After a record year for lateral moves in 2009, law firm partners looked around in 2010 and decided that there was no place like home. In the 12-month period ending September 30, 2010, only 2,014 partners left or joined Am Law 200 firms. That number was a hefty decrease—27 percent—from the same period a year earlier, when a whopping 2,775 partners moved. In fact, 2010 marked the lowest number of partner moves since 2000, when only 1,859 partners switched firms, and was well off the average of 2,458 partner moves each year from 2005 to 2009.
What accounts for the drop? For one thing, the 2009 numbers were artificially high because the market was flooded with partners from firms that went under, such as Heller Ehrman, Thacher Proffitt & Wood, Thelen, and WolfBlock. (Those four firms accounted for 15 percent of the 2009 moves.) Additionally, continued economic uncertainty in 2010 meant that some firms were reluctant to hire. “In general, firms have been much more opportunistic [about partner recruiting], and that’s due to the relative stabilization of the industry,” says Ari Katz, national director of legal recruiting at Bingham McCutchen.
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