Why Akin Gump Lost 59 Partners and Made More Money in 2008
Updated: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld began a streamlining initiative in 2007 and got what it asked for—a slimmed-down firm.
But not all 59 partners who left the firm last year were part of the plan, the American Lawyer reports. The firm lost 17 percent of its partners and earned top spot on the legal magazine’s list of partner defections at big firms.
Firm chairman R. Bruce McLean told the magazine in early January that he expected an increase of 10 percent in profits per partner for 2008, following a 7 percent decline in 2007. According to The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times, his 2008 estimate was low.
Profits per partner, released yesterday, were up 16.72 percent, reaching $1.4 million. Revenue was also up 3.76 percent. “What we are seeing is a slimmed-down firm generating more profits,” he told the American Lawyer.
McLean said the streamlining began with a decision to restructure practices in intellectual property, labor and employment, public policy and energy, the American Lawyer story says. The aim was to focus on more profitable work.
Those who left the firm included all of its 14 lawyers in the Silicon Valley office, 10 lawyers in its Houston energy practice, and 12 labor and employment lawyers, the story says.
“We thought the labor and employment lawyers were extremely talented and could have refocused their practice on higher-end clients,” McLean told the American Lawyer. “We didn’t plan on losing all of them.”
The firm also lost high-profile partners with practices in white-collar defense, business litigation and insurance. One partner told the American Lawyer he left because a power shift had left the firm’s Texas offices less of a priority.
McLean told The BLT that press reports misidentified some departing partners as rainmakers. “You can’t believe everything you read,” he told the blog. “Just because someone says, or a press release says, they’re a rainmaker, doesn’t mean they’re making rain. Sometimes it’s more like fog.”
Updated at 8:47 a.m. to include Akin Gump’s profit figures.
