Legal News

What?s Next for Clifford Chance?s NY Litigation Department?

By Ashby Jones

We’ve had Clifford Chance’s New York office on the brain for months, wondering exactly what was happening to its litigation department, which seemed to be purging itself of lawyers.

Of course, BigLaw’s been dumping its personnel by the truckful for a while now, but what made Clifford Chance’s departures a bit odd were that they were litigators, not the usual folks from the decimated transactional practices. One of the bigger blows came earlier this month, when the firm’s global head of litigation, Mark Kirsch, decamped for Gibson Dunn.

According to an AmLaw story out Friday, “what started last fall as strategic moves to shed some litigators appears to have turned into an unintended decimation of virtually the entire New York litigation team,” a team which currently boasts 10 lawyers. Click here for a recent item as well from Above the Law.

So where does the firm go from here?

AmLaw’s Vivia Chen recently caught up with Juan Morillo, a D.C.-based litigator who recently took the helm of the U.S. litigation practice. The 40-year-old “spitfire” says the firm hasn’t given up on Gotham. Far from it. Says Morillo: “the firm is absolutely committed to rebuilding in New York . . . . [But] there’s no metric in terms of revenue or size for New York. We just want to make sure it’s fully integrated with Washington and that it performs on par with the rest of the firm and plays to the firm’s strengths.”

It all strikes us as very strange, partly because the litigation departments in other offices seem to be humming along just fine. The D.C. office, for instance, still employs about 60 litigators. “We’re doing fine here,” says Morillo.

Chen asks the ten-dollar question, however: “How does a strong D.C. litigation practice translate into resuscitating New York’s litigation group?” She writes:

Morillo addresses the point only by saying that New York and D.C. will, over time, become “more aligned.” He is actively interviewing potential litigation partners for New York, but it’s unclear when and who will be coming on board soon. . . . Added Morillo: “I’m committed to the firm and the practice.”

Best of luck, Juan. Rest assured, we’re committed to watching how it works out.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on June 19, 2009 (boomark / email).