American Lawyer

Dewey Have A Problem With Defections? Or With Math?
(Plus information on international offices.)

By

Defections continue at Dewey & LeBoeuf. On Tuesday, the WSJ Law Blog and Thomson Reuters reported on the departure of four M&A lawyers for DLA Piper. As we mentioned on Monday, antitrust litigator Eamon O’Kelly just flew the Dewey henhouse for Arent Fox. The recent departures take the number of partners who have left Dewey in 2012 to at least 40 (a decrease of about 13 percent in partner headcount).

The four attorneys who just jumped to DLA are John J. Altorelli and Alexander G. Fraser, who were partners at Dewey, and Patrick Costello and Gerald Francese, who were counsel. All four will be partners at DLA, and Altorelli will serve as co-chair of DLA’s U.S. finance practice, as well as a member of the executive committee. Although DLA is not a paradise, presumably the Dewey defectors determined DLA Piper to be more stable than Dewey (unless they took an “any port in a storm” approach, which is certainly possible).

In other Dewey news, the American Lawyer is revising the 2010 and 2011 financial results for Dewey — downward. And we’re hearing rumblings about some of the firm’s international offices….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Dewey Have A Problem With Defections? Or With Math?
(Plus information on international offices.)“

31 Comments

Quote of the Day: That’s One Stinky Cologne

By

After staying away in 2010, firms have returned to the lateral market at boom-time levels. But this hiring binge is driven by desperation, not a thriving economy.

– A headline seen in today’s edition of the American Lawyer. The magazine confirms that in 2011, 2,454 partners left or joined Am Law 200 firms. Lateral hiring might be up, but at what cost?

4 Comments

So You Want to Make Partner? Expect a Long Wait — and a Sausage Fest Once You Get There

By

Keep your head down, and prepare to wait if you want to make partner.

As we mentioned in Morning Docket, the American Lawyer just published a wonderful study about making partner at the top Biglaw firms. The publication analyzed all of the new partner hires at 97 of the Am Law 100 firms, reported on how women were doing, and noted some other general trends. Here are the top-line results:

  • Only one third of new partners were women.
  • The average wait for partnership was 10.5 years.

Oh, and there’s a chart that shows which firms were really hostile toward making new female partners….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “So You Want to Make Partner? Expect a Long Wait — and a Sausage Fest Once You Get There”

31 Comments

The Biggest Law Firms in the World: Meet the Global 100

By

Say hello to the Global 100 for 2011. This is the American Lawyer’s list of the world’s 100 largest law firms, ranked by total revenue.

There’s a lot of economic anxiety these days, with fears of a double-dip recession running rampant. But looking back — the list is compiled based on 2010 revenue numbers — the legal business seems to be hanging in there. As noted by Am Law, total revenue for the Global 100 increased by 3 percent last year.

Lawyers are a competitive lot. So you’re probably less interested in the overall figures than in how different firms fared in the rankings….

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The Biggest Law Firms in the World: Meet the Global 100″

50 Comments

The 2011 Am Law A-List

By

It’s that time of the year again: American Lawyer magazine has just released its A-List for 2011. The Am Law rankings attempt to evaluate which law firms have got the right stuff to become elite:

The A-List was created in 2003 in an effort to assess (and rank) the nation’s largest and most prominent law firms in a holistic way. It takes into account financial performance, which is represented by the inclusion of firms’ revenue per lawyer, and other important measures of law firm performance, such as attorney diversity, pro bono work, and associate satisfaction. The latter is measured by a firm’s results on our Associates Survey. Pro bono and diversity scores are also a reflection of a firm’s showing on our annual Pro Bono Survey and Diversity Scorecard.

So, which firms made the grade this year? And which firms are the true elite of the elite?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The 2011 Am Law A-List”

18 Comments

Hot Women Lawyers

By

This month’s issue of the American Lawyer includes a very interesting feature. The magazine identified 45 up-and-coming female attorneys under the age of 45, at Am Law 200 firms. These kinds of lists tend to be nothing more than a popularity contest, but Am Law seemed to do a thorough job in culling through a lot of nominees to come up with their 45 people. They put in a lot of work.

What caught my attention was Am Law’s stated reason for putting together the list:

Whether it’s “Dealmakers of the Year,” “Litigation Department of the Year,” “Big Suits,” or “Big Deals,” the pages of The American Lawyer typically brim with pictures of men. But time and again, we’ve come across remarkable women lawyers, many of whom fell outside of our deals-and-suits-heavy coverage. To give them their due, we decided to identify the best of the best among young women lawyers in The Am Law 200, and bring them together in a single issue.

Does that strike anybody as slightly patronizing?

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Hot Women Lawyers”

69 Comments

The Biggest of Biglaw: Greet the Global 100

By

The American Lawyer Global 100 is out. It’s the list that ranks law firms around the world by gross revenue.

And this year, there’s a new name at the top. Baker & McKenzie leapfrogged a number of firms to become the top-grossing law firm in the world (based on 2009 revenue numbers). Baker narrowly edged out Skadden for this honor.

Of course, Skadden people shouldn’t be ashamed of their second-place finish. Baker & McKenzie is huge: it leads the Am Law list of most lawyers by more than a thousand over its nearest rival, Clifford Chance. Skadden ranks #9 on the “most lawyers” list, with an attorney headcount that is almost doubled by Baker & McKenzie. Skadden gets to #2 in the revenue rankings by having a much higher revenue-per-lawyer figure.

Let’s take a look at the top ten in terms of revenue, and drool over these billion-dollar businesses…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “The Biggest of Biglaw: Greet the Global 100″

12 Comments

Orrick Will Abandon Publishing Profits Per Partner Next Year

By

Are profits per partner the appropriate metric to measure law firm success? It’s been a long time since firms seriously looked at the question. I didn’t know my Skadden from my Sullivan back when American Lawyer founder Steve Brill first started shining a light on the black box of top American law firms back in 1987.

For as long as most of us can remember, PPP has been the definition of law firm financial success. And despite all of the pressure on the law firm business model over the past couple of years, PPP seems as resilient as ever. We can scream about the billable hour, we can change the nature of associate compensation, but there aren’t a lot of people giving us a better statistic than profits per partner to talk about when it comes to the success of the law firm business model.

That could be changing. This afternoon, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced it would not be reporting PPP numbers next year.

What will replace it? We talked to Ralph Baxter, Chairman and CEO of Orrick, about what — if anything — can or should replace our fascination with PPP…

double red triangle arrows Continue reading “Orrick Will Abandon Publishing Profits Per Partner Next Year”

33 Comments
Page 2 of 212