Biglaw

Partners Forced Out As Biglaw Firm Considers Strategic Shift, It's Reportedly A 'Bloodbath Over There'

These partners are being shown the Brexit.

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Four partners in the London office of Ropes & Gray are being forced out following a strategic shift in the firm’s direction.

This is according to a report from Legal Week — where they use the delightful euphemism “managed exit” to describe the move — which says the downsizing will come from the firm’s real estate and restructuring-related teams, and the partners will formally depart from the Biglaw firm over the next several months:

Multiple sources have told Legal Week that the quartet are set to leave following discussions with firmwide management, who travelled into London last week from the US.

All four partners, who Legal Week has decided not to name, work across the firm’s restructuring-related and real estate groups. It is understood they met with management on Friday (7 September) and are expected to leave over the coming months.

This is in addition to the planned retirement of  international real estate investments and transactions group partner, Iain Morpeth, who will depart the firm at the end of the year.

This new focus for the firm has left some knowledgable about the situation concerned:

One former partner said of the exits: “It seems like a bit of a bloodbath over there at the moment. It has for a long time. The last two years have been shaky.”

Wondering exactly what has been going on at the firm? Well, the London office of Ropes has seen its fair share of notable departures over that time frame, including former office co-founder Maurice Allen, investment funds partners Monica Gogna and Anand Damodaran (they went to Dechert and Kirkland & Ellis, respectively), finance partners Mark Wesseldine and Fergus Wheeler (who joined King & Spalding), and a 100-person patent prosecution team (which became Haley Guiliano).

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As also noted by Legal Week, the partner compensation system at the firm is designed as a black box, which assists the firm in carefully discarding partners without formally asking them to leave:

Ropes has previously faced criticism from ex-partners about its black box remuneration system, which makes it relatively easy for management to encourage people towards the door by docking pay in their annual review without actively asking them to leave.

Last year, Ropes enjoyed a 7.5 percent increase in total firm revenue, and the London office enjoyed its most successful year to date.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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