All in the Stars - Only Law Firms with the Big Brand Names Will Grow

 "Cravath Swaine & Moore has lost another dealmaker [Allison Wein] to a rival firm [Kirkland & Ellis] in less than eight months, a rarity for the Wall Street firm that recently changed its pay system to try to talent." - Bloomberg Law, May 5, 2022.

That is the second loss of a star. And that was despite Cravath’s changing its compensation system from total seniority to a modified lockstep one. Not long ago Damien Zoubek also exited that law firm to join Freshfields.

Meanwhile the legal media outlets devote their digital front pages to feature other departures of brandname partners from myriad other firms. For a while what had been playing out was even the movement of large groups such as Paul Hastings’ poaching 43 restructuring lawyers from Stroock & Stroock.

No surprise, at least not to Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp, was that the ABA Journal headlined that particular story as:

“Law firms 'flush with cash' are hiring larger lateral groups”

In a Bloomberg Law interview, back in October 2021, Karp called it. He had predicted that only those law firms with massive financial reserves would be able to play the high-stakes star-power game. Those not so blessed with cash resources could actually fall by the wayside. The dynamics had bifurcated into Grow or Go. Growth comes through the pull force of those stars. Likely the way to survival for not-so-financially-flush firms would be through merging with a more financially bulked-up law firm.

From when I began following Paul Weiss for Law and More two-plus years ago, the narrative always included high-profile lateral hires. A memorable one which still resonates had been tech expert Karen Dunn from Boies Schiller. The law firm’s list of Big Tech clients ranges from Apple to Amazon.

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. Now and then she does communications assignments for law firms such as Paul Weiss – defense and plaintiff.

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