The search to find a successor to Ralph Baxter is officially on.
In fact, a year and a half after the longtime chairman and CEO of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe announced plans to retire at the end of 2013, the field of candidates to ascend to the firm’s top leadership post has been narrowed to four Orrick partners: Los Angelesbased finance partner Alan Benjamin; Walter Brown, a white-collar litigator in San Francisco; James Stengel, a mass torts and product liability litigator in New York; and Mitchell Zuklie, a technology-focused corporate lawyer in Silicon Valley. The names were provided by a current Orrick partner and former partners still in close contact with colleagues at the firm, speaking on condition of anonymity.
None of the four returned calls for comment, and publicly the firm will only acknowledge that, per Orrick’s partnership agreement, a nominating committee has been formed that will identify Baxter’s successor. The committee hopes to announce its pick to the full partnership at the firm’s annual January partners’ meeting, says Orrick chief operating officer Reid Horovitz.
“The committee is working in a very orderly, collaborative manner,” says Horovitz. “It is going according to plan.”
The current partner and several former partners say that plan calls for the nominating committee, which is being led by New York partner Peter Coll, to choose the leader without a contested election after polling partners for their opinions.
