"Boies Schiller Flexner is losing three New York-based partners, including a practice group leader and its co-general counsel, according to an internal firm memo on Monday that detailed other personnel changes." - Reuters Legal, May 24, 2022.
So, again there is partner defection. That flight of stars out of what we might think of as the "firmament" has become the signature of one-time ligitation powerhouse Boies Schiller. Some might recall the gush article about Boies Schiller co-founder David Boies in Bloomberg BusinessWeek. That was in 2015. Probably Boies was most thought about as the lawyer you didn't want to be opposing.
And that was then.
The departures this time around are:
- Ilana Miller, co-general counsel. Is taking some time off from the practice of law.
- Peter Skinner to Morrison & Foerster
- William Marsillo to a telcom/energy infrastructure firm.
The symbolism of this development is awful. But also playing out is the pragmatic reality of the correlation between the firm's star power and its ability to grow. The latter relates to everything from client acquisition to attracting even more star power.
In a Bloomberg Law interview, Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp connected those dots in a very explicit way. He projected that only law firms with the resources to recruit and retain big brandnames would be able to keep on a growth trajectory. Others would wither. They could actually go out of business. Some, we are noticing, could seek out salvation through being acquired. Yes, in a sense the law firm sector has bifurcated. There are the growth ones and the ones which could be on short time.
Law firms, like all professional services, operate on brandnames. Clients bring their business to those individual star players, not to the firm itself.
In the two years that I have covered Paul Weiss the frequent story has been about a lateral hire. A key one has been the poaching of star trial lawyer Karen Dunn from Boies Schiller.
Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. Now and then she does freelance assignments for professional services firms such as Paul Weiss.
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