Legal News

Did Wolf Block Have to Die?

By Ashby Jones

If you have to read one law-firm story this weekend, we strongly suggest you make it Jason Fagone’s story in Philadelphia magazine about the demise of Wolf Block. Click here for earlier LB posts on Wolf Block’s demise.

We say “this weekend,” because you likely won’t have time to read it today — the piece clocks in at a lengthy 5,500 words. But it’s anything but an arduous read.

Fagone’s main point: that Wolf Block did not, in fact, have to die. “At least,” he writes, “that's what the firm's 15 most powerful lawyers believed. Many had worked there for 20 or 30 years - their entire professional lives. And they believed that the firm, despite all of its baggage and missed opportunities, its bad decisions and unlucky breaks, could still be saved. They believed it 96 hours before the dissolution vote. And they were right. That's the amazing thing: They were right.”

Still, the firm did die — effectively shuttering in March. So where does Fagone pin the blame? On a lot of folks — a group of three partners who ran the firm for much of the 1980s and 1990s — as well as the man who succeeded the “Troika,” Mark Alderman (pictured). Writes Fagone: “Where [two others] had ruled by fear, Alderman ruled by gentleness. He jogged. He had teeth so white they looked almost blue. He had hair like a disco-era prom king, wavy and organically luxuriant. He had never, as far as anyone could tell, yelled at anyone in his entire life.”

And ultimately, according to Fagone, he was disengaged and indecisive — failing to bite at merger opportunities with Akerman Senterfitt and Cozen O’Connor.

When asked if he should have done something differently, Alderman told the magazine: "In retrospect, if somebody told us that the economy was going to disappear into a black hole in the fourth quarter of 2008, of course there are things we should have done to prepare for that. I wasn't smart enough to see the recession coming. I admit that. I think I have good company on that."

Was he too passive, too reluctant to make the hard decisions? Answered Alderman: "Wolf Block did not fail because of its last chairman's personality. There's a lot more goin' on than that."

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 29, 2009 (boomark / email).