The Lateral Report
Jumping Ship: Biggest Losses
Order the 2009 Lateral Partner Database
| The writing was on the wall for Heller Ehrman and Thelen. Both firms had lost almost one-fifth of their partners by the fourth quarter. Some of Akin's defections were also a surprise. | |||
| Firm | Departing partners (% all partners)* |
Departures to Am Law 200 firms | Where the rest went: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld | 59 (17%) | 42 | Other firms (12), corporations (4), government (1) |
| Heller Ehrman1 | 47 (18%) | 47 | N/A |
| Thelen2 | 46 (18%) | 45 | Other firm (1) |
| Mayer Brown | 45 (8%) | 43 | Other firms (2) |
| K&L Gates | 40 (6%) | 15 | Other firms (16), corporations (9) |
| Reed Smith | 38 (6%) | 15 | Other firms (19), corporations (3), government (1) |
| DLA Piper | 37 (3%) | 34 | Other firms (3) |
| McDermott Will & Emery | 28 (5%) | 25 | Other firms (3) |
| Morrison & Foerster | 26 (7%) | 18 | Other firms (2), corporations (5), judicial (1) |
| Alston & Bird | 22 (7%) | 12 | Other firms (2), corporations (7), education (1) |
| McCarter & English | 22 (12%) | 14 | Other firms (5), corporations (2), judicial (1) |
| King & Spalding | 21 (8%) | 15 | Other firms (2), corporations (2), government (2) |
| Vinson & Elkins | 21 (7%) | 21 | N/A |
| Bingham McCutchen | 20 (5%) | 20 | N/A |
| Dewey & LeBoeuf3 | 20 (6%) | 10 | Other firms (7), corporations (2), government (1) |
| Foley & Lardner | 20 (4%) | 13 | Other firms (4), corporation (1), judicial (1), education (1) |
| Jones Day | 20 (3%) | 12 | Other firms (3), corporations (4), government (1) |
| Morgan, Lewis & Bockius | 20 (4%) | 20 | N/A |
| Sidley Austin | 20 (3%) | 10 | Other firms (4), corporations (6) |
| Baker & Hostetler | 19 (6%) | 13 | Other firms (3), corporations (3) |
| Fulbright & Jaworski | 19 (5%) | 16 | Other firms (3) |
| Hunton & Williams | 19 (5%) | 16 | Other firms (2), corporation (1) |
| Perkins Coie | 19 (6%) | 6 | Other firms (7), corporations (4), government (1), education (1) |
| Winstead | 19 (11%) | 6 | Other firms (11), corporations (2) |
| Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney | 18 (8%) | 16 | Other firms (2) |
| Faegre & Benson | 18 (7%) | 6 | Other firms (7), corporations (4), not-for-profit (1) |
| Fox Rothschild | 18 (8%) | 3 | Other firms (9), corporations (5), education (1) |
| Greenberg Traurig | 18 (2%) | 11 | Other firms (7) |
| O'Melveny & Myers | 18 (7%) | 17 | Other firm (1) |
| Baker & McKenzie | 17 (1%) | 15 | Other firm (1), corporation (1) |
| Hogan & Hartson | 17 (4%) | 7 | Other firms (4), corporations (4), government (1), education (1) |
| Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal | 17 (5%) | 13 | Other firms (4) |
| Thacher Proffitt & Wood4 | 17 (22%) | 16 | Other firms (1) |
| Drinker Biddle & Reath | 16 (6%) | 7 | Other firms (4), corporations (2), judicial (2), education (1) |
| Epstein Becker & Green | 16 (10%) | 11 | Other firms (5) |
| Nixon Peabody | 16 (5%) | 14 | Other firms (2) |
| Powell Goldstein | 16 (13%) | 16 | N/A |
| Venable | 16 (6%) | 9 | Other firms (4), corporation (1), government (2) |
| Weil, Gotshal & Manges | 16 (5%) | 12 | Other firms (2), corporations (2) |
| Fish & Richardson | 15 (9%) | 7 | Other firms (7), corporation (1) |
| Kilpatrick Stockton | 15 (7%) | 9 | Other firms (5), judicial (1) |
| White & Case | 15 (4%) | 10 | Other firms (5) |
| Patton Boggs | 14 (6%) | 9 | Other firms (4), corporation (1) |
| Bell, Boyd & Lloyd | 13 (8%) | 13 | N/A |
| Dechert | 13 (5%) | 10 | Other firms (2), government (1) |
| Duane Morris | 13 (4%) | 7 | Other firms (6) |
| Seyfarth Shaw | 13 (4%) | 6 | Other firms (6), corporation (1) |
| Bryan Cave | 12 (4%) | 10 | Other firms (2) |
| Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice | 12 (4%) | 3 | Othe firms (6), corporation (1), government (1), judicial (1) |
| Arent Fox | 11 (7%) | 10 | Corporation (1) |
| Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll | 11 (5%) | N/A | Other firms (9), corporations (2) |
| Dykema Gossett | 11 (5%) | N/A | Other firms (10), corporation (1) |
| Quarles & Brady | 11 (4%) | 3 | Other firms (4), corporations (2), government (1), judicial (1) |
| *Percentages are based on the number of partners reported to The National Law Journal at the start of the survey (October 1, 2007). | |||
| 1 Closed in November 2008. | |||
| 2 Closed in December 2008. | |||
| 3 Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae merged in October 2007. | |||
| 4 Closed in January 2009. | |||
| METHODOLOGY: The Lateral Partner Report covers partner moves in and out of The Am Law 200 between October 1, 2007, and September 30, 2008. We tracked 2,509 moves during this period—a slight uptick over last year. We count firm-to-firm moves if a lawyer was a partner in the former firm and is a partner at the new firm. We also count moves if a partner left for a position in business, government, or education, or joined a firm as a partner from one of those fields. Lateral moves are counted when one firm acquired another, but not when two firms merged and combined names. If a firm has dissolved, we only count moves that happened in our time frame and where the new employers are known. (Submit press releases on lateral moves to editorial@incisivemedia.com.) —Research by Tom Broucksou |
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| (The American Lawyer, February 2009) | |||
