear’s aspiring defectors may knock hardest on the doors of private equity shops, hedge funds and boutique advisory companies, predicts Lex.

The bank’s “eat-what-you-kill” culture is arguably closer in nature to the entrepreneurial cultures of Greenhill, Moelis and Evercore than to the bureaucracies at Wall Street’s biggest banks. If Alan Schwartz, say, were to start a boutique company, determined compatriots looking to be paid more directly for their work would surely follow.

Indeed, while JPMorgan will make efforts to keep top producers, the FT reports that bank executives acknowledge that many of Bear’s 14,000 staff will ultimately be laid off.

Meanwhile, Joe Lewis, the UK-born billionaire who owns 8.35 per cent of Bear, said in a filing on Wednesday he would “take whatever action” was necessary to “protect the value” of his investment and might encourage Bear to “consider other strategic transactions or alternatives,” notes the FT.

Reports on Wednesday night suggested Lewis was talking to Jimmy Cayne, Bear’s former chief executive, about mounting a counterbid. However, under the terms of the deal with JPMorgan, Cayne and other Bear officers are not allowed to participate in a rival bid.