© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(October 21) – For two decades, New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges poured huge money and lots of resources into building a Texas operation that was the envy of nearly every other law firm.
Weil attracted the best legal talent, paid New York wages and landed elite clients, including American Airlines, Kinder Morgan, HM Capital Partners and Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, that were willing to pay $800 to $1,000 an hour billing rates. The firm grew to more than 115 lawyers in Dallas and Houston and developed diversity and pro bono efforts that became the model for others to follow.
In short, Weil was the paradigm of Big Law in Texas – a firm that lawyers joined, stayed and never left.
Then, in a period that can be measured in weeks, dozens of lawyers have left the law firm in what its former partners call a “complete debacle” by Weil’s leadership in New York. As a result, Weil has seen its sterling reputation severely tarnished in Texas.
Since September 10, three-dozen lawyers – half of them equity partners – have jumped ship to other law firms. Another dozen or so attorneys are expected to join their colleagues during the next month. Summer associates that had committed to join Weil next year have decided to go elsewhere.
A majority of the lawyers have joined Sidley Austin in Dallas. Others have gone to the Texas offices of Baker Botts, Vinson & Elkins, Winston & Strawn and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
“It became very clear to me and others that through very overt actions that Weil was no longer committed to having a robust operation in Texas,” said John Strasburger, Weil’s managing partner in Houston who has joined Chicago-based Winston & Strawn’s Houston operation.
At a time when nearly every large national law firm, including many of Weil’s biggest competitors, is trying to open offices or grow their practices in Texas, Weil has suddenly demonstrated a “lack of commitment to practices outside of New York,” said Strasburger.
“Weil’s leadership has become very New York centric,” he said.
Several of the departed Weil partners say that the past few months have been especially tough on Glenn West, the firm’s Dallas managing partner, and Tom Roberts, the former head of the corporate section at Weil. Neither West nor Roberts responded to requests for interviews.
West and Roberts are “extremely sad” over the departures of lawyers they recruited to the firm and frustrated with decisions being made in New York, according to the former partners.
“They put together a formidable group of lawyers at Weil and are understandably upset at developments,” said Michael Saslaw, a former Weil partner who recently joined V&E in Dallas.
A timeline of events shows just how quickly the situation at Weil deteriorated.
June 24, 2013: Weil announced that it would fire 60 lawyers and planned to reduce the compensation of some partners. A significant portion of those cuts targeted the firm’s Houston operation. Firm leaders stated in a memo to all of its lawyers that it planned to de-emphasize its complex commercial litigation practice in Houston.
That decision caused significant concern among Weil’s Dallas partners who feared they might be next. According to several former Weil partners, they expressed their worries to firm leadership and asked for a meeting over the firm’s long-term strategic plan in Dallas.
“The chairman and the managing partner should have gotten on an airplane to Dallas and met with us,” said one of the departing lawyers directly involved in the situation. “But they didn’t until it was too late.”
September 11: Saslaw, a corporate partner at Weil whose practice focuses on energy M&A and infrastructure, joined V&E in Dallas. “The controversy was the impetus for my decision to leave, but V&E is a much more credible base for my practice and my clients,” he said.
September 17: Eight Weil partners announced they were leaving for Sidley Austin in Dallas. The partners include seven women who became known as “the Weil 7” because they decided early in the process to stick together. They accounted for 28 percent of the women equity partners at Weil firm-wide.
“Sidley’s strong growth trajectory in Texas and globally solidified our decision to make the move,” said Yvette Ostolaza, global coordinator of the firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation practice.
The other Weil partners to join Sidley are Angela Fontana,
Penny Reid, Angela Zambrano, Yolanda Garcia, Michelle Hartmann, Vance Beagles and Kelly Dybala.
September 30: Weil intellectual property partner Nicolas Barzoukas announced he had joined Baker Botts in Houston.
October 7: Sidley announced that Weil M&A and private equity partner Scott Parel had agreed to join his colleagues in Dallas.
October 14: Jay Tabor, an M&A and private equity partner at Weil, announced he was joining the Dallas office of Gibson Dunn.
“This possibility has been in the works for a while and the situation at Weil probably pushed it forward,” said Tabor. “Weil will continue to be a top law firm, but I think Gibson Dunn has built one of the premier practices in Texas and I wanted to be part of it.
“I think we are going to continue to see a significant growth in energy deal activity for the next few years and I think it is a mistake for any firm to not recognize the opportunities in Texas,” he said.
October 16: Chicago-based Winston & Strawn announced that Strasburger and three other Weil partners – Jason Billeck, Melanie Gray and Lydia Protopapas – were joining the firm’s Houston office.
October 21: Sidley is expected to announce this week that three other Weil lawyers – senior associate Sara Duran, counsel Paige Montgomery and counsel Chris Gleeson – also have accepted offers, according to partners at Sidley. Weil offered partnerships to the three if they stayed, but they decided to join their colleagues at Sidley.
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