Last summer, a few months after Howrey went under, about 20 of its former attorneys got together for drinks at Ici Urban Bistro, a block from the White House. The mood in the high-end bar was jovial. “It was a fun night — everyone was happy to see each other,” said Howrey alum Michael McNamara, now a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. “There were no petty, personal things that came out.”
It helped that most of the lawyers had already found new homes at other law firms in town. Given the speed and size of Howrey’s collapse — and its particular impact on the D.C. legal market — the fact that many had landed safely was no small matter.
