It doesn't happen often, but it can be telling: managing partners or other law firm leaders abruptly jumping ship from their own firm for a competitor.

Milbank's hiring of Irell & Manella's former managing partner earlier this month is the latest example of a firm leader decamping for a rival. Other examples in recent years include leaders at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson; LeClairRyan; Crowell & Moring; and Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads exiting for other law firms.

In contrast to when firm leaders move in house to clients, sometimes these unusual moves are a signal of a law firm's health: the firms underwent pressures in the years leading up to a leader's departure, such as lateral exits or lower revenue, profits per partner or lawyer headcount.

Indeed, the exodus of a managing partner could be a sign of many different types of internal trouble, whether financial, personnel, culture or otherwise, said Kent Zimmermann, a law firm management consultant at Zeughauser Group who spoke generally on the topic.

But, as he noted, the departure of a top leader could also be for the benefit of his or her career. Each instance presents unique circumstances behind the leader's departure, whether it's evolving professional goals, differences in management styles or feeling undervalued by his or her old firm.

For Richard Scheff, who left his post as executive chairman of midsize firm Montgomery McCraken to help launch Armstrong Teasdale's Philadelphia office last year, the decision was an opportunity to get back to his practice, he said.

For 28 years, Scheff had been at Montgomery McCracken, a regional firm that has struggled with some high-profile departures. He served as chairman from 2009-2016. At the time of his exit, ALM reported that Scheff said he was the largest revenue generator at Montgomery McCracken.

"I didn't want to do the day-to-day [management] stuff anymore," he said. "The weight of the world sits on you, so the people in the firm—attorneys and staff alike—depend on you to thrive —that was really weighty."

He said his move last September allowed him to tackle new challenges and to be a leader in a different way: helping Armstrong Teasdale grow its presence in the Northeast. The firm has hired more than 50 attorneys in New York and Philadelphia in the past 10 months, it said. Scheff said his background as a former managing partner meant that he was trusted to help facilitate that growth.

"In my mind, after being executive chair during my last few years [at Montgomery McCraken], I'm not only comfortable not being the top rung of the ladder, but I actually think people my age ought to be moving aside to give younger people the opportunity to lead," he said in an interview.

Under Pressure

In a more recent example, Gary LeClair, co-founder and former name partner of LeClairRyan, hopped ship to Williams Mullen less than two weeks before ALM reported the former Am Law 200 firm would close. The firm experienced rapid revenue and head count decline in the past three years. After a 2015 peak in which the firm reported $163 million in revenue and 353 attorneys, by 2018 it reported $122.4 million in revenue and 273 lawyers.

While not all law firm leader exits happen at sinking ships, some have coincided with drops in some financial health measurements or at a time of high lateral movement.

In the case of Irell, which just saw the exit of its managing partner David Gindler, revenue and head count have been declining steadily since 2014, when the firm took in $247.5 million and staffed 159 attorneys, according to ALM data. Last year, the firm reported $172.2 million in revenue and 94 attorneys.

Milbank scooped up Gindler, as well as the firm's former co-chair of its intellectual property group, Gary Frischling, and two other litigators. Gindler had taken the reins as Irell's managing partner eight months before his move to Milbank.

Gindler was not available for comment for this report, but at the time of his move, Gindler told ALM that Milbank's global presence was a driving factor in his and his colleagues' decision to move and that he told his Irell colleagues that he was considering a new opportunity before he accepted Milbank's offer.

"This really isn't about what's lacking at Irell," he said in an interview earlier this month. "It's really about what I was looking at about my future."

In 2014, Magic Circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer poached Valerie Ford Jacob from Fried Frank. Earlier that year, Jacob announced she was stepping down as firm co-chair, leaving David Greenwald, who joined Fried Frank from Goldman Sachs & Co., to take over as sole chairman. At the time of her switch to Freshfields, ALM reported Fried Frank continued to suffer from a steady stream of partner departures. while the firm had rebounded from a shaky 2012 financial year. Through a spokesperson, Jacob declined to comment.

In other scenarios, law firm leaders decamp after losing the partnership's confidence, said Zimmermann, the law firm consultant. "They would rather go somewhere else because they don't feel so valued by the partnership," he said, speaking generally.

In 2017, Angela Styles quit Crowell & Moring abruptly after she was voted out as chair after one term. She is now a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Through a spokesperson, Styles declined to comment.

While a leader's exit to a rival firm is often prominent news in the legal industry, Zimmermann said such departures don't happen often because they regularly don't have big books of business. Since they spent the majority of their time managing the firm before they left, he said firm leaders can be perceived as less-valuable hires than practice group leaders or other lateral hires, who spend more of their time investing in client relationships.

In more frequent situations, he said, leaders of practice groups who were in competition for, and were not chosen for, the managing partner role may be more likely to seek employment elsewhere. After being passed over for promotion, Zimmermann said such partners may feel like they've capped out on compensation potential and that the firm believes they have already reached their potential—which could spurn them to seek opportunities at a different firm.