Dewey & LeBoeuf may be gone, but in the lateral market, its legacy lives on. In the 12-month period ending September 30, 2012, 280 Dewey partners flooded the market, helping drive the total number of Am Law 200 lateral partner moves to its highest point in three years.
The American Lawyer‘s latest lateral survey found that 2,691 partners left or joined Am Law 200 firms during the 12-month period. That was a 9.7 percent increase from the previous year, when 2,454 partners switched firms, and a 33.6 percent increase from 2010. (The numbers for 2011 were boosted in part by another big-firm failure, Howrey, which sent 208 partners into the lateral market.) All told, 2012 marks the highest number of moves since the 12-month period ending September 2009, when a record 2,775 partners changed jobs, largely because of the failure of four big firms: Thacher Proffitt & Wood, Heller Ehrman, Thelen, and WolfBlock.
