In a dramatic turn of events, dissatisfaction over financial management practices at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith led to a significant shake-up in the firm. Partners, particularly within the employment department, expressed growing frustration through their text messages, highlighting what they perceived as a failure in the firm’s billing processes. Issues such as uncollected invoices and client funds owed back to the firm were central to the discontent.
These internal grievances were just the tip of the iceberg. Financial troubles reportedly caused the firm to miss its 2022 financial targets, which directly impacted equity partner income, not least due to escalating salary costs. Ultimately, this unrest culminated in one of the largest lawyer departures in the history of the U.S. legal industry, thereby leading to one of the industry’s largest spinoffs and subsequent fastest collapses.
To delve deeper into the financial mismanagement that fueled this substantial partner exodus and its wider implications for the legal industry, further reading is available here.