In the seven years after Paul Maher helped wed his firm, London’s Rowe & Maw, to Chicago-based Mayer, Brown & Platt, he established a reputation as the firm’s best strategist. He pushed his partners to open a Hong Kong office, which was later used to open the door to a merger with Johnson Stokes & Master, a Hong Kong firm with 300 lawyers in Asia. As vice-chairman, he argued for strengthening Mayer Brown’s wilting New York office–a perpetual work-in-progress–and for boosting profitability, which has sagged in recent years. He was, to many overseas partners, especially, their advocate. At 50, Maher was the youngest of the firm leaders, and the most globally focused. He was not a midwesterner, as the firm’s previous chairmen had all been. In March, when James Holzhauer, who had served as chairman for a year and a half, announced that he was stepping down, many lawyers at the firm assumed that the job was Maher’s for the taking.
It wasn’t. On April 7 the firm announced that Herbert “Bert” Krueger–a 61-year-old, Chicago-based Employment Retirement Income Security Act lawyer who had served on the policy and planning committee for 20 years–would be the new chairman, pending a partner vote. Three weeks later, Maher announced that he was leaving. “In recent days I have been approached about several interesting opportunities,” Maher said in an internal memo. “To give them careful consideration, which I am sure you will understand I must do, I have requested and been granted a short sabbatical leave from the firm.” Soon after, he left to open the London office of Greenberg Traurig.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
