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On the heels of its latest group departure and the defection of its co-founder, LeClairRyan's future seems uncertain.

The most recent blow to the quickly shrinking Am Law 200 firm was the departure of co-founder and name partner Gary LeClair, as well as attorneys David Lay and Andrew White, who have all joined regional firm Williams Mullen, the latter firm announced Thursday. The three lawyers are based in Richmond, Virginia. LeClair, who founded LeClairRyan in 1988 with Dennis Ryan, served as its CEO until 2011, and was its chairman until 2015.

On Wednesday, Philadelphia-based Fox Rothschild announced it is absorbing a group of 15 LeClairRyan aviation lawyers spread across multiple offices.

After months of assurances that the ongoing partner exits fit within the firm's strategic vision, LeClairRyan president Elizabeth Acee acknowledged for the first time Thursday that the firm is unsure about its next steps.

“As a firm, we have not held a vote to do anything definitive at this point,” she wrote in an email responding to questions about the latest departures. “We are considering options.”

She did not immediately respond to an additional request for comment Thursday evening regarding LeClair's departure.

In her email, Acee disputed a report by Above the Law, which said LeClairRyan had issued notices of layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. No WARN Act notices for the firm had been posted on state labor department databases in the states where LeClairRyan has offices, as of Thursday.

But a source with knowledge of the firm confirmed that staff members were recently notified that they should find employment elsewhere. The source also confirmed that many departed partners have not been able to recoup their capital contributions from the firm.

Elizabeth Acee of LeClairRyan.

Many of LeClairRyan's staff members became employees of ULX Partners when the law firm teamed up with UnitedLex Corp. to create a joint venture with the alternative legal services provider in 2018. As a part of that deal, LeClairRyan CEO C. Erik Gustafson said at the time, LeClairRyan remained an independent law firm, but also had a minority stake in ULX Partners.

The exodus of lawyers from LeClairRyan has been less of a slow drip and more of a steady stream. The firm has seen small groups of three or four make lateral moves to other law firms throughout the past year, across its national footprint.

A few larger groups have decamped as well, giving their new firms a foothold in a new market. A group of 18 Boston lawyers joined Freeman Mathis & Gary in January, launching an office in that city for the Atlanta-based midsize firm.

Also in January, Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton confirmed that it was bringing on a five-partner group from LeClairRyan's Rochester, New York, office. By February, that group had grown to 24 total lawyers, as Pepper took over LeClairRyan's Rochester office space.

According to its website, LeClairRyan, founded in Richmond, Virginia, now has about 190 lawyers and 21 offices across the U.S. At its peak in 2016, its head count was 353 lawyers, according to Am Law 200 data, and revenue as $163 million. In 2019, its gross revenue was $122.5 million.

Asked about those declines and departures earlier this year, just after the Boston group left for Freeman Mathis, Gustafson said the firm was undergoing an intentional strategic shift, and making targeted hires to that end. The partnership with UnitedLex was touted as a major part of its strategy for the future.

“The movements over the past year are reflective of our efforts to shift our focus to one that includes a greater proportion of corporate, business litigation, employment, financial services, regulatory, and intellectual property engagements as evidenced by the addition of more than 20 lateral partners in those practices in 10 of our offices in the past year,” Gustafson said in a January statement.

Just a few weeks later, after the first group of Rochester lawyers left for Pepper Hamilton, Acee said, “It is not accurate to say that we don't expect the firm to be in existence in 2019 because we think we're building law firm 2.0 and we'll be stronger,” referring the venture with UnitedLex.

Such an undertaking means major change, and that level of change is difficult and uncomfortable for some lawyers, Acee said in January, adding, “we are very, very committed to the vision and we're very committed to changing the firm's business model.”

A spokesperson for UnitedLex did not immediately respond to a call for comment Thursday afternoon.

Samantha Stokes and Ryan Lovelace contributed to this report.