Year of departing partners for Bingham McCutchen

 
BOSTON — At least 16 partners have parted ways with Bingham McCutchen this year, including several practice leaders and firm managers.

Recent West Coast departures follow several partner exits from San Francisco and other offices last year, and defections are also ramping up on the East Coast.

Also, the firm confirmed last week that it laid off a total of 17 staff in two California offices — 12 in San Francisco and five in Silicon Valley.

Some former partners say they’ve simply seized a better opportunity, but many cite poor integration of past mergers, a top-down management style stemming from chairman Jay Zimmerman and the firm’s lack of willingness to let newer partners build a practice with initially lower-margin clients.

In Boston, four Bingham partners have moved to other firms since March, including corporate attorney Joseph J. Basile to Weil, Gotshal & Manges; intellectual property attorney Victor H. Polk Jr. to Greenberg Traurig; litigator James S. Rollins to WolfBlock; and litigator and former U.S. Attorney Donald K. Stern to Cooley Godward Kronish.

In New York, the former co-chair of Bingham’s health care industry group, Christine White, jumped to Washington-based Crowell & Moring in January.

Farther down the coast, former Swidler Berlin stalwarts who merged into Bingham in 2006 moved to other firms’ Washington offices this year. Leonard Miller, a Swidler Berlin founding partner, jumped to New York-based Carter Ledyard & Milburn, and former intellectual property partner Ed Pennington helped open the Washington office of Boston’s Hanify & King and brought three other Bingham McCutchen attorneys.

‘Competitive disadvantage’

Several former partners are incensed by what they describe as Zimmerman’s dictatorial style and the firm’s expectation that partners would “rubberstamp” decisions made by the firm committee of senior firm management.

Zimmerman denied that partners are pressured to vote with him, or the firm committee, and said the firm operates “pragmatically” by building consensus among concentric circles of different groups in the firm depending on the issue.

“You can’t confuse consensus with unanimity,” Zimmerman said. “When you have a large organization, if you can’t react quickly, you are at a tremendous competitive disadvantage.” Zimmerman also believes in a strong cadre of professional staffers, who handle such tasks as leasing negotiation and design issues related to the firm’s move to a new 300,000-square-foot space in Boston slated for this month.

“We’re a firm that believes let the lawyers focus on the practice of law and have a very strong administrative staff,” Zimmerman said. “It’s the way of large firms and it’s a huge competitive advantage.”

Yet even former partners who praise Zimmerman’s accomplishments claim that partners are treated more like workers than owners.

Noted bankruptcy lawyer Evan D. Flaschen, whose move to the New York office of Houston’s Bracewell & Giuliani in March 2007 was followed by three Bingham partners he worked with closely, said Zimmerman has done an effective job of building the firm and increasing efficiency and profitability, but “it’s not a model that suits everyone.”