Legal News

The Return of Tower Snow Jr.

By Nathan Koppel

Tower Snow Jr., one of the more exciting, polarizing and controversial figures in the legal business over the past decade is back in the news.

Remember Snow? In the late 1990s and early part of the decade, the securities litigator built San Francisco’s Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison into a powerhouse law firm that rode the dotcom boom to astronomical heights. Our favorite Brobeck tidbit: the firm actually ran television ads on CNN. Oh, how we long for those heady days!

Brobeck in 2000 became the first Bay Area firm to push north of $1 million in average partner profits, and Snow developed a reputation as the quintessential modern law firm leader: He handed out $1,000 bonus checks to all staffers on Valentine’s Day and aggressively courted high-tech clients and lateral partners, growing the firm by 40% in one year alone. (For more on Snow, the Law Blog recommends Am Law reporter Susan Beck’s 7,300-word profile in 2002.)

But, according to some partners, he was also unwilling to listen to competing views. Snow was booted from the firm in 2002, and Brobeck, of course, imploded spectacularly when the tech-bubble burst.

Snow moved to Clifford Chance, but he flamed out there and went, essentially, into seclusion, as this Recorder article recounts.

Now, the newspaper reports, Snow is back on the market, shopping his resume to firms in part because he needs the dough. “Like everyone else, I’ve been affected by the financial markets,” he says. “At the same time I was expelled from [Brobeck] I was involved in a traumatic divorce and I saw my net worth vaporize.”

At one point, Snow had even looked to unload his Napa Valley estate: 67 acres that features a 6,000-square-foot, Mediterranean-style home complete with a pool, spa and wine cellar. But the house is now off the market.

So which firm in line for Snow’s services? It won’t likely be Morgan Lewis, since some of Snow’s toughest critics reside there, according to the Recorder, which says that Orrick Herrington would likely be a friendlier place. “I, like everyone else, want to work in a collegial place,” Snow said.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 04, 2008 (boomark / email).