Biglaw

Name Partner Bolts From Struggling Biglaw Firm

Leclair is leaving Leclair.

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How long can the firm ignore all the bad news?

Oof. The hits just keep on coming for the Biglaw firm of LeClairRyan. On Wednesday, we reported that the firm had issued WARN Act notices to staff providing them with the federally mandated 60 calendar-day notification of mass layoffs. Of course, that wasn’t the only thing going wrong at the firm.

For over a year now the firm has seen a flood of partners and senior attorneys exit. Almost 10 percent of LeClair’s headcount departed in 2018, and the trend has continued in 2019. Indeed, just earlier this week a 15-attorney group from LeClairRyan — the aviation group led by Mark Dombroff — departed.

Now we’ve learned yet another piece of bad news for LeClairRyan. Founding partner Gary LeClair is leaving the firm and taking two other partners with him. LeClair, Andrew White and David Lay will be heading to Williams Mullin as of August 5th. Though LeClair stepped down from the management of the firm in 2015 to focus on his practice, the exit of the guy whose name is on the door has to sting though the firm has yet to issue any statement on this departure.

However, as reported by Richmond Biz Sense, yesterday CEO Erik Gustafson commented on the swirling rumors of the firm’s imminent demise and whether there’s been a partner vote on shutting down operations:

“Our partners have not agreed to do anything,” he said, referring to the fact that the firm’s shareholding partners ultimately would have to vote on what direction to take. “Right now it’s business as usual.”

….

“We’re looking at all options that we think are appropriate,” he said, declining to answer whether those include winding down the firm, combining with another firm in some capacity, or to fall into some form of bankruptcy.

Asked whether the firm’s future is in doubt, Gustafson declined to comment.

The firm has already lost more than half of its attorney headcount from the high of about 380 three years ago. And as for partners, they’re below 40 at the moment with the 100+ shareholders that have already left taking their books of business with them.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. 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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