Legal News

Will the Wolf Survive?

By Ashby Jones

Will Wolf Block survive? There are some indications that the answer might be no — and that we could know more Monday. The Philadelphia Intelligencer reported today that “the Philadelphia legal community was abuzz with talk this weekend” about the future of the firm, and that the executive committee met on Saturday to discuss a possible dissolution.

The story also reported that the matter was “said to be set for a full partnership vote as early as Monday,” and that a decision to dissolve the firm would need to be approved by 75 percent of the partnership.

We called down there a few minutes ago and were told by a firm spokeswoman that she had no comment, that “the partners were tied up in a meeting,” but that “someone would get back to us after the meeting.” Frankly, we took that as an ominous sign.

The 300-attorney Philadelphia-based firm, once one of the largest and most prominent in the city, has been looking for a merger partner for more than two years, according to the Intelligencer. It was unable to come to terms with Cozen O’Connor in early 2007 and later danced, unsuccessfully, with Florida-based Akerman Senterfitt.

However, according to the Intelligencer, the firm hasn’t seen any major defections since its failed mergers.

Law Blog YouTube Video of the Day: Click here for a video of East Los Angeles’s finest, Los Lobos, asking the same question back in 1984 that we do in our title here.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).