Musical Chairs: Paul Maher Officially Leaves Mayer Brown
Have you ever been passed over for a promotion and decided: “screw you guys, I’m going home.” That may be what is happening at Mayer Brown. The National Law Journal reports:
Mayer Brown Vice Chairman Paul Maher, who had been on sabbatical at the law firm as of last month when he was passed over for one of the firm’s new management posts, has provided his official resignation from the firm.Mayer Brown Chairman Jim Holzhauer told all of the firm’s lawyers in a May 15 memo that Maher would be leaving on “a date to be agreed upon.” Maher, a London partner who was slated to give up his post next month, didn’t respond to an e-mailed request for comment. The firm declined to comment beyond noting that Maher currently is still at the firm.
This is just the latest big management change from Mayer Brown. More details, after the jump.
Back in March, we reported that the firm’s chairman, James Holzhauer, was stepping down. Herbert Krueger is going to take over as chairman of the firm.
But with the new chairman, Mayer decided to trim the firm’s management structure:
The proposed management committee would have six members and the proposed partnership board would have 12 members, both presided over by the firm’s chairman. Mayer Brown said earlier this month that partners will also vote on electing partner Herbert “Bert” Krueger as chairman after he was nominated last month for the post by the firm’s current governing body, the 16-member policy and planning committee.“It was the sense of the partners that we needed a smaller committee to lead the firm,” said partner Kenneth Geller, who is one of two vice chairmen at the firm. “This is an attempt to streamline management and I think it has support, but we’ll see.”
Perhaps there wasn’t a place for Mr. Maher?
No word on whether Maher will jump to another firm or what that firm may be.
It’s official: Paul Maher is leaving Mayer Brown [National law Journal]
NLJ: Mayer Brown’s Maher Taking Permanent Sabbatical [AmLaw Daily]
Mayer Brown to retool management structure, reestablish managing partner post [National Law Journal]
Earlier: Mayer Brown Chairman to Leave at the End of the Year
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First?
ATL used to be the 1st (not the 4th) to report of legal news.
ATL used to be the 1st (not the 4th) to report on legal news.
Last. Who cares.
This is old news.
this give "retooling" a whole other meaning....
this give "retooling" a whole other meaning....
This has nothing to do with me pounding my secretary in her ass.
Musical Chairs is right, in todays tough times there are less chairs at the Dinner table that is BIGLAW. Rather than having all of you share the same bounty in smaller portions, those survivors will be left with more portions than ever before, and I for one am thrilled!
this give "retooling" a whole other meaning....
Hizzla - that should be "fewer" chairs, not "less" chairs.
I'm not completely convinced Hizzla is a huge grammar buff.
Maher allegedly quit the management committee when the merger with Heller Ehrman was killed by the folks in Chicago (on September 14th). Maher was a big supporter of the merger with Heller because he saw it as a way to address the balance of power and move it away from Chicago (or at least dilute the influence of Chicago).
When the merger was killed at the last minute, he saw the writing on the wall and tendered his resignation from management.
Mayer Brown could have been an international firm. Now it is just another mid West firm.
(No comment on the fate of Heller.)
Lord I hope he doesn't end up at Paul Hastings. The firm has enough service/management partners as it is. Inevitably, he will land here with little guaranteed money and an incentive-laiden deal that plays to his own vanity.
Somewhere off in the distance another Shanghai associate dies...
Comment removed by moderator.
Somewhere over the rainbow is a small town called Brigadoon....
where clients pay all bills without a murmur and partners are sweet and kind and associates make bigger salaries than the partners.
A land where associates can fire off emails to the entire firm that question a key business proposition for the firm in lower case caps...
13, how would a merger with Heller have helped Mayer Brown become an international firm? They already have, due to the JSM merger, offices where Heller had Asia offices, and already had a London office from the Rowe & Maw merger. Merging with Heller wouldn't have done anything internationally.
It might have strengthened their NY office and obviously increased their West Coast presence, but once all those IP partners left, it probably made sense for Mayer Brown to walk away from the merger.
17:
13 here.
Agreed, the merger with Heller would not have made MB an international firm. The merger with Heller would have strengthened NYC and the West Coast. Most importantly, it would have diluted the influence of Chicago.
The earlier allusion to MB becoming an international firm was meant to address the lack of international power on the management committee now that Maher and his vision are gone.
It has been the subject of a lot of debate as to whether the departure of the IP partners from Heller could have been overcome or not. The fact is, the merger didn't happen and Maher is another casualty.....
@ 15 -- LOL. It will be a very moral firm.
A lot of partners have had their knives out for Paul for a while because of many of his actions over the last five years or so - I think that they caught up with him when he didn't get voted into the new "Inner Circle" or whatever people are calling out. This is him being unwilling to take a lesser role or have any of his approaches challenged, which should not surprise anyone who has ever met him or worked with him.
All explanations in these comments are wrong. Paul Maher was tossed because he's a brown-toothed, pub-crawling limey. I hope this clears things up.
To those naysayers, there are more important things in life than grammar. like pound cake.
Mayer Brown is yet another Chicago-based law firm that is significantly better than McDermott Will & Emery.
13 nailed it.
Professor T officially doesn't give a shit about Paul Maher, he's a dam jibba jabbering foo anyway.
Try harder people. Use the right friggin number of syllables in limericks. Here, THIS is closer (still not there) to a real Limerick. It's not that hard:
There once was a fatty named Elie,
Who had a tremendous black belly.
With each typo he made,
He kept getting paid,
And bought lots of doughnuts with jelly.
There once was a homo named Lat,
Who also was terribly fat.
With each poster he blocked,
He imagined their cocks,
And their balls on his head, like a hat.
- ABODE FREDERICK B. LIMERICK
(BETTER LIMERICKER
Try harder people. Use the right friggin number of syllables in limericks. Here, THIS is closer (still not there) to a real Limerick. It's not that hard:
There once was a fatty named Elie,
Who had a tremendous black belly.
With each typo he made,
He kept getting paid,
And bought lots of doughnuts with jelly.
There once was a homo named Lat,
Who also was terribly fat.
With each poster he blocked,
He imagined their cocks,
And their balls on his head, like a hat.
- ABOVE FREDERICK B. LIMERICK
(BETTER LIMERICKER