3 More Partners Exit Heller Ehrman
After a disappointing financial year in 2007 and the departure of several well-known colleagues, three more partners of Heller Ehrman are exiting the firm to pursue opportunities elsewhere.
Margaret Mann has left her position as head of the San Francisco-based firm’s bankruptcy practice to join Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in San Diego. Meanwhile, corporate partner Stephen Thau has joined Morrison & Foerster and Randall Schai, a fund services partner, is headed to Jones Day, reports the Recorder (sub. req.) in an article excerpted by New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, several other prominent partners departed the 700-lawyer firm in the fall of 2007, around the time that Heller Ehrman eliminated 65 members of its support staff nationwide. The firm’s San Diego office also suffered a significant exodus of corporate partners earlier in the year, apparently as a result of an internal political battle, leaving only about 10 partners and three associates in the department at one point.
The partners who departed in the fall of 2007 include: Patricia Gillette, the former co-chair of the firm’s labor and employment practice, who joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe along with another employment partner and four associates; and Jerry Marks, a securities litigator and managing partner of Heller Ehrman’s Los Angeles office who departed for Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy. Corporate partner Kyle Guse also left to join McDermott Will & Emery.
In another change amongst those in charge at the firm, Ken Kirschner took the helm Jan. 1 as the new managing shareholder of Heller Ehrman’s New York office, following the retirement of Joe McLaughlin, a litigator who had served in the post since 2003, according to the Lawyer. However, McLaughlin will continue to advise the firm as a consultant. Kirschner chairs the firm’s labor and employment practice group.
