Some Bingham Lawyers Blame Departures on Management
At least 16 partners have left Bingham McCutchen this year, and some of them are blaming the management style and decisions of chairman Jay Zimmerman.
The National Law Journal spoke to several departing lawyers, who cited a variety of reasons for their decision to leave. They included better opportunities, poor integration of past mergers, the firm’s reluctance to let them build a practice with lower-margin clients, and Zimmerman’s top-down management style.
The lawyers told the newspaper that Zimmerman had a dictatorial style and expected lawyers to rubber-stamp decisions of the management committee. Christopher Hockett, the former head of Bingham’s litigation practice, said Zimmerman’s centralization of decision-making was a good thing.
“The old McCutchen used to debate endlessly down to who was going to be the bagel supplier for the next six months,” Hockett said. “It doesn’t work in a large firm setting.”
For his part, Zimmerman said there is no pressure for partners to vote with him. He said the firm builds consensus “pragmatically” and relies on a strong administrative staff to handle office management details so lawyers have more time to practice law.
“You can’t confuse consensus with unanimity,” he told the publication. “When you have a large organization, if you can’t react quickly, you are at a tremendous competitive disadvantage.”
