John Pierce. (Photo: Jack Newsham/ALM)

After a raft of partner exits at Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht, managing partner John Pierce is denying reports of his firm's demise, saying on Thursday that the firm continues to litigate but has had to lay off associates and staff.

Pierce's comments came a day after Law360 reported that Pierce Bainbridge was winding down. The firm's chief financial officer and chief operating officer told attorneys on a call earlier this week that the firm would be closing its doors this month, according to the Law360 report, which cited two unnamed sources.

But Pierce, in statements Wednesday and Thursday, remained defiant, calling reports of the firm's dissolution "total fake news."

"The firm is not dissolving. Period. That is something I would be aware of," Pierce said in a text message to Law.com. When asked if the firm is ceasing operations, he added, "Nope."

In a statement to reporters on Thursday, Pierce said reports of the firm's closure were inaccurate. "The firm continues to litigate and each day generates more high-profile, high-value litigation opportunities," Pierce wrote. 

"Unfortunately, it is true that the firm has had to make some very difficult decisions over recent weeks in order to cut costs in the current global economic environment, including laying off some of its exceptionally talented and dedicated associates and staff in order to reorient itself towards the future," he wrote.

He added that his firm "continues to maintain close relationships with its departed partners and is committed to working with all of its former lawyers" to help provide legal representation to clients at their new firms.

Reports of the firm closing its doors, and the uncertainty it generated over the future of the firm, came barely a week after Law.com and other publications reported that Carolynn Beck, Maxim Price and David Hecht—three former name partners of the firm—had resigned.

Last month, Law.com reported that Pierce was on leave from the firm and Thomas Warren was its acting managing partner. The firm said through a spokeswoman on March 9 that Pierce had borrowed funds from a lender called Karish Kapital, which filed a lien against the law firm, for his own personal use. Pierce denied that.

Warren didn't respond to a request for comment on Thursday. Camille Varlack, the firm's COO, and Kevin Cash, its CFO, also didn't respond to comment requests.

According to a Law360 report, Warren has since resigned from the firm. Meanwhile, Amman Khan, a partner in Los Angeles, appears to have recently started his own firm. He couldn't be reached for comment.

Departures from Pierce Bainbridge mounted in late 2019, with six partners leaving around the fall, and continued into 2020, with some attorneys starting their own shops, others joining established firms, and some apparently still considering their options.

The partner exits followed months of bruising litigation between the firm, its partners and its former partner, Donald Lewis. Lewis has said the firm concocted a sexual assault allegation against him after he blew the whistle on financial misconduct by Pierce, and said the recent departures have vindicated him.

"I said over a year ago that Pierce Bainbridge was a 'smoke and mirrors' production and a 'financial house of cards' that would collapse," he wrote in an email to a reporter.

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