Also too big to fail.
Did you think we were kidding when we wrote about BigLaw partners leaving for Zuber & Taillieu, the LA boutique started by then-junior BigLaw refugees?
Even the mainstream media are catching on to the trend now.
After the jump, we break down Bloomberg’s roundup of others making the leap.
The exemplar in this piece for the growing trend is litigator Ron Schiller (Temple BBA ’81, Penn JD ’84), who left DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office for a local firm – 50 lawyer Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. The boutique was so eager to have him, they converted the firm’s gym, complete with City Hall view, into an office just for him. Associates shouldn’t be working out anyway! Damn the health-insurance premiums, we’re bringing in a rainmaker!
Conflicts, as usual, were one of the reasons for the move.
“Conflicts are a major issue and we wrestle with them every day,” Francis Burch, co-chief executive officer of DLA Piper, said in an interview. “Day in, day out, we win much more business than we lose.”
Burch declined to comment on individual departures.
“There is no partner who could walk out the door and create any material economic problems for the firm,” Burch said. “We are too big, too well diversified, and our business base is too well-institutionalized. Our global revenue for 2008 was $2.26 billion.”
That’s the first time we’ve heard a firm claim it’s too big to fail.
But we think the small firms’ nimbleness is the more-compelling reason.
“In today’s economy, the smaller platforms are becoming much more attractive. At a smaller firm, the client gets more attention and they get lawyers with big-law-firm training at lower billable rates.”
Trademark lawyer Mark Peroff quit 1,950-lawyer K&L Gates last year for Hiscock & Barclay, a 210-lawyer firm based in upstate New York. After switching, the lawyer cut his hourly fees by as much as 20 percent and brought long-time client AstraZeneca Plc with him, according to Peroff.
“In my experience at K&L Gates, the focus was entirely on making money,” Peroff said in an interview. “There was no glue among the partners.”
In addition to being tightly knit, Hiscock & Barclay gives partners flexibility to offer clients a variety of billing options, including fixed fees, Peroff said.
“Being at a small firm has not hampered our ability to attract large multinationals,” Peroff said, “especially European and Japanese clients who are in shell-shock over the cost of litigation in the U.S.”
That lines up pretty neatly with what clients are always saying, doesn’t it? Lower bills, flexible arrangements, and more-personal attention.
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