The Hot New Trend In Law Firm Rumors: Dissolution
Gossip about attorney or staff layoffs is so five minutes ago. Sure, we continue to receive such rumors (and investigate them, and report them out if they’re true). But these days, in a sign of how bad the economy is getting, lately we’ve started receiving rumors about far more dire outcomes: law firm dissolutions.
For example, last week we heard this rumor about one of Connecticut’s oldest and most well-regarded law firms, Tyler Cooper & Alcorn:
Allegedly, Tyler, Cooper, Alcorn LLP in New Haven, CT is folding in the very near future. This was told to a friend of mine directly from a partner at that firm. It’d be great if you could call them up and verify if this is indeed true. I know you usually focus on national law firms (many with the NYC connection), but in terms of firms in CT, this is major news.
Tyler Cooper is one of the more well-known and larger firms in CT (although its still about half the size of Day Pitney, Robinson & Cole, and Shipman & Goodwin). But [the rumor] demonstrates that the economy is hitting us hard….
Tyler Cooper is also well-known to Yale Law School students and graduates. The Morris Tyler Moot Court competition at Yale is named after one of the founding partners of the firm. As he often mentions, former YLS dean and Second Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi is married to Anne Tyler Calabresi, a descendant of Morris Tyler.
As it turns out, the dissolution rumor is not true. From managing partner William S. Fish, Jr.:
Tyler Cooper has no “plans to dissolve as a partnership in the near future” or otherwise…. Tyler Cooper is having discussions with other firms about combining, and I can only speculate that those discussions are related to or are the source of the inaccurate rumors that you have heard. We are not in a position to provide further details on our discussions with the other firms at this time.
So look out for a possible merger involving Tyler Cooper, at some point in the future.
Meanwhile, here’s a second dissolution rumor making the rounds, concerning Thacher Proffitt & Wood, a firm that’s no stranger to these pages. A tipster tells us: “Rumor mill around the office: the firm is shutting down by the end of the year.”
How accurate is this gossip? We’re not sure. We reached out to the firm for comment, but they did not get back to us.
One source of ours at the firm denied hearing any such gossip. But a second source did confirm:
Yup, I heard this one. Actually, to be accurate, the word I heard from [partners of the firm] is if the situation gets worse the firm will shut down by the end of the year (this year). There were whispers the firm may merge with another but I haven’t heard anything more of that. They just did about 10 more layoffs this past week.
So stay tuned. Law firm dissolutions, while rare, do happen. History is littered with the names of law firms, many of them quite distinguished and successful in their prime, that are no longer with us. E.g., Brobeck, Coudert Brothers, Finley Kumble, Testa Hurwitz.
Update: Thacher Proffitt’s managing partner, Paul Tvetenstrand, denies that the firm has any plans to dissolve. His statement is available here.
This latest economic downturn has yet to claim a major (i.e., Am Law 200) law firm. Which will be the first to close its doors? Your thoughts are welcome, in the comments.
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Comments
dissolution is good--it creates more jobs in the end. more firms mean more secretaries, more paralegals, more administrators, and more attorneys to pay their salaries.
Co-sign 1:00 PM.
Creative destruction, baby.
As I understand it, Brobeck's demise was a result of its over reliance on contingent fees and equity, rather than billables.
if Powell Goldstein is still in the AmLaw 200 (too lazy to check and see), my money is that they complete their process from withering on the vine into turning into vinegar by the middle of 2009.
Dissolution works with their tag line:
Not just good lawyers
Good counsel
Good bye
What did you expect would happen when you waste near a trillion dollars on a pointless war?
And now the Washington idiots (necons, AIPAC and seemingly every Jewish person I know) are trying to repeat the failure on a much larger scale in Iran.
Because we're all thinking it....
1:11 = TTT
1:19- Agreed.
Thirded, re 1:11
1:19 = Jewish?
1:19 = Jewish?
1:24=Nazi X 2
1:24(1) and (2) = Muslim?
This isn't 1:19 but, seriously, that's the same type of leap without logic 1:11 took and someone's comment doesn't necessarily indicate that person's religious affiliation, like yours doesn't mean you're Muslim.
The AIPAC troll strikes again. Don't argue with him, he just gets more hydophobic.
Everyone who has seen 1:11 before knows that he has Ass Burger's Syndrome. Might as well leave him alone to his crazy...
/Yes, Asperger's, I know.
Are any of the Volokh readers here familiar with Mary Katherine Day-Petrano? Doesn't AIPAC troll seriously remind you of her?
We have gotten off-topic here.....
I think the issue is who has a lot of exposure to securitization / structured finance work.
How is Cadwalader doing these days?
This is hilarious
Jews: We must attack Iran. Attack Iran. Attack Iran now. When are you going to attack Iran?
Person: Jews want American to go to war with Iran.
Jews: You're crazy!
I think we know who the real crazy is. I echo 1:11's post and wish to use ATL to tell my Jewish coworkers to stfu about Iran.
I don't think Powell Goldstein will dissolve. They have too many great contingent fee cases set to pay off. Lin Wood is bound to cash in on that Howard K. Stern defamation case any day now. And don't forget they'll soon bring Hotels.com to its knees for all those unpaid sales taxes. The cash generated by those cases will be used to fuel rapid international expansion. In 3 years, they'll be bigger than Skadden. McAlpin rulz!
I'm more worried about the still melted down credit markets as the Fed is keeping the loan window open for i-banks. The manure is still entering the ventilation system as default rumors on CMBS's fly.
"I echo 1:11's post"
Please change that to: "I echo my other deranged personality's post."
"... tell my Jewish coworkers to stfu about Iran."
By6 "Jewish coworkers," do you mean "fellow Bellevue residents"?
Pogo is not a bad bet....
No one is going to war with Iran. Enough nations will convince Iran that this will not be a happy ending for them if they attempt to execute on their rhetoric. The key is that the U.S. and Israel cannot act alone here. Israel has a right to defend itself, and if it is forced to, Iran must be isolated by all nations, not just the U.S.
You're still not getting it:
WAR + Bush Admin retardation = private contracts
Private contracts = $$$ for Lockheed, Northrup Grumman, Bechtel, Bae Systems, etc.
1:32, yes. Just google "mary katherine day petrano" to see some of the craziest legal briefs you will ever read. She accused the Florida Supreme Court of discrimination because it apparently expected her to file a brief that conformed to its font-size rules. She claimed to be unable to do this in a rambling brief that includes endless footnotes in printed in small font. It's hilarious.
Man, I really hope that I keep my job through this storm! It would really be hurtful - financially and emotionally if I were to lose my job. Lets just keep our fingers crossed!
Let's put some things in order here:
1. yawn... wake me up when a firm like Simpson, Cleary or even Thacher ACTUALLY dissolves.
2. Nobody is going to attack Iran. Or North Korea. Or solve the situation in Darfur.
3. Bush is an idiot (we all know that - and I am a Republican).
4. Jews: I respect your heritage, but sometimes you should just chill out. Not everybody who says something against the tribes is a Nazi.
We're going to war with Iran? No one told me. I guess my Jew-phone was down today.
- Jew
2:07 - That's what you get for not paying retail for it (I kid, I kid).
2:09--very funny line and I'm Jewish
Tyler Cooper is a TTT - even for CT. It has been withering for years.
2:07 -funny
2:09-well played
POGO just indefinately delayed the start of all their upcoming first year associates.
Yeah, the economy seems to have been doing poorly over the last year or so. In my opinion, the high oil prices and the housing crisis are probably the two main culprits.
it certainly is one of the bigger firms in the state - right after Day Pitney, Robinson & Cole, Shipman & Goodwin, Jones and Smith, Barney and Rubble, Fred and Wilma...
CT ain't that big of a state!
TPW doesn't seem to have fired 10 associates in the past week. Their total number of associates is only down 1 or 2.
I'm a Jew and I don't want to go to war with Iran. I like Obama's rhetoric about diplomacy and I hope that he implements it once he's elected president.
As a Jew, I am laboring daily to divert this country's resources into an unnecessary war with Iran. For you see, "War" + "Middle East" + "?" = Profit!
The AIPAC guy has had a busy morning. Check this out on the Washington Post @11:32
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3aa8bc6fd8-cf9f-43ca-99a4-05fdb4342697Discussion%3a49df6abf-86c5-43ab-9cd4-263b579c765d#none
2:49 needs to go back to Autoadmit (XOXO).
"Yeah, the economy seems to have been doing poorly over the last year or so. In my opinion, the high oil prices and the housing crisis are probably the two main culprits."
There's another big culprit: the entire Bush administration.
This board is really going to shit...
/Yet here I am, still
"Connecticut's oldest and most well-regarded law firms"
So let me guess... it was about five years old and had a few features on the front page of Who Cares Weekly?
Sigh. What does the war have to do with religion. We invaded Iraq to free those poor, miserable people from a brutal dictator who gassed and tortured them, and give them the opportunity to choose their leaders.
these law firms would probably have gone under regardless of the market. ttt to tha max.
"We invaded Iraq to free those poor, miserable people from a brutal dictator who gassed and tortured them, and give them the opportunity to choose their leaders."
And now we're going to go to all of the other nations run by evil dictators and do the same thing! Oh wait, no we're not. That was just a pretense for Bush's friends to make money.
The people of my faith and AIPAC tricked our great nation into going to war against Iraq and all I got was a loust T-shirt.
3:06 -- we should. Zimbabwe should be next on the list.
The people of my faith and AIPAC tricked our great nation into going to war against Iraq and all I got was a lousy T-shirt.
3:09 your post wasn't *that* funny. You didn't need to post it three time.
pop the snark
3:06 as much as i agree that this war is a total fuckup and bush is the king of all fuckups, when i watch movies like schindler's list and life is beautiful and read about zimbabwe and darfur, i always find myself asking "why doesn't anyone do something about this?!?"
clearly, the iraqis are worse off now than they were with saddam. but because bush fucked up their country (and ours...), does that mean we should take a hands-off approach to situations where EVERYONE knows that something bad is happening (ie the holocaust, uganda in the 60s, darfur now, rwanda in the 90s, etc) and that we could do something to stop it?
What about the Palestinians 5:29? Why can't we help them?
6:14--which palestinians? jews or muslims or christians?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian
The ones described here 6:35 http://youtube.com/watch?v=jzV8_flGC5A
so i guess it takes about 3 weeks for a staff rumor initiated by a bunch of known drama queens to reach the outside? good to know. no attorneys were laid off to my knowledge; it involved staff only (some who were simply victims of the economy but 2 of which were long overdue).
1:03, I was at Brobeck when it closed, and that's not the reason.
The first firm to dissolve? Heller Ehrman. They are already talking to the undertakers of the profession: Baker McKenzie. Any firm that has to talk to them about merging is as good as dead. Now, nobody will merge with them to keep Heller alive. It will happen in the next 4 weeks or Heller will die slowly without Baker absorbing it.
Who the hell wants to merge with Tyler Cooper? Half the firm sucks, they've lost 20+ lawyers over the last 3 years, and I can't imagine that any elite firm in CT would want to absorb the whole bloody thing. My guess is they'll have to merge with somebody on the B team in CT - Pepe and Hazard, etc. THe interestin thing is that there are several partners there who could do better than merging with a B team law firm, and if they went out by themselves they would be welcomed at the better firms. So, if Tyler Cooper really does manage to merge its entire partnership into one firm I suppose it will be a testament to the cohesiveness of the partners.
The fifth largest firm in Rhode Island - Tillinghast Licht, founded in 1818 - close up shop at the beginning of June.
1:03 + 7:12 - I thought Brobeck's demise was due to excessive real estate expenses (vast amounts of Bay Area real estate, leased at market peak) and excessive bank debt (big line of credit with Citi).
Low billables from highly paid partners may also have been a problem:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1069801718236
What is "TTT"?
1:53, what a wackjob. Day-Petrano as you slur her autism, "rambles" when discriminated against by failure of courts to provide her paperless totally electronic format Dragon NaturallySpeaking assistive technology access.
Your comment also demonstrates the fool you clearly are due to your inability to fathom that computers for the vision impaired can draft pleadings in the 16-point font the Florida Supreme Court Title II ADA Guidelines allow, while simultanously containing the electronic capability of reducing font size at the stroke of a mouse to a point smaller than a vision impaired person can actually see (to satisfy the Florida Supreme Court Clerk's paper small print font requirement that conflict with the same Court's ADA Guidelines, of course).
Are you seriously so incapable of logical rational thought that you actually believe you can find a causal connection between reducto ad absurdum small font size and the actual disabilities a person has? Nutcase.
Maybe Day-Petrano had a scribe who can read small font size. Maybe she had a reader who can read small font size. Or maybe it was her fairy Godmother.
All we know is Day-Petrano cannot read small font size, and therefore, like the blind in the US Treasury case, was discriminated against by the Florida Supreme Court.
Troll.
Where did you go to law school?
Update on Tyler Cooper: the denials in July may not be operative by September. As of today (Aug. 29), office staff anticipating imminent dissolution are reportedly putting feelers out to former colleagues at other firms. Word is some Hartford lawyers will go to Hinckley Allen as a group.
Here's an example of an A/B/C/D law review dumb down type, an ignoramus in Title II Americans With Disabilitiles Act jurisprudence -- MKDP has hypergraphia, temporal lobe syndrome, with seizure and a print paper reading impairment -- feaures of savant autism.
Hypergraphia -- look it up Einstein. Maybe it explains why so many little footnotes =/= the "effective communication" with the Court Title II of the ADA requires.
If you still *don't get it*, perhaps you should ask someone in Harvard's Medical School before your spew off your dumb as rocks take on brain seizures and insult the Chief Justice, too.
"1:32, yes. Just google "mary katherine day petrano" to see some of the craziest legal briefs you will ever read. She accused the Florida Supreme Court of discrimination because it apparently expected her to file a brief that conformed to its font-size rules. She claimed to be unable to do this in a rambling brief that includes endless footnotes in printed in small font. It's hilarious"
"features of savant autism" -- it means MKDP is a prodigious savant, one of the brightest and highest intelligence future stars in the legal profession ever to be discovered.
Sort of the Temple Grandin of Big Law.
And you insult her? There are only about 30 prodigious savants in World history.
MKDP's defender is her husband, David Petrano. He likes to pretend he isn't when supporting her on blogs - and when he gets found out, he accused people of cyberstalking them.