Biglaw, Law Firm Mergers, Partner Issues

Biglaw Firm Losing Attorneys As It Preps For Merger

Not everyone will be there when the two Biglaw firms become one.

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goodbye farewell lateral partner moveChadbourne & Parke has really been making the news lately. They are defending themselves against a highly contentious former partner’s gender discrimination case. Plus they are getting ready to merge with Norton Rose Fulbright… but that doesn’t mean all the partners and associates will be there when the two Biglaw firms become one. The number of attorneys that are saying adieu to Chadbourne keeps on mounting:

In March, Erez Tucner joined Holland & Knight LLP in New York after spending more than 11 years with Chadbourne and serving as partner in its tax practice since 2011. A month later Alston & Bird LLP said it had added the former chair of Chadbourne’s intellectual property group, Paul Tanck in New York. And, in May, Reed Smith LLP said it had strengthened its energy and natural resources practice in London by snagging the managing partner of Chadbourne’s Moscow office, Andrei Baev.

And Covington & Burling has reaped the largest haul of Chadbourne attorneys — racking up 18 laterals in recent months:

Since the end of April, Covington has added 18 attorneys to its ranks from Chadbourne, a Covington spokesperson said. Just this past week, Li Zhang, Ursula Owczarkowski — who will serve as Covington’s international project finance vice-chair — and Julie Scotto joined Covington in London as of counsel. The firm also added former Chadbourne attorneys Derek Kirton and Haykel Hajjaji in its recently opened Dubai office and Lido Fontana and Deon Govender in its recently opened Johannesburg office.

We also are hearing from ATL tipsters that the defections are making an impact stateside. It’s been reported already that several New York partners have left the firm, and sources say in both that office and the D.C. one things are getting “really ugly”:

Associate morale is at an all-time low… So many rainmaking partners have left that work has dried up even in the once stellar project finance group. Associates are begging for work and pouncing/back biting on each other like piranhas.

Big-time partners that leave a firm are often the lateral moves that make news, but when a firm’s associate ranks start to get depleted, well, that has a real impact on the lives (and work) of the attorneys left behind.

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If you have any information about the Chadbourne exits, feel free to sound off by email, by text message (646-820-8477), or by tweet (@ATLblog). A fun or insightful response — we’ll keep you anonymous — could find its way into an update to this story.

Earlier:

headshotKathryn Rubino is an editor at Above the Law. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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