Tuesday, March 8, 2011

A partner headcount before tomorrow's dissolution vote

I am leaving out unconfirmed departures for now, but here's the best guess at the partner headcount by office on the eve of the dissolution vote:

Chicago -- 10
East Palo Alto -- 5
Houston -- 20
Irvine -- 2
Los Angeles -- 17
New York -- 2
San Francisco -- 6
Washington -- 83

Brussels -- 5
London -- 1
Madrid -- 3
Paris -- 5

Wow.  Anyone care to share the latest news?

21 comments:

  1. Winston only has love for Houston, it seems. Which makes sense, since they are right-wing uber-conservatives who fantasize about being held in bondage by Ann Coulter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Praise be to the partners who have secured business for themselves and their teams. The real criminal here is Boland. He kept pushing for this deal and then backed out at the eleventh hour -- all the while criticizing other partners for their "impatience".

    Luckily for a select few in good practices, the partners will be taking as much of their team as possible to another (hopefully better) situation. Huge teams - from Senior Associates to paralegals and staff attorneys.

    Good luck to all who have been set adrift. I hope that you will find a secure position very soon. There are a lot of really fine lawyers and staff (including partners) at Howrey who trusted the management and were betrayed.

    I keep thinking that there will be justice -- Winston has a stain on it's reputation now. And Boland -- well, Baker Botts made a mistake bringing him in. No one will ever trust him again. And the clients who do will be viewed with suspicion by the corporate world. Boland is ruined. Once you prove yourself to be an untrustworthy bastard, you're done.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Boland doesn't care. He comes from serious family money. He's rich aside from being a lawyer. I have no idea why he doesn't just retire.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Within 24 months Winston won't have to worry about its reputation. What we just witnessed was a classic "grasping at straws." Winston is in a lot of trouble, and is trying to get out of it by expanding for revenue rather than having wholesale layoffs. This effort failed. I would expect to see another even more desperate lunge in the near future, and very likely a substantial headcount reduction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I understand a weekend straw poll was for dissolving the firm and I have few doubts that this is what will be announced tomorrow. The WS deal was just too half assed in its construction to fly. Now its a race between an orderly shut down and Howrey running out of cash.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I believe Chicago has 9 partners with 1 rumored to have given/be giving notice. Leaving only 8.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brussels is down to 2 partners - the others have gone or were based in now closed offices.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @10:21: who's the 1 and/or where is he/she going, if you know?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Is the vote going to be today?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, interesting to see what happens with the Houston office. I know they are talking to other firms and Winston is desperately trying to secure the office to save face,

    ReplyDelete
  11. There are only 8 in Chicago.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 8:14: The only thing worse than a right-wing uber conservative who fantasizes about being held in bondage with Ann Coulter is a left-wing uber liberal who fantasizes about being held in bondage with Michael Moore.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Two questions for the collective:

    (1) What's the percentage vote required for dissolution? Not simple majority, is it? Two-thirds? 75%? Higher? (Maybe this is a moot point though because I cannot imagine why anyone would vote against dissolution.)

    (2) Why would the remaining partners, who are the ones probably feeling most screwed by current management, want to permit Ruyak to serve as liquidator? Why wouldn't they hire a professional liquidator, who probably would handle the shut-down more efficiently, more effectively, and more fairly?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Does anyone have any insight as to what a partner has to gain by staying at this point? What is the benefit of remaining at the firm through the dissolution process? I am guessing it depends on terms of the partnership agreement, but I'm just trying to understand the difference between leaving right before dissolution and staying with the firm in terms of partnership liability.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Only 4 in San Francisco

    ReplyDelete
  16. Even the IT staff has bailed in San Francisco.

    ReplyDelete
  17. @12:30 har har har. Spoken like a true ignoramus! Go lick on some tea partying ass, please, you uptight whack-job. Besides, everyone knows Michael Moore has entered the seminary and is celibate.

    If you feel the need to defend Winston Strawn, it's okay, buddy.. I feel your pain. Truth is, Winston Strawn and their repressed conservative butt-boys are going down. They froze salaries last year & now that this deal is blown, they won't be able to hide the state of their finances now. Winston is going down.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Winston is propped by Dan Webb. If anything ever happened to him, Winston would be in a worse position than Howrey is right now.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Where Leaders Go ...March 9, 2011 at 1:36 PM

    Scorecard of departures:
    http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1202484473866&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

    ReplyDelete
  20. how many associates and staff attorneys left in DC - anyone know?

    ReplyDelete
  21. What's the latest? Pretty quiet today in terms of anyone leaving.

    ReplyDelete