Bucking a Trend

Even as the number of lateral partners brought on by large law firms rebounded to near record levels last year ["This Time It's Personal," February], some firms eschewed growth-by-lateral. Take Boies, Schiller & Flexner. In mid-August the firm brought on David Bernick, former cohead of litigation at Kirkland & Ellis and the recently departed general counsel of Philip Morris International Inc. The hire marked just the fourth time in the trial-centric firm’s 15-year history that it has hired a lateral senior partner. “We teach our associates from the ground up to prepare every case like it’s going to trial,” says Boies Schiller partner Nicholas Gravante Jr. “For that reason, I think there is an inherent preference to grow our own [partners].”

A look at The American Lawyer ‘s database of lateral moves in The Am Law 100 over the past five years reveals that the list of firms that hire the fewest laterals includes a disproportionate number of highly profitable New York firms such as Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; Cahill Gordon & Reindel; Sullivan & Cromwell; and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.