Latham & Watkins: Two IP Partners Leave

We got a report last night that Latham & Watkins was losing two more IP partners to Quinn Emanuel. We’ve been able to confirm with sources at Quinn that the firm has in fact added Sean Pak and Dave Nelson. Both partners were patent litigators with Latham.

Our sources at Latham are worried that this is even more bad news for the firm:

This is on top of the NY IP partners all leaving last year. Expect several associates to follow. Right now LW has no IP practice in NY, and soon to have no substantial IP practice in Chicago. Rats leaving the sinking ship?

But is the Latham ship sinking? One tipster has no special information, but is worried nonetheless:

Rumors are flying within the firm that we’re going to announce layoffs soon…. I have no clue if the rumors are true but would love to hear everyone’s commentary.

After the jump, we get into some of the flying rumors.


We are getting new “Latham stealth layoff” tips almost every day. This report is a good example of what we continue to hear:

Sponsored

Stealth layoffs are ongoing — some were done as recently as late last week. I have overheard from numerous people that partners are just hoping the press on this will get buried and that the huge PR hit will get blown over.

Another tipster reports:

As yet, we have had NO formal internal discussions about what has happened (unlike with the salary freeze — at that time we had an immediate all hands meeting in every office — and in my opinion, the firm handled the roll-out of the freeze quite well). No one knows how many people were affected.

But maybe Latham associates are just experiencing the aftershocks of the firm’s performance review process. When we reported on stealth layoffs at Latham two weeks ago, the firm said:

Consistent with our standard practice at the end of each year, we have completed our associate review process…. Our decisions relating to associate departures were performance related and part of our usual year-end process, not part of an economic layoff.

Sponsored

Could it be that Latham is still getting around to informing associates about decisions that have already been made? Or is Latham undergoing a whole new round of layoffs?

If you have more information about the happenings at Latham, send it in to tips.

Earlier: Stealth Layoffs Open Thread: Latham & Watkins