Taking a Shortcut

It’s not yet clear who will be Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s next chairman. The firm isn’t expected to announce a decision until January. But one thing is certain—the firm’s new leader won’t be regaling colleagues with stories about his adventures as a fresh-faced Orrick associate. All four of the candidates joined Orrick as lateral partners. Finance attorney Alan Benjamin left Morrison & Foerster for Orrick in 1994; Walter Brown, a white-collar litigator, arrived from Thelen Reid & Priest in 2002; litigator James Stengel signed on from Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in 1998; and Mitchell Zuklie, a corporate attorney, came on board in 2005 from Heller Ehrman.

Orrick is the latest in a small but growing list of firms to choose a lateral hire to fill the top spot. This month bankruptcy attorney Larren Nashelsky, who joined the Morrison & Foerster partnership in 1999 from Weil, Gotshal & Manges, will become the firm’s new chair. In January, Kaye Scholer announced that Michael Solow, a lateral partner from Hopkins & Sutter, would take over as sole managing partner. And in July 2011 O’Melveny & Myers revealed that Bradley Butwin, a lateral from the firm’s 2002 combination with O’Sullivan, assumed its chair position.