Just when it appeared that managing partners and law firm managers might finally have some direction in addressing partner departures, a couple of important courts have signaled a different direction. In a legal environment filled with merger mania, musical chairs for attorneys and continued firm dissolutions, these decisions are important developments for managing law firms of all sizes.
The core issue has come to be known as “the unfinished business” issue. It arises when attorneys leave existing law firms and join new law firms, taking business and clients with them. Much has been written addressing the issue in detail, including the Jewel doctrine, named from Jewel v. Boxer, 156 Cal. App. 3d 171 (Cal. Ct. App. 1994). The ruling in Jewel effectively raised the issue of whether an existing law firm could collect from another law firm the fees for unfinished business that a partner changing law firms brought with him.
