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With two recent high-profile examples of a large number of Texas attorneys leaving their respective firms and decamping to Big Law destinations—Wilkie lost seven partners while Bowman and Brooke lost 10 lawyers—Texas Lawyer spoke recently with several industry observers, including Michael Newman, office managing partner at the Dallas office of Foley & Lardner, about what it means for your attorneys and how you can keep your law firm from being in a similar position. This is the first of a three-part series on that topic.

What happened at your firm?

Newman: I've only worked at Gardere (now Foley) for the entirety of my career. We had several attorneys depart when we completed the Foley-Gardere merger four years ago. As we were contemplating and negotiating the merger with Foley, both sides expected that there were going to be partners who would not want to come along for the ride.