Partners Leaving Akin Gump
Akin Gump has laid off staff and rescinded offers to summer associates, but those moves are mere details in the grand scheme of things. The American Lawyer reports that Akin Gump lost more partners than any other firm the publication tracks:
Akin lost 17 percent of its partners to competitors, small firms, in-house positions, and government jobs. Some of those defections were anticipated—fallout from strategic shifts in the firm’s practice groups and management structure. But others were a surprise.
Back in August, we reported on a rash of Akin Gump defections, but the overall numbers are still surprising.
Which offices were hardest hit? Apparently, this kind of thing does happen in Texas.
More after the jump, including an update from the Blog of the Legal Times.
American Lawyer reports that there were major partner defections in Houston:
The Houston office saw more upheaval. Ten energy partners, some specializing in infrastructure development projects or land use, left the 75-lawyer office after the energy group put a premium on climate change and regulatory matters. But the Houston office did add energy partner David Elder—the only 2008 lateral partner hire—from Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell.
Infrastructure kind of sounds important and lucrative just at the moment.
Akin Gump’s Silicon Valley office was also hard hit in 2008:
Last summer, Akin’s entire 14-lawyer Silicon Valley office, which advised electronics, software, semiconductor, and medical device companies, decamped for Alston & Bird. “At Akin, the firm culture was driven by the bottom line,” says Steven Hemminger, a partner who joined from White & Case in 2007, only to depart a year later for Alston. “Their management made a poor decision that patent prosecution and counseling were too low-margin.”
You don’t often hear partners complaining about too much focus on the bottom line.
Of course, according to Akin’s chairman Bruce McLean, all of this “streamlining” is great!
While losing 59 partners hasn’t been easy, McLean, who has been Akin’s chairman for the past 16 years, expects that the slimmed-down practice areas will pay off. In 2007 the firm saw profits per partner fall nearly 7 percent to slightly more than $1.2 million, putting it sixtieth on The Am Law 200 partner profit charts.But in early January he predicted that profits per partner grew as much as 10 percent in 2008 as a result of the shake-up, “What we are seeing is a slimmed-down firm generating more profits,” says McLean. At least, that’s the plan.
Yay!
Update (11:55): The Blog of the Legal Times adds some more color on how Akin’s partner defections are not affecting the firm’s bottom line:
McLean adds that the partners who left the firm did so at their own choosing and were not the contributors some believed them to be.“You can’t believe everything you read. Just because someone says, or a press release says, they’re a rainmaker, doesn’t mean they’re making rain. Sometimes it’s more like fog,” McLean says.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Jumping Ship [American Lawyer]
Akin Gump Reports Growth [The BLT: Blog of the Legal Times]
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Comments
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FIZZZZZZZZZZZIRST!!!!
more room at the top, baby!
ATTTkin and GumTTTTTp.
(ed. note--I know this is an epic fail, but it pales in comparison to most of the inane comments.
CADWALADER
i thought akin gump was supposed to be good in dc?
*nervously reevaluates firms i'm thinking about bidding on for OCI*
-nervous T-10 1L
soon to be nervous 1L sa
Mah name's Gump. Forrest Guuhmp.
I like Elie's style.
I want to deliver a killer PUSSY FART on greedy motherfucker Bruce McLean's face!
Jan 27, 2009 - Cadwalader represents former directors and officers of Pfizer, who were defendants in a derivative suit alleging that the company sold Celebrex and Bextra despite alleged cardiovascular risks associated with the drugs. On January 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to grant the defendants' motion to dismiss the action.
Jan 26, 2009 - Cadwalader is representing Pfizer in its acquisition of Wyeth in a $68 billion cash and stock transaction that creates one of the world's most diversified companies in the global health care industry.
Jan 22, 2009 - CIFG Holding, Ltd., the holding company for CIFG’s financial guaranty subsidiaries, along with its principal shareholders, Banque Populaire Group and Caisse d’Epargne Group, reached a final settlement with credit default swap counterparties and bondholders of ABS CDO exposures and certain CRE CDO exposures. Cadwalader acted as CIFG’s legal counsel.
Jan 20, 2009 - The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas confirmed the Plan of Reorganization for Heartland Automotive proposed by the debtors and Cadwalader's client, the Unsecured Creditors Committee. The Plan was confirmed in just over 12 months.
Jan 9, 2009 - Cadwalader Helps Lyondell Secure Record DIP Financing.
rescinding offers? seems like pretty drastic action to take
A rash of akin gumps ... that doesn't sound good.
Can't get the link. Does the AmLaw data account for inflow?
10: i think this was probably a wise move by akin gump, this way they won't oversubscribe and have to no-offer half of the 2L's. i guess we'll only know for sure at the end of the summer. if they no-offer half the 2L's anyway that would be a bad sign.
-nervous T-10 1L
soon to be nervous 1L sa
This would never happen in Houston.
Oh, thank you for your analysis, first year law student.
Getting an SA position is going to make this guy an even bigger tool than he was before.
*tries to give 15 a high five, realizes he was using sarcasm, slowly withdraws hand to act like i'm scratching my head*
:(
-nervous T-10 1L
soon to be nervous 1L sa
Is Akin Gump really representative of BigTex firms? Aren't most of its lawyers, in fact, not in Texas?
10, the offers had not yet been accepted when they were pulled.
Apparently this thing does happen in TTTexas. hahaha
Nice one Elie.
It's only fair to point out your good lines, after all the bashing you always get.
Elie - The title of this entry is pretty sloppy. I kept reading waiting to hear of news that you just broke the story about a partner leaving Akin Gump. Rather, this is summary of what happened last summer. Maybe you should have gone with "Akin Loses Most Partners Last Year"
Just last week Akin's Austin office lost its securities litigation practice. The Austin office is incredibly small now - less than 20 attorneys.
Well, on the bright side, if things really go south the firm can always start the Akin-Gump Shrimping Co.
Mama always said life is like a Texas lawfirm, you never know what partners are gonna get the hell out of there.
The ship be sinking...
I know ATL is just copied and pasted info, but can it at least be current copied and pasted info?
Akin just reported a 3.76% increase in revenue for 2008 and PPP over $1.4 million.
-Not Bruce McLean
AG DC only hires Native American women...i wonder why that is...
25, is English your first language?
This is all old--and partially inaccurate news. Way to go, ATL, you got scooped by last week's ABA weekly garbage news email! So let's summarize:
Akin, like more than a few other firms, rescinded offers to summer associates that HADN'T YET ACCEPTED. They didn't rescind anyone's accepted offer. And as another commenter noted, better that than an oversubscribed summer class that can't all get offers at the end.
The rest of it is rehashing of eight-months old news. Doesn't this stupid blog have anything salacious on it anymore, or should I just rely on the the weekly ABA email for untimely and useless news about the field from now on?
This is all old--and partially inaccurate news. Way to go, ATL, you got scooped by last week's ABA weekly garbage news email! So let's summarize:
Akin, like more than a few other firms, rescinded offers to summer associates that HADN'T YET ACCEPTED. They didn't rescind anyone's accepted offer. And as another commenter noted, better that than an oversubscribed summer class that can't all get offers at the end.
The rest of it is rehashing of eight-months old news. Doesn't this stupid blog have anything salacious on it anymore, or should I just rely on the the weekly ABA email for untimely and useless news about the field from now on?
It would be nice if some of these partners would move up to Canada. We don't have a lot of native legal talent . And by legal talent I mean people with triple digit IQs.
Texas does not fit into AG's new business model - that is a fact.
28/29:
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=136561&d=415&h=417&f=416
25 --- Akum Gump (like most firms) upped its rate roughly 5% over the course of last year. That accounts in full for how their revenues are up 3%. In fact, their "value of time worked" is down over 2% firmwide.
As for PPP being up: fewer equity partners = higher PPP.
I hope every ernest reader of this site can manage to read between the lines over the next two months as firms come out with their 2008 numbers. Most of these firms experienced revenue increases of 10%-15% each year during the "boom" cycle. Some of them saw PPP go up 33% in single years.
A firm that shows revenues static (up or down 4% or less) has weathered a storm relatively well so far (although things like associate layoffs, salary freezes, etc need to be taken into account). Firms are going to play with their books as much as humanly possible (say goodbye non-equity partners) to produce a picture of economic health to the greatest extent possible.
Just like the rest of the US economy, BigLaw management understands that public perception has as much to do with success / failure as actual performance. If this recession lasts more than 2 years (and the smart money says it will) then we'll really start seeing which firms can weather a storm and which ones can't.
I am offended by the lack of professionalism contained in these comments. Please moderate.
Professional Attorney
The list is interesting... of the top 4, two (Thelen and Heller) no longer exist and the other two are Akin and Mayer Brown (which has its own place in law firm issues and partner departure hell).
Akin's entire Governental Affairs group in Austin went over to Greenberg Traurig....as of yesterday 9 of the Austin litigation attorneys and most of the litigation staff also went to Greenberg...do they even have an Austin office left???????
What a stupid post, as usual. And filled with errors, as usual. And didn't even bother to notice the Legal Times story about AG today...
http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/02/akin-gump-reports-growth.html
As noted previously, the offers that were rescinded (NY and LA only) were for people who had not yet accepted, in order to prevent an oversubscribed summer program. AG always gives 100% offers at the end of the summer unless there are performance-related reasons to ding someone. The summer programs in each office will be small enough this year to keep that trend, while many firms are going to be no-offering huge numbers of people.
The Silicon Valley office relied on one partner for all its revenue generation. Unfortunately, he had problems getting his clients to pay, so the office was bleeding money, and AG asked him and his support crew to leave. So yes, the firm is driven by the bottom line - if you bill thousands of hours but cannot collect, you won't last long.
And yes, the firm has changed its infrastructure practice focus. AG no longer focuses on airport and highway expansions, but on renewable energy and natural resource extraction projects. This seems like a good strategy going forward, particularly given our regulatory and lobbying strengths and the political climate here in the capital.
To nervous T10 1L, don't worry, I'll auto-ding any 2L candidate who was a 1L SA just to make sure you don't end up here in our DC office. We've got a great culture here, and don't want douchebags like you polluting it.
It sounds like the Houston energy partners were put off by the firm's pandering to the global warming hype. I wonder how many companies are paying for global warming-related counseling in this economy. I reckon not many.
The Austin government affairs office did not leave by choice...
37=tool
Re 36, yes there is still an Austin office, but its getting smaller and smaller. Who knows if or when it will collapse.
This would never happen in Austin. Austin denizens are civilized.
37=tool
33 - You have no idea what you are talking about. I'm not going to give all the details, but suffice it to say, rate increases were not the primary reason for the increased revenue in 2008.
36 - AG announced last year that the firm is getting out of local and state lobbying, which was the main thing in the Austin office. I do feel bad for the Texas folks, because there are lot of great attorneys there, but the firm is clearly concentrating on its coastal and international presence.
How does this effect the Megalodon Excrement practice at Wildman Harrold?
At least Austin folks had a place to go...must be weird all of them in a new firm. Akin have a San Antonio location? I know GT always looking for new people they can steal...I mean leteral
I am offended by the offensive anti-Texas remarks. They are offensive.
Professional Attorney in Texas
Wow, Akin Gump's PR department is posting hardcore on this thread.
Two things are working out pretty well for Akin--democratic party-focused government relations and creditor bankruptcy work. you obviously will not dissolve a firm when your two strongest practice areas are on a cyclical upswing. akin is fine, although i question their judgment in giving nervous 1L an SA position.
Irony is a law firm chairman telling others not to believe everything they read.
@ 37,
I doubt anyone who achieved a 1L SA position will be messing with Akin during fall recruiting. hth.
"As noted previously, the offers that were rescinded (NY and LA only) were for people who had not yet accepted, in order to prevent an oversubscribed summer program."
Yes, this makes it much better.
Elie is a mere detttail in the grand scheme of things
48 - actually, most of the marketing department was laid off last month.
49 - private equity is also beginning to pick up again. m&a is still mostly dead, which definitely hurts the firm.
Thoughts on Akin's bankruptcy group? Is Dan Golden a good guy? Hedge fund exit opportunities? Better than the administrative bs/filing frenzy on the debtor side?
Akin Gump isn't a Texas firm.
55--Danny Golden is a good guy and I understand associates are pretty happy in his group. Probably hedge fund exit opps considering who their clients are.
* NOT an Akin Gump attorney
A post on this, how about those shitty AG bonuses?
All I know is that AG has a reputation to be a nasty sweatshop.
I was at AkinRump. It is teh suq, as the script kiddies say. The talent is told to wait until age 55 to cash in - like the old farts did. So the talent leaves. Sux be 2 u AkinRump. I'm making 3x what you were willing to pay me. Suck it.